Langugae SWITCH
In the edited volume Shaken – Scholarly-humanistic and Artistic Responses to the Banija Earthquake, the article “Waiting for reconstruction: The heterochronicity of Petrinja’s ruins” by Mirna Tkalčić Simetić was published.
Abstract:
The earthquake that struck the vicinity of the city of Petrinja on December 29, 2020, claimed seven lives and caused extensive material damage in five Croatian counties. The urban area of Petrinja’s city center was particularly affected, with entire rows of buildings and infrastructure systems damaged, resulting in the evacuation of residents and the complete loss of its functionality. Shortly after the earthquake, a decision was made at the national level to reconstruct this central area in accordance with strict conservation guidelines. The temporary measures of stabilization and protection soon became the only visible intervention within the spatiotemporal isolate of the ruinized materialities of the historic core. Based on ethnographic research conducted from April 2021 to April 2023, this paper analytically examines the ruins of Petrinja during the period of waiting for reconstruction as heterotopias of pronounced heterochronicity – defamiliarizing urban spaces that significantly disrupt conventional perceptions of time. This approach enables a deeper understanding of the relationship between the residents’ experience of time, viewed through the prism of the heterochronicity of the ruins in the post-earthquake city center, and the transformation of their political subjectivity. At the same time, it offers insight into how the inscription of power relations into a space that has lost its form and function reflects on the temporal orientation and political engagement of residents during the prolonged waiting period for the material reconstruction of Petrinja’s city center.
