The Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajrami was started in 2004 as a work-in-progress project and it is linked to my previous work Boulevard Hristina Ivanoska the Beast (2001-2002). This work is a result of an investigation of the social and cultural treatment in the context of the "naming of streets" in Skopje (the capital of Macedonia) after females and exemplifying a new street sign that announced the first virtual female boulevard created with my name and nickname (in the culture of WWII female heroes). With this sign I wanted to create an "artifact" of a transitional political meaning where the public and personal merged.
The Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajrami was provoked by an information that was published in a local newspaper where it was described that every organization or institution as well as every citizen in the city of Skopje has a right to submit a request to the Skopje City Council for naming or changing the name of the streets, boulevards, bridges and infrastructural buildings in the city. My request concerning the naming of the newly constructed bridge in the city centre with the names of two fellow-citizens Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajrami consisted in a summary of my research dedicated to these two brave women from different backgrounds (Macedonian and Turkish) that were actively involved in the process of female emancipation in the beginning of XX c. The bridge was officially open on the Independence Day, September 8, 2005 without a name. Until today my request was not taken into consideration but I decided to publish it in a local established magazine "Forum" # 162. This entire process consisting in: formal and informal meetings, research, photo and written documentation, aroused many questions and conclusions regarding the role of the citizens and their civil rights perceived by the state and political structures. The project will be presented in a publication in 2006.

Hristina Ivanoska