In Bed with the Exotic Enemy

Jasmina Tešanović, Yugoslavian feminist, activist and writer, and Bruce Sterling, American writer and one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction, have been married for many years. They first became aware of each other through the Internet, when Bruce’s country was raining NATO bombs and cruise missiles down on Jasmina’s country. Civil war, warlords, hitmen as well as mass killings – it was the bitter end of the Yugoslav world.

As special guests of the WIENWOCHE festival and in accordance with the event's theme of solidarity, friendship, activism and love, Jasmina and Bruce will engage in some personal confessions about their unorthodox – and real – romance. How did one unsought e-mail about state-sponsored assassinations of journalists in Belgrade lead to a placid domestic situation where two enemies wake up in bed together every morning, sharing Wi-Fi and coffee? 

“First, we were 'frenemies', then solidarity collaborators, then confidantes/friends and finally lovers/spouses. At the beginning our only possible free space was the utopian virtual playground. In the meantime, our story has become history/herstory: turning our virtual playground, the Internet, into a nation verging on political dystopia. Hence we designed a real home, Casa Jasmina, in Turin: the connected home of the future. Under a private cloud, with the open-source makers’ world community. A future way of life against climate change and for the political refugees from around the globe.”