Nikola Tesla - Migrant

Technical Museum Nikola Tesla, Zagreb, 2018

The project “Nikola Tesla. Migrant.” was initiated by the museum educator Kosjenka Laszlo Klemar at the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla in 2018.

The idea of activating the Technical Museum in collaboration with the new citizens began with a reflection of the ways how Croatian society could accept newcomers while being deeply divided itself. For this reason, it was decided to name the project after Nikola Tesla, whose ethnicity and origin are a subject of debate in our society, and direct the attention to a less acknowledged part of Tesla's identity – the one of an economic migrant who left his home country to seek education and work. The project included a public forum on technology and migration, an educative workshop for asylum-seeking children, and free entrance to the museum for refugees, asylum seekers, and their entourage.

The public forum was organized on the International Museum Day 2018, which featured the theme “Hyperconnected Museums: New Approaches, New Audiences”. While organizing the panel, the project team encountered difficulties in reaching potential speakers from the scientific and technical sector, who often declined the invitation to participate with the argument that they did not know anything about migration.

Some academic initiatives showed a lack of interest despite their experience of working with people with migrant backgrounds, and some humanitarian organizations did not answer the invitations. The project team interpreted this as a possible consequence of tensions between humanitarian and government-related organizations.

The panel was hosted by the journalist Zoran Pehar, and the speakers included Eugen Vuković from the environmental NGO Zelena Akcija [Green Action], Marijana Međugorac and Maja Nikolandić from the asylum seeker support initiative Are You Syrious, Sara Kekuš from a civil society NGO Centar za mirovne studije [Centre for Peace Studies], Branimir Šloser from programming cooperative Slobodna domena [Free Domain], Katarina Popović, designer of humanitarian application Info Help, Filip Milenković from Techfugees Serbia, and the architect and researcher Ana Dana Beroš.

The panel touched on topics such as the refugees' use of technology, differences between refugees with mobile phones and digital nomads, how to help people who help refugees, the role of technology in migration, ways, and experiences of integration, innovation, the importance of communication and accessibility, the role of social media and traditional media in public discourse, questions of integration, education, and language learning, police and institutional violence, and migrant work.

The event was visited by museum professionals, activists, and asylum seekers who unfortunately could not understand it because it was conducted in the Croatian language, which was later evaluated as an organizational mistake.

All photos by Technical Museum Nikola Tesla.

Another activity was a museum workshop with refugee and asylum seeker children in collaboration with the Croatian Are You Syrious association. The children were assisted by the association volunteers who brought them to the museum and took them home afterward. The workshop included a museum tour and constructing mobile vehicle cardboard toys. Several participants had only recently arrived in Croatia and have not yet been included in the educational system, and thus have been aided by the other children who acted as translators, since the project had no funding for translators. The children expressed satisfaction with their museum visit and did not mind that they were offered candies that contain gelatin, which includes pork and is forbidden to eat in the religious Muslim community.

Excerpt from my masters thesis "The Welcoming Museum: A Place of Integrative Practices", 2020

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