inSEEcp on Conference: A Network of Possible Paths

The representatives of inSEEcp - Informal Network of South-East European Cultural Portals - are among the participants in the panel discussion "A Network of Possible Paths", organized on September 19 in Belgrade by Cultural Point Office / CCP Serbia, Ministry of Culture and Information Society, in cooperation with Bitef, and dedicated to the topic of importance of networking in culture and gathering around common goals.

Dušan Dovč will present - inSEEcp, and Vesna Milosavljević will talk about SEEcult.org, networking and cultural portals in the region. Dušan Dovč is a member of editorial of cultural portal Artservis.org (SCCA-Ljubljana), and Vesna Milosavljević is editor of Portal for South-East European Culture SEEcult.org. Both portals are founding members of inSEEcp.

Participants in the panel–discussion are also the representatives of regional CCP offices well as representatives of European formal and informal networks such are: NEMO, Clubture, IETM, TEH , Culture Action Europe, Europa Nostra, Lab for culture, Independent cultural association, Executive agency EACEA, DGEAC/European commision.

The chosen topics for the panel discussion should help explain that the strategy of networking and cooperation between public and private sector represents a very efficient way not only of bridging the gap between the two, which still exists in most countries in Southeastern Europe, but also of overcoming the numerous problems and shortcomings regarding infrastructure (lack of space, equipment, technical tools…), human resources (lack of trained staff for new professions, lack of certain skills, use of common resources…), lack of partners and contacts, lack of communication with the government, lack of contacts with international financiers, the problem of not meeting contests’ criteria, etc. Although the presentations are aimed at general networking issues, they also analyze current trends and praxes through several case studies from Europe; they pose the question of the necessity for initiating an independent cultural network, the current state of networks, key agents, and prevailing approaches and challenges, through some of the topics: Presenting European Cultural Networks and Informal Initiatives to Professionals and to General Public; Why Do We Need Networks; Managing Networks and Participating In Them; Accessibility, Transparency and Sustainability of Networks; Gaining Acceptance and Status; Evaluation and Efficiency of Networks; Importance and Advantages of International Networks in the Field of Art; The Role of Networks in Development and Culture / Partnership and Networking as A Strategy; Networking as A Strategy For Overcoming Problems and Deficiencies in Infrastructure and Human Resources, As A Means for Creating Partnerships and Establishing Contacts, for Communicating with the Government, with International Financiers… Therefore, the discussion aims not only at exploring the issue of networking in culture but at emphasizing some concrete examples of cooperation, that give practical results valuable to culture workers and beneficial to the cultural and social community as a whole.

Find out detailed program HERE

inSEEcp - PRIMER NEFORMALNEGA POVEZOVANJA (Slovenian)

Mreža kulturnih portalov inSEEcp povezuje uredništva kulturnih portalov in vzpodbuja mednarodno kulturno sodelovanje. Mreža je rezultat delavnic in on-line aktivnosti, ki so se začele odvijati leta 2006 v Beogradu v organizaciji portala SEEcult.org in Goethe-instituta Beograd ter s podoro Pakta za stabilnost. Prva delavnica je izpostavila temo Kultura na internetu, druga leta 2007 pa temo Mreženje in sodelovanje kulturnih portalov v regiji SEE. Prva javna predstavitev mreže je bila leta 2008 v Ljubljani na mednarodni konferenci Re-Network!, ki je potekala v okviru srečanja evropskih Kulturnih stičnih točk in v organizaciji Kulturne stične točke Slovenija.

Mreža inSEEcp je danes neformalno združenje, ki povezuje portale: Zagreb: www.culturenet.hr, www.kulturpunkt.hr, www.culturelink.hr, www.knjiga.hr, www.teatar.hr; Banja Luka: www.kulporter.com; Beograd: www.seecult.org; Skopje: www.culture.in.mk, www.plagij.at; Podgorica: pro-story.org; www.startmontenegro.com; Priština: www.stacion.org; Ljubljana: www.artservis.org, www.evrokultura.org, www.radiostudent.si.

Danes se med portali vzpostavljajo sinergični učinki izmenjave informacij in skupnih projektov. Štirje člani so samostojno že izvedli projekt, podprt s strani Evropske kulturne fundacije: Let's Talk Critic Art (2009-2010). O kritičnih aspektih sodobne umetnosti (okrogle mize, intervjuji, teksti). Partnerstvo so oblikovali: SEEcult.org (Srbija), SCCA, Zavod za sodobno umetnost - Ljubljana/Artservis (Slovenija), Kulturpunkt (Hrvaška) in Forum Skopje (Makedonija). Pravkar pa poteka projekt dveh portalov in partnerskih organizacij, podprt s strani programa Kultura EU: Criticize this! Kritična diskuija o sodobni umetnosti. Partnerstvo sestavljajo: Kulturtreger in Kurziv iz Zagreba, KPZ Beton in SEEcult.org iz Beograda in Plima iz Ulcinja.

Mreža kulturnih portalov je tako tudi mreža kulturne produkcije, organizacij in umetnikov v vseh glavnih mestih, od Podgorice do Ljubljane.

E-book ‘Art in Critical Confrontation to Society’ launched!

The electronic book made within the framework of the international project ‘Let’s Talk Critic Arts’ entitled ‘From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010)’ has been launched. The book is free and could be downloaded from Let’s Talk Critic Arts blog.

Download the electronic version of the book HERE – 52MB (just click Save As when pressing your right mouse button)


The publication 'From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society' (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), created as part of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts, was presented on April 11 at 7 pm at the Art Center of the University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade.

Promotion of this multilingual publication was followed by public interviews with Belgrade based artists Saša Stojanović/Ana Vilenica and Manik (Marija Vauda/Nikola Pilipović).

The publication is made available by the Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported unless it is not differently stated.

The publication will be also distributed in CD form to galleries in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje and Zagreb.

The LTCA project is concluded by promotion of the publication From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), but it is open for comment and further research.

The LTCA project was initiated and implemented by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (the SEEcult.org Civic Association) from Belgrade, Serbia, in collaboration with the Artservis.org portal (Center for Contemporary Arts, SCCA-Ljubljana) from Slovenia, Forum Skopje from Skopje, Macedonia, and the Kulturpunkt.hr portal (Alliance of Associations Clubture and Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Cultural, Media and Society) from Zagreb, Croatia, with support from the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), and national/local donors.

LTCA Publication – From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010)

The publication From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), created as part of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts, will be presented on April 11 at 7 pm at the Art Center of the University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade. Presentation of this multilingual publication will be followed by public interviews with Belgrade based artists Saša Stojanović/Ana Vilenica and Manik (Marija Vauda/Nikola Pilipović).


Among the participants will be members of Editorial Board of the publication, as well as authors of its segments and representatives of the organizations involved in the LTCA project.

The publication explores practices of critical contemporary fine arts – practices of research, progressive and experimental actions by contemporary fine artists from the 1990s to the present, in four countries in the region – Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. These are practices which focus on issues such as identity aspects (national, cultural, religious, ethnic), workers’ rights, social integration of minorities, global market fluctuation trends and its impact in the local context, unscrupulousness of capital, the position of women, spatial devastation, art institution system issues, and many others.

The publication maps out and theoretically reviews critical and research practices, and contemporary fine arts practices oriented towards the contemporary civilization moment, which have been active in the context of the independent cultural scene since the 1990s, but which have also been present in the institutional frame. The authors provide only drafts of the political, social, economic and cultural changes of the local contexts, through four segments, due to a lack of space. Each segment focuses on the practices and context of a given country, i.e. the capital as the primary focus, and in addition to the introductory word by the authors, it includes interviews (with authors, theorists, curators, organizers…) who contribute to the recording of these artistic practices based on their experience, work and knowledge.

The segments deal with the Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, and Zagreb scenes. All the authors devised their approaches in an effort to present the fruitful and creative production of these cities, to the greatest extent possible. The authors involved in the creation of this publication are Jasna Jakšić (in collaboration with Tihana Bertek, Maja Gujinović, Ana Kovačić, Srđan Latrezom, Petar Novak, Tino Novak, Tamara Sertić and Leda Sutlović) from Croatia, Nebojša Vilić from Macedonia, Vesna Tašić (in collaboration with Vesna Milosavljević and Miroljub Marjanović) from Serbia, and Miha Colner and Nika Grabar (Slovenia).

The authors of the segments faced a gruelling task – how to tell the story of a period on only 50 pages (which was predefined for every segment), and how to select only four protagonists for every city, among the many protagonists of the art scene? The authors applied different criteria – they strived to select precisely those respondents who could provide a cross-section of the discipline development, some were selected because their work is a paradigmatic of critical and socially engaging practices, while some were inescapable authoritative and creative minds…

Contemporary visual art is discussed through the works and experiences of Igor Grubić, Sanja Iveković, Andreja Kulunčić and Darko Šimičić (Croatia), Stevan Vuković, Milica Tomić, Danilo Prnjat and Živko Grozdanić Gera (Serbia), Neven Korda, Marko Peljhan, Marija Mojca Pungerčar and Maja Smrekar (Slovenia), and Bojan Ivanov, Zoran Poposki, Mira Gakina and Žaneta Vangeli (Macedonia).

Editorial Board (Dušan Dovč, Vesna Milosavljević, Jasna Soptrajanova i Dea Vidović) believes that selection of 16 voices provides a possible cross-section of the events in the contemporary fine arts scenes of Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, and Zagreb from the 1990s to the present, but it is certainly not the final or only one.

The publication is a type of platform that is available to the public, with the wish to encourage further collecting and evaluation of art and cultural endeavours in the past 20 year in these four cities, as well as in those that could not be included in this project (for financial reasons).

The book was conceived as a multilingual publication in English, in addition to the local languages (Croatia, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian), in order to enable better insight into contemporary artistic practices in post-Yugoslav cities both for the local and international public.

The publication is made available by the Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported unless it is not differently stated.

The publication will be also distributed in CD form to galleries in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje and Zagreb.

The LTCA project will be concluded by promotion of the publication From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), but it is open for comment and further research.

The LTCA project was initiated and implemented by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (the SEEcult.org Civic Association) from Belgrade, Serbia, in collaboration with the Artservis.org portal (Center for Contemporary Arts, SCCA-Ljubljana) from Slovenia, Forum Skopje from Skopje, Macedonia, and the Kulturpunkt.hr portal (Alliance of Associations Clubture and Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Cultural, Media and Society) from Zagreb, Croatia, with support from the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), and national/local donors.

Round table – Critical Art and Responsible Culture: Without Anaesthesia!

SEEcult.org is organizing the round table “Critical art and responsible culture: Without Anaesthesia!” which will be held on December 7 2009 at the Goethe-Institut Belgrade.


The participants are artists and curators from Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje and Zagreb, and discussion will be moderated by Maja Ćirić, a Belgrade based independent curator and art critic.

The panelists are artist Vladan Jeremić (Belgrade), cultural worker and curator Nataša Bodrožić (Zagreb), and artists Milena Kosec (Ljubljana) and Igor Toševski (Skopje).

The aim of the discussion is questioning critical art as unforeseen impulse of dominant cultural-political paradigm and emphasizing anti-politics as an alternative to anticipated politics – direct and impotence politicization.

Discussion emphasizes anti-politics which would stimulate effective responsible culture, questioning positions, praxis and models of critical art through four examples from the region – what are the impulses and intensity of critical art and responsible culture – representation or intervention? Status quo or step forward? Confrontation or manipulation? State cultural engineering or partial, but focused individual praxis?

The round table is organized by Belgrade based portal for culture SEEcult.org in cooperation with the partners from the region – Kulturpunkt.hr (Croatia), SCCA Ljubljana/Artservis (Slovenia), and ForumSkopje (Macedonia).

The round table is organized in the frame of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts (LTCA) initiated by SEEcult.org in cooperation with partners from the region. The LTCA project is supported by ECF – European Cultural Foundation, and the round table is organized with support of the Goethe-Institut Belgrade/Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.

New inSEEcp's logo by Andrija Nikacevic

'The shape of new inSEEcp logo is based on square that presents the basic unit of the screen resolution – pixel, in that sense showing the media it represents – the web portal. At the same time, squares are associate to web windows, their interlacing and information exchange; as well as the collaboration between portals in the region.'

'By spreading the squares from the upper left to the bottom right side in different colors, this logo is geometrically placed within a certain geographical and abstract context of the region, but this dynamic form itself shows a tendency for expanding outside of the borders. With the color pallet, logo for inSEEcp presents optimism and awakens positive vibrations.'
Andrija Nikacevic, graphic designer, Belgrade

Andrija Nikacevic is respectable designer with many projects behind, his latest project was visual identity for the Octobar Salon. Nikacevic was participant of many international artist-in-residence programs, as well as jury member of design contests.

In the occasion of the conference Cultu(RE)gion online, Future Goes By!, the organizers will publish a brochure on English, German and all regional languages of the portals included.

The conference will gather about 20 portals – present and future members of the informal network, as well as representatives of many foundations, cultural centers and different targeted groups.

(RE)gion online, Future Goes By! Has been organized by SEEcult.org portal, Goethe Institute Belgrade and Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

More info: www.seecult.org, www.goethe.de/belgrade

CULTU(RE)GION ONLINE! FUTURE GOES BY!

The regional conference Cultu(RE)gion online! The Future Goes By, dealing with the significance of culture portals, the need to utilize the potential of Internet development and opportunities and challenges on the path towards innovative cooperation in the region will take place on 8-9 December 2008 in Belgrade. It is organized by Goethe Institute Belgrade and the Portal for Culture of South-Eastern Europe, SEEcult.org.

The conference be held in the premises of Goethe Institute in Belgrade, and it is an activity within the two-year project for development of Informal Network of Cultural Portals of South-Eastern Europe inSEEcp (Informal Network of South-East European Cultural Portals), supported by the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

Minister of Culture of Serbia, Nebojša Bradić, will open the conference. In addition to the representatives of some twenty cultural portals from the region, participants in the conference will be the founder of Berlinergazette.de Krystian Woznicki and one of the pioneers of net-art and lecturer Vuk Ćosić from Ljubljana, who will speak about the phenomenon of social networks on the Internet.

Representatives of local and state authorities, cultural, academic and research institutions, art associations, non-governmental organizations, foundations, media and web-magazines, as well as artists, activists and other representatives of target groups of culture portals are invited to attend and participate in the discussion.

The conference has the aim of highlighting the potential of the network of cultural portals, as a platform for innovative cooperation in the region, but will point also to the obstacles that portals, as non-profit projects, face, in view of the inadequate cultural policies in the region and on the European level. New opportunities and challenges in the areas of culture and arts will be discussed, as well. A workshop will deal with the social and cultural aspects of web 2.0, presenting practical uses of portals, blogs, social web services and free software in culture and arts.

This will also be an opportunity to add new members to inSEEcp, for the moment only from the region of former Yugoslavia. The new visual identity of inSEEcp, designed by the Belgrade graphic designer Andrija Nikačević will be promoted, as well as a booklet on inSEEcp in the original languages of the portals, as well as German and English.

Members of inSEEcp are the portals Artservis.org, Evrokultura.org and RadioStudent.si from Slovenia, Culturenet.hr, Kulturpunkt.hr, Culturelink.hr, Knjiga.hr and Teatar.hr from Croatia, Kulporter.com from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pro-story.org from Montenegro, Culture.in.mk from Macedonia and SEEcult.org from Serbia. An associated member is Stacion.org from Pristina, while Plagij.at from Macedonia, Montenegrina.net from Montenegro and Creemaginet.com from Belgrade have started the process of association.

Representatives of portals Startmontenegro.com from Montenegro and Forumskopje.com will also be among the participants of the conference.
InSEEcp is a result of workshops, meetings and on-line activities of culture portals in Southeast Europe, initiated in 2006, at the first regional meeting organized by SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute Belgrade.
Given the importance of digital culture, common problems of culture portals in the region, and rapid technological advancement, InSEEcp was launched for the purposes of on-line and off-line advocacy and promotion of culture on the internet, facilitation of a free flow of information about the diversity of cultures in the region, exchange of experiences, and professional enhancement, with a view to supporting and furthering quality production in culture and the arts, and drawing attention of the widest possible public to such production.
At the very outset of its development, InSEEcp has gathered portals from the former Yugoslavia, and has thus formed a natural starting point for further networking in the SEE region, especially in light of related cultures and languages, and historical links of nations in the region.

The first regional workshop of culture portals, titled “Culture on the Internet / Networking Participants in the Cultural Domain in Southeast Europe through Specialized Internet Portals” was held in Belgrade, in November 2006. Representatives of German portals Signandsight.com and N-ost.de were also present at the event. A round table – “Significance of Culture Portals”, hosted during the workshop, brought together representatives of target groups of portals, and attracted undivided attention of expert and wider audiences.
Some InSEEcp members had already met each other at the round table of the Culturemondo international network, co-organized by Culturelink.hr, in Dubrovnik, in October 2006.

Concurrently with the continuation of on-line activities, the second inSEEcp regional workshop, titled “Networking and Cooperation of Culture Portals in the SEE Region”, organized by SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute, and supported by the Stability Pact for SEE, was held in Belgrade, in December 2007. A round table “Cultural Policy and Culture on the Internet – SEE and Europe” was held within the workshop. Representatives of the German portal Perlentaucher.de and target groups participated in discussions.

InSEEcp presented itself for the first time to the international expert audience in Ljubljana, on 12 June 2008, at the “Re-Network!” conference, organized by CCP Slovenia / SCCA Ljubljana.

InSEEcp members also took part in the international round table “Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Culture”, hosted by Culturelink.hr, in Zagreb, in November 2008.

Within their two-year activities aimed at networking portals in the region, SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute Belgrade, with the support of the Stability Pact for SEE, hosted a working meeting of inSEEcp in Belgrade, in October 2008, and also are organizing a regional conference “Cultures of the Region Online!_Future Goes By!” in Belgrade, on 8-9 December.

More information: http://www.seecult.org / http://www..goethe.de/belgrad / http://inseecp.blogspot.com
Contact: info@seecult.org / inseecp@gmail.com
Vesna Milosavljevic, vesna@seecult.org, + 381 63 214 893

The inSEEcp’s History

The Informal Network of South-East European Cultural Portals - inSEEcp was founded in November 2006 in Belgrade as the result of the first regional meeting and workshop of the representatives of key cultural portals from the region of former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia).

The workshop “Culture on the Internet / Networking Participants in the Cultural Domain in South-East Europe through Specialized Internet Portals”, was the first initiative of that kind in the region, followed with the second workshop in December 2007, also in Belgrade, and other various activities of the founding members, including the inSEEcp’s blog as a joint platform for further various on-line and off-line actions for advocacy in culture on internet and cross-border cooperation, as well as for broadening the network.
(Text by Vesna Milosavljevic, SEEcult.org)