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28th January | 20.hrs | De Balie

Cultural Decontamination? Challenges for Art beyond national borderlines

An inspirational talk with Borka Pavićević (winner, Routes Award 2009) and guests.

Theatre performance: About Germany. Photo: Vesna Pavlović

Borka Pavićević, laureate of the 2009 Routes Award for Cultural Diversity, will be the special guest for a round-table discussion to debate the role of art in challenging populist political discourses, at De Balie (Amsterdam), Thursday January 28th.
Friso Wiersum (Programmer of debate centre TUMULT (Utrecht) is the moderator of the evening.

Dramaturg and irrepressible cultural activist, Borka Pavićević has devoted her career to art as a form of expression that can and must combat a politics of fear. In 1995 she established the Center for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD), a vital resource and independent cultural space in the heart of Belgrade. Up against the state-oppression and war-propaganda of the Milosevic-regime, the aim of the Center was to bring different performers, artists and intellectuals together to produce cultural strategies  as a means to ‘decontaminate’ the Serbian society of the negative atmosphere of xenophobia, ethnic hatred and nationalism during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. Now, with the increase of populist political movements throughout Europe, the strategies of decontamination are arguably as relevant as when the Center first opened its doors.

On the panel with Borka will be among others: Manja Ristic, artist and cultural entrepreneur in Belgrade, Gal Kirn, Slovenian scholar in political science, philosophy and film, and Laurens Runderkamp, European policy maker. These contemporary artists and policy makers from both the Balkans and the Netherlands, will tackle the role and power of art in post and potential conflict areas. The main question will be: What are the new challenges for artists and independent cultural spaces in cultural decontamination for the future?

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all being at the festival! It was a great succes! Check the festival pictures at facebook, we'll be sure to add you. Klick bottom page.

 

 

BALKAN SNAPSHOTS FILM FESTIVAL 2009: A Creative Spectacle

Balkan Snapshots 2009 a circus of creative assertiveness from South East Europe. For crisis prices!

 

Welcome here. Its time for what’s already going to be the 4th edition of the Balkan Snapshots Film Festival. This year’s event is very promising: Balkan Snapshots 2009 will fill Kriterion for three days with as many cultural displays as possible.

In the Balkan regions – Bulgaria, Romania, the Ex-Yugoslavian countries and Albania – we can see the rise of a young generation of artists: energetic, playful, angry and rebellious. This year’s edition wants to demonstrate the variety and quality of this new artistic explosion. This is why the fourth Balkan Snapshots Film Festival will take place under the theme: A Creative Spectacle. Balkan Snapshots 2009 thus will be a circus of creative assertiveness, displaying an enormous diversity of images, sounds and visions.

“Life and death of a Porn Gang”    Fri  30 oktober,  22.15, Kriterion

We’re especially proud of our film programme, which features an enormous variety of genres. From Film Noir (Zift) to Horror (Zone of the Dead), from Comedy (Here and There) to utter extreme provocation (Life and Death of a Porn Gang). Then we’ve got war related shorts, music related documentaries, and don’t forget Saturday’s Shorts Marathon, a feast of short low budget films from independent filmmakers all over the Balkans.

Besides the film programme Balkan Snapshots generates an outburst of activities: Balkan Snapshots is a podium this year to lots of provocative performances from young Balkan artists, lectures and a debate with insightful guests, such as David Jan Godfroid and Taja Vovk. Platform Spartak organised a creative meeting with comic drawer Sasha Zograf. Must sees: m.Eta Music Preachers with artist/violinist Manja Ristic and the Cine//Sonic film concert with Kingalita!

We have lots and lots of live music from classic to klezmer. We’re especially proud of the concert famous Macedonian jazzplayer Georgi Sareski and Dzijan Emin. We exhibit beautiful photographs, video art, graffiti, and even the bringers of a food revolution: the Ajvar state of mind! All will happen inside the Kriterion venue that for the occasion is turned into an extravert Balkan circus by the young Belgrade decorative artist Magdalena Klashnja.

To celebrate all global crises, the entry prices this year are highly reduced. Buy 10 “Snapshots Marks” at the BSFF stand for only 12 Euros and you’ll watch 3 movies and even drink a Rakia! Dead cheap. We think culture shouldn’t cost too much.

Everything our festival offers has been created by artists from the Balkans and the -this year actively included- Dutch Balkan Diaspora. Our purpose is to show you the variety and unique quality of Balkan culture. The result: a three-day fantastic creative spectacle, from a part of Europe which will not be unheard of.