The New Dictionary of Old Ideas is a network of independent cultural institutions within Central and Eastern Europe. The platform we aim to create comes along with the process of cultural exchange and intense research of our common identity.
Through political issues, visual culture, art theory, and the history of the region, we wish to explore Central Europe as an intriguing phenomenon. Coming from the experience of cultural mobility, we have established a residency project as a helping tool in furthering research that goes hand in hand with a set of theoretical terms known as The New Dictionary of Old Ideas.
The idea of a retro–utopia is used by Boris Buden (referring to Inke Arns) which suggests that similar to the myths of the pre–modern era that it once replaced, utopia is now focused on the past. However, that is not to preserve it but rather to remain faithful to its liberating promise. He does not imply that a better world was only possible in the past, but that the improvement of the world without the past is simply impossible. Retro–utopism is turning to the past merely in order to extrapolate its unrea