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.

LTCA Publication on Critical Art Presented in Belgrade

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.


Among the participants were Dea Vidovic (Kulturpunkt – Zagreb), Miha Colner (SCCA-Ljubljana – Ljubljana), Ivan Mirkovski (Forum Skopje – Skopje), and Vesna Tasic and Vesna Milosavljevic (SEEcult.org – Belgrade).

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

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).

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 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.

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.

Public interview: Marko Brecelj

The public interview with Marko Brecelj will take place on November 23, 2010 at 5 pm in Project Room SCCA (Metelkova 6) in Ljubljana.

The public interview, moderated by Tanja Lesničar – Pučko (translator and journalist) will be focused on artist and activist Marko Brecelj questioning his long term practice, especially projects that were exposed to censorships by politics, religion or legislation. Amongst them his so called soft terrorism actions.

Marko Brecelj is Slovenian singer/songwriter, self-called youth, cultural and social worker. From 1991, he runs Youth, cultural social and multi-media center (MKSMC) in Koper and the Association of Friends of moderate progress. In 2010 the Association celebrated 20th anniversary. On this venerable anniversary, an exhibition was prepared, originally on display in the Regional museum of Koper, and can currently (until November 19th) be seen in Ljubljana Spanish Fighters Cultural Centre.

“How could we in retrospective condense biography of almost 50-years-old, who for years hasn’t been doing what he would have preferred, but what he thinks is the most urgent? In the seventies he acclaimed confirmation and was immediately in the prime of influence on generations of future artists. In the eighties he has devoted himself to his son less than to himself. He worked on the periphery of public life and, rarely but still, cancelled out those who tried to put him in oblivion with his excellent songs and continuous appearances. With his soulmate he ran into the nineties like in a tunnel with no end in sight, he fought for ‘liberated territories’: youth and cultural facilities, where generations, which will have to battle with defenders of social and civilization collapse, can flourish.” (from Marko Brecelj’s biography)

Soft-terrorist actions file its history since 1999. Pre-event of soft-terrorism has occurred spontaneously on reception of the Ministry of Culture followed by much better conceptualized and prepared actions, from performance to Anton and Pohorski bataljon (1999), the Šeligo’s P-tič award (2001), bombing of U.S. Embassy and the Slovenian Government (2001), to the bell silencing or Tapisirano vnebovzetje (2003), when series of soft-terrorist actions experienced its peak. Brecelj sais that “soft-terrorism is not over, but was never pulled out of time context. Life inspires soft-terrorism, soft-terrorism is not in focus, it’s just method, or tool. Artistic work and fight for it, that’s what’s important.” (source: Mehki terorizem. Interview with Marko Brecelj from Društvo prijateljev zmernega napredka. Written by Alenka Pirman, March 2006.)

Moderator Tanja Lesničar – Pučko studied literary theory as well as French linguistics and literature. She was among the founders of Fiction Production Company (Podjetje za proizvodnjo fikcije) female alternative theatre (1983–89). In 1987 she was employed by Dnevnik Newspaper Company, first as a translator, then as a journalist. She writes essays, interviews as well as literary, theatre and dance reviews. She translates fiction and non-fiction from French. In 2009 she has reviewed and published the columns that she began writing for Dnevnik in 2002, which results in a sharpened image: they read as timeless parables, they hardly leave you cold.

The public interview is a part of the project Let’s Talk Critic Arts (2009-2010) which examines the critical aspects of contemporary arts (round tables, public interviews), documents them, and archives them (online documentation, publication).

The project is conducted by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (Serbia) with the partners SCCA-Ljubljana / Artservis (Slovenia), Clubture / Kulturpunkt.hr (Croatia), and Forum Skopje (Macedonia). The partners are the members of the informal network of cultural portals inSEEcp. It was founded in 2006 with the aim of connecting the editorial boards of the portals and stimulating the international cultural collaboration in the former Yugoslave countries.

The project Let’s Talk Critic Arts is financially supported by European Cultural Foundation.

Forum Skopje 2010

The round-table A Public Space between Solidarity and Violence will take place in the framework of the Forum Skopje 2010 on May 27, 2010 in Mala Stanica, Skopje.


Participants of the round table are Marko Golub (Croatia), Stevan Vukovic (Serbia) and Nika Grabar (Slovenia). The round table will be moderated by Nebojsa Vilic (Macedonia).

The main concept of the debate theme is based on the following quote: ”Violence may be in some sense ‘encoded’ in the concept and practice of public art, but the specific role it plays, its political and ethical status, the form in which it is manifested, the identities of those who wield or suffer it, it is always nested in particular circumstances.” [W. J. T. Mitchell, "The Violence in Public Art", pp. 37-8 in W. J. T. Mitchell (ed.) (1992) Art in Public Sphere. Chicago: University of Chicago Press]

According to Nebojsa Vilic, this quote underscores three main lines of art in open public space, related to the City of Skopje as The City of Solidarity. The first aspect is, certainly, the excerpt about “particular circumstances” – the relationship between the ideological and political as the constituent of the appearance of the figurativeness (as narativeness) in the state purchases of sculptures in the central area of the city. The second aspect pertains to the notion of “political” status in the public art, i.e. political as execution of politics of arts – enforcing public interest in the zone of public space. At the third, simultaneously joining and dividing aspect is the one related to its “ethical” status.

Skopje, as The City of Solidarity in the mid- and late-1960s, in the recent years became “city of violence”. Therefore, the City itself is located between the ethical status of international campaign of leftist structure of SFR Yugoslavia (we can recall: the disaster of Skopje earthquake is not measured through the number of dead only: 1 700 casualties, and the level of destruction, 85% of the central urban core, but the international community was driven to solidarity by the fact that it was the first big casualty after the WWII) and the ideological structure of the new nationalism in the new, democratic processes of transition of governing right-wing political parties.

Therefore, the debate aims to analyze this complex relationship between ideology, politics and ethics, through the relationship of the purchased (visual) art and the public open space. Then, to define the ideological, political and ethical discourse towards the City of Skopje, in the sense of discourse of the ongoing internationalization of solidarity into the right-wing (ideological) milieu. And, finally, to position the potential links between the neoliberal (responsible) individual and the conservative (nationalistic) group.

Potential guidelines:

• public art as part of the ideological planning of the city
• artistic activity in the public open space as ethical conduct of artists
• controversy of public art in the polis
• political discourse of public art, and
• critical debate about the public critical debates on art

The round table is organized by Forum Skopje together with partners from the region – Artservis/SCCA-Ljubljana, Clubture / Kulturpunkt.hr (Croatia) and Seecult.org (Serbia).

The round table A Public Space between Solidarity and Violence is organized in the frame of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts initiated by portal for culture Seecult.org from Belgrade in cooperation with partners from Slovenia – SCCA/Artservis.org, Macedonia – ForumSkopje and Croatia – Clubture / Kulturpunkt.hr. Project is supported by ECF – European Cultural Foundation.

The Time of Media

Public interview and Open forum: Media and culture will take place on April, 8th and 9th, 2010 in club Booksa in Zagreb (Croatia).


Public interview and Open forum are parts of the series of public events The Time of Media initiated by portal Kulturpunkt.hr with the aim to open a public discussion on culture and policies of media in Croatia through different aspects. The first round table was dedicated to the non-profit media trying to define their role and importance in Croatian society and present media landscape. The second round table dealt with journalism as profession and the challenges it is encountering today. The third event is taking into focus media and culture.

Public interview Media and Culture we will try to analyze culture and arts contents published in commercial, public, non-profit and specialized media through examples from four countries of the region. Participants of this dynamic discussion are Dejan Budjevac (Macedonia), Saša Ćirić (Serbia), Dean Duda (Croatia) and Mojca Planšak (Slovenia) who will give an overview of the state of the space for culture in the media in the region. The discussion will be focused on evaluation of quality and ways culture and art topics are presented. The discussion, which will be held on Thursday, April 8th at 18 hours in club Booksa, will be moderated by Miljenka Buljević.

Open Forum of culture media and journalists aims to gather representatives of periodicals, magazines, editorial boards, programmes and media for culture. The lack of space for presenting and analyzing themes from the field of culture in mass media, made us to turn our attention to different types and forms of media which are trying to present cultural and artistic contents and are paying attention on the quality. On the other hand, communication between representatives and producers of these media is very rare, and when it appears it is rather an exception than the product of systematic conducting and structural networking. For all these reasons on Friday, April 9th at 17 hours in club Booksa, in the frame of Open forum journalists and representatives of media for culture will be gathered and will have the opportunity to discuss their problems, exchange experiences and start possible cooperations.

Both events are organized by portal Kulturpunkt.hr in cooperation with portal Booksa.hr and magazine Zarez together with partners from the region – SCCA/Artservis (Slovenia), ForumSkopje (Macedonia) and Seecult.org (Serbia).

Public interview and Open forum: Media and culture are organized in the frame of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts initiated by portal for culture Seecult.org from Belgrade in cooperation with partners from Slovenia – SCCA/Artservis.org, Macedonia – ForumSkopje and Croatia – portal Kulturpunkt.hr. Project is supported by ECF – European Cultural Foundation.

Both events also make part of the project In Focus of Kulturpunkt.hr. Let’s Talk Art, Design & Media – Critics or Analytics supported by The Netherlands Embassy in Zagreb (Croatia), and is implemented by portal Kulturpunkt.hr. Events are also supported by City of Zagreb – Office for Education, Culture and Sports, Republic of Croatia – Ministry of Culture and National Foundation for Development of Civil Society.

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.

Andrej Rozman - Roza & Tomaž Dernovšek - Vinči

Public interview
Friday, October 9, 2009, at 7 pm
Project Room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
Moderated by Tanja Lesničar Pučko.


The public interview will present the two authors who established a successful self-organization. Although coming from different fields, their non-bureaucratic operation and unconventional activities are what they have in common. The guests will speak about their strategies, methods, experiences and aims.
Andrej Rozman - Roza is the founder, director and member of the smallest possible theatre (Rozinteater) and recently the founder of a religion community. Tomaž Dernovšek - Vinči is the founder and director of the Museum of Too Modern Art located in former stable in Spodnji Hotič.

Andrej Rozman - Roza
Poet, writer, dramatist, actor and translator. Between 1981 and 1995 he was the leader of the alternative Ana Monro Theatre and the initiator of improvisational theatre sports league in Slovenia. He writes parodies, comical lyrics, fairies and theater comedies for adults and children. He adopts, translates and modernizes classical texts. In March 2003, he founded Rozinteater as the smallest possible theatre.
Roza

Tomaž Dernovšek - Vinči
The Museum of Too Modern Art reflects the points of view of contemporary artists in the humorous and critical way. At 1000 m2 exhibition space there is a permanent exhibition with the art works of seven established artists from Slovenia and Europe. The gallery space hosts solo exhibitions of renowned local and international artists.
The Museum of Too Modern Art
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The concept of the event: Marija Mojca Pungerčar
Information: T: + 386 (0) 1 431 83 85 (Dušan Dovč, Marija Mojca Pungerčar)
E: info@artservis.org
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The public interview is a part of the project Let's Talk Critic Art (2009-2010) which examines the critical aspects of contemporary arts (round tables, public interviews), documents them, and archives them (online documentation, publication).
The project is conducted by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (Serbia) with the partners SCCA-Ljubljana / Artservis (Slovenia), Kulturpunkt (Croatia), and Forum Skopje (Macedonia).
The partners are the members of the informal network of cultural portals inSEEcp. It was founded in 2006 with the aim of connecting the editorial boards of the portals and stimulating the international cultural collaboration in the former Yugoslave countries.

The project Let's Talk Critic Art is financially supported by European Cultural Foundation.

Self-organizing of Artists for the Improvement of their Position

Round table
Friday, October 9, 2009, at 11 am
Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Trg Prekomorskih brigad 3, Ljubljana, Slovenia





Moderated by Maks Soršak.
Panelists: Marija Mojca Pungerčar (Artservis), Jadranka Ljubičič (Odprta zbornica), Jurij Krpan (Asociacija), Denis Miklavčič (SUKI at Glosa), Nemanja Cvijanović (artist, Reka/Venezia), Dragoslav Krnajski (artist, Belgrade).

The round table Self-organizing of Artists for the Improvement of their Position is dedicated to the status and position of the cultural workers with a special emphasis on their initiatives that attempt to improve their working conditions. The guests from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia will explain the main reason for the self-organizing cultural forms on the local and national level, what their purpose is and what they have already achieved. They will talk about the circumstances of their activities and their tactics in self-organization. They will also present the extent of the dialogue established with the state or city authorities in solving the problem of the conditions of cultural production and the formal status of the artists, as well as in improving the system of social transfers for artists etc.

The panelists are the representatives of art & civil society initiatives from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia or the self-organized artists/cultural workers (formal or informal associations, syndicates, and media) that strive to improve the conditions of production in art and culture.
The aim of the round table is to inform the public about the activities of the self-organized cultural initiatives on the national and international level and to stimulate cultural workers to get connected and embark on collaboration.

The round table is a part of the project Let's Talk Critic Art (2009-2010) which examines the critical aspects of contemporary arts (round tables, public interviews), documents them, and archives them (online documentation, publication).
The project is conducted by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (Serbia) with the partners SCCA-Ljubljana / Artservis (Slovenia), Kulturpunkt (Croatia), and Forum Skopje (Macedonia).
The partners are the members of the informal network of cultural portals inSEEcp. It was founded in 2006 with the aim of connecting the editorial boards of the portals and stimulating the international cultural collaboration in the former Yugoslave countries.

The project Let's Talk Critic Art is financially supported by European Cultural Foundation.

Artservis is seven years old!

You are invited to the Artservis birthday event!

We will celebrate the birthday with the launching of two news of the Artservis Collection: the web site and the artistic case - introduced and created by Borut Savski.

When & Where:
Thursday, Dezember 4th, 2008, at 7.00 p.m., in SCCA Project Room, Ljubljana (Metelkova 6), Slovenia.

There will be a cake!

Home web page of the Artservis Collection

Working meeting of the network

Working meeting on the theme of:
- collaboration of the network at the meeting of the Cultural Contact Points Network during the Slovene EU Presidency
- possibilities of further developments of the Informal SEE Network of Cultural Portals

Present (representatives of InSEEcp and of CCPs HR and SLO):
- Anja Jelavic (Ministry of Culture of Republic Croatia / CCP HR)
- Deborah Hustic (Ministry of Culture of Republic Croatia / Culturenet.hr)
- Dea Vidovic (Clubture Network / Kulturpunkt.hr)
- Marija Mojca Pungercar & Dusan Dovc (SCCA-Ljubljana / Artservis & Evrokultura)
- Mateja Lazar (SCCA-Ljubljana / CCP SI)

Zagreb, February 7, 2008

A. Informal SEE Network of Cultural Portals
As the follow-up of two regional workshops of cultural portals, held 2006 and 2007 in Belgrade, the SEEcult.org portal for South-east Europe culture with its partners from region continues developmental project of networking in the field of digital culture in region.

At the meeting in Zagreb, members of the network discussed the aims of the network and how to start expanding the network by including portals from different SEE countries (1st stage: in the region of ex-YU countries).

The members agreed that first steps should be taken as follows:

Network
- to define ways of a formal operating of the network
- to review the statement of the network
- to describe the history of the network
- to review short descriptions of all members portals
- to prepare some questions for editors (politics, langugae, finances) in order to get similar descriptions of cultural portals
- to research culture on-line in BiH, Montenegro, Macedonia in order to detect possible new partners/members

The blog
- to start working on the inSEEcp blog
- to prepare links to network members
- to provide a domain for the blog
- to start organizing different contents for the blog (e.g. rubrics for cultural policies) and to search for interesting themes for the articles
- to prepare an article / editorial comment from the perspective of language (which language is used by different cultural portal) in the light of promoting multilingualism in Europe

Fundraising
- to prepare a project proposal for the ECF open call, deadline April 1, 2008

B. Meeting of the CCP Network during the Slovene EU Presidency

Mateja Lazar (responsible for the CCP SLO) presented the program of the CCP meeting (to be held in Ljubljana on June 12-14) including also a public conference dealing with the subject of networking in the cultural sector with a special emphasis on cultural cooperation between the EU and SEE region. This public event will be organized as a moderated discussion with guest speakers and panelists, aamong them two representatives of the Informal SEE Network of Cultural Portals.

Re-network!
International conference on networking in the cultural sector and stimulating transnational cooperation and free flow of information

In the light of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 (EYID), the meeting will focus on intercultural dialogue between the EU and South East Europe (SEE). The SEE region is an integral part of the Slovene orientation not only due to its historical and geographical links but also especially in the light of further enlargements of the European Union. On practical level, the meeting will be structured around the topic of fostering the networking and information flow between different arts and culture stakeholders in the EU and SEE region.

The international conference entitled Re-network! will be dedicated to the topic of networking seen as an indispensable prerequisite stimulating free flow of information and transnational cultural cooperation. Networking in arts and culture has had a long tradition in Europe and there is hardly any professional organisation that is not a member of at least one international network. However, networks as well are facing radical changes affecting cultural industries: new technologies enabling free flow of works and information, audience being transformed into active users… It seems that the only problem to be solved remains free flow of persons, i.e. transnational mobility of people working in the cultural sector.

With the special emphasis put on the intercultural dialogue between the EU and SEE the conference’s aim is to find out how “old” and “new” cultural networks respond to these circumstances and how they manage the problem of free flow of information especially if relevant to transnational cooperation.

The conference (public panel) will focus on the political and cultural context of developing and enabling cultural networks as a link between local, national and international cultural milieu.



(Text by Dusan Dovc: SCCA-Ljubljana / Evrokultura)

Follow-up

The second Regional workshop of cultural portals, Belgrade 2007

Magacin Culture Centre, Kraljevica Marka 4



The second workshop of cultural portals from the SEE region was held on December 3-4, 2007 in Magacin Culture Centre in Belgrade, organized again by SEEcult.org with the support of the Goethe-Institut Belgrade, and bringing together the most active members of the inSEEcp in order to assess the results of joint activities and plan the agenda for 2008.



Among the participants, beside the representatives of the inSEEcp’s members (Artservis.org and Evrokultura.org, Slovenia, Culturenet.hr and Kulturpunkt.hr, Croatia, and SEEcult.org Serbia), was also Anja Seeliger, founding member of from Perlentaucher.de and SignandSight.com.



Reviewing joint activities between two workshops, participants from region agreed on network’s name inSEEcp, discussed about drafts of possible joint projects and possibilities to apply on several open calls due to need to find basic financial resources for further activities. Also was talking on possibilities for exchange of contents (writing, translating, publishing…at least one text monthly on actual cultural politics or related specific themes), as well as about possibility to establish a network for training new young collaborators (writers, editors… as inSEEcp’s internship program) etc.



Beside some organizational issues, like establishing rotating coordination, the workshop was dedicated to some concrete joint projects and among the conclusion of the workshop is to create inSEEcp’s blog on some of free services (like Blogger.com), where should be posted the Network’s manifesto, as well as data base on forming the network and its founding members, cultural policy in respective countries in the region regarding culture on internet and other related topics. In 2008 are also planed monthly features on themes of common interests,



SEEcult.org announced the third workshop in Belgrade until the end of 2008, which should bring together all participants from the first workshop, as well as new potential members from the region. Due to lack of money - not only for joint actions, but also for individual portal’s activities, the participants concluded that there is necessity for extra fund that will enable further networking, which is also one of the main tasks of coordination team.





The conclusions were presented at the panel discussion on the theme “Culture policy and Internet - SEE region and Europe”, moderated by the Goethe-Institute Belgrade’s director Jutta Gehrig. All participants presented situation in their respective countries, which again attracted significant interest of public, as well as print, electronic and Internet media.





All photos in this post by Tihomir Stojanovic, http://creemaginet.com/ (c)



(Text by Vesna Milosavljevic, SEEcult.org)

Founding the inSEEcp

The first Regional workshop of cultural portals, Belgrade 2006
Goethe-Institut Belgrade, Knez Mihailova 50


The inSEEcp was founded by representatives of SEEcult.org (Serbia); Culturenet.hr, Kulturpunkt.hr, Culturelink.hr and Knjiga.hr (Croatia); Radio Student, Artservis.org and Evrokultura.org (Slovenia); Culture.in.mk (Macedonia); Bosniaexpress.com (Bosnia). It was founded at the first workshop of regional cultural portals, held on November 27-29 in Belgrade, and organized by Belgrade based SEEcult.org portal for the SEE culture, with the support of the Goethe Institute Belgrade. Among the participants at the workshop “Culture on the Internet / Networking Participants in the Cultural Domain in South-East Europe through Specialized Internet Portals” at the Goethe Institute Belgrade also was N-ost.de portal and, as moderator, representative of Germany's major independent online cultural magazine Perlentaucher.de and its English service Signandsight.com.


Regarding the importance of the presence of culture on internet, common problems of cultural portals in region (cultural policy, IT development, finance…), sort of a gap in this field between our most of our countries and EU, as well as fast development of web technology generally, the participants of the first workshop concluded that inSEEcp network is needed for exchanging information and experiences, improving professional and technical skills, support and promote quality culture production in the region and also to bring new audience to our respective portals, especially because of the fact that, as for now, there isn’t such of regional platform for cultural portals in the former Yugoslavia region and wider, while cooperation in culture on institutional (state) level between the countries in the region is slow and overwhelmed with various administrative issues.


The participants of the workshop agreed to make an informal network and set out a joint founding manifesto regarding common mission and goals, as well as to continue networking through the Internet, organizing follow-up training and networking workshops and building resources for various joint on-line and off-line activities.


Among the goals which were set out at the workshop are: promoting inter-cultural exchange and transnational debate between the countries of former Yugoslavia, promoting European integration from the bottom up by means of civil society networks on the Internet, communicating the significance of culture for system change and democratization in the region, as well as communicating the current gulf between the significance of cultural portals in SEE region and their poor financial backing, and engaging in joint fund raising strategies.


Also was concluded that Internet fulfils a crucial role in culture in region in the midst of transition and European integration process, because it facilitates and promotes transnational debate and cultural exchange among like-minded people in neighboring countries and the EU as a whole. It also contributes to the internationalization of the regional culture and art scene, enabling also the reverse process - promotion of contemporary world trends in region.


As part of the workshop also was held a panel discussion on the theme “Significance of Culture Portals”, which brought together representatives of state institutions, cultural institutions, the university, artist groups and artists, media, net-activists and other professionals from culture portal’s target groups, as well as public.


Among the participants of the round table were professor Milena Dragicevic Sesic from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Belgrade Assistant Mayor Gorica Mojovic, Yugoslav Film Archive Museum director Dinko Tucakovic, Belgrade Dramatic Theatre director Nebojsa Bradic, editor of the daily Politika’s culture section Andjelka Cvijic and artist Zoran Popovic, and the aim was to affirm the significance of culture portals as the new media and platforms for comprehensive presentation of the regional culture and art scene, distinguishing the possibilities for networking them, for the purpose of internationalizing regional culture and art, as well as for promoting cooperation and networking between the participants in the culture and art domain.


The workshop and panel discussion triggered comprehensive coverage in Belgrade media, as well as on the culture and Internet related forums and blogs, and the German portal Signandsight.com, which was represented at the workshop by Gabriella Gönczy, in role of moderator, noted that “the workshop has shown that journalists, multiplicators and actors in the areas of culture and international communication have come much farther than politicians in the respective countries. With the networking possibilities of a cross-border medium like the Internet, this group shows much promise for promoting cultural dialogue between their countries and with the countries of the EU”.


Participants: Zlata Veselinovic (Bosniaexpress.com), Aleksandra Uzelac (Culturelink.hr), Dea Vidovic (Kulturpunkt.hr), Deborah Hustic (Culturenet.hr), Valerij Juresic (Knjiga.hr), Jasna Vrteva (Culture.in.mk), Marija Mojca Pungercar (Artservis.org), Petja Grafenauer (Radio Student), Dusan Dovc (Evrokultura.org), Vesna Milosavljevic and Mima Marjanovic (SEEcult.org), Jenni Winterhagen (N-ost.de).


(Text by: Vesna Milosavljevic, SEEcult.org)