Lecture by Saskia Sassen and Ana Ivanovska Deskova

Utopian Urbanism, the Global City and Skopje

On the closing of a long-term project Skopje Resurgent, prof. Saskia Sassen and prof. Ana Ivanovska Deskova will have public presentations on the Utopian Urbanism, the Global City and Skopje. The Skopje Resurgent project was realized by the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje and the Embassy of United States in North Macedonia.

The key note address by prof. Saskia Sassen will focus on the concepts of utopian urbanism and the global city.
The lecture by prof. Ana Ivanovska Deskova will focus on the radical visions and utopian urbanist aspects of the post-1963 urban plan of Skopje, and its implications nowadays.

Saskia Sassen’s research and writing focuses on globalization (including social, economic and political dimensions), immigration, global cities (including cities and terrorism), the new networked technologies, and changes within the liberal state that result from current transnational conditions. In her research she has focused on the unexpected and the
counterintuitive as a way to cut through established “truths.” Her three major books have each sought to demolish a key established “truth”.

Ana Ivanovska Deskova main research interest is the Modern Architecture in Skopje, in particular, Skopje’s post-earthquake renewal. As a co-founder and member of the informal architectural group SCArS (Studio for Contemporary Architecture Skopje) participated in and won a number of awards at international and local architectural competitions. Author of
numerous research projects and exhibitions on architecture. Was one of the authors of the National Pavilion at the 2008 and 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Member of the curatorial advisory board of the New York’s Museum of Modern Art exhibition – “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980”. Currently works as Associate
Professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje, teaching History of Modern Architecture and Protection of Cultural Heritage.