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.

Criticize This!

inSEEcp's members Kurziv from Zagreb (Croatia) and SEEcult.org from Belgrade (Serbia) started a new project Criticize this!, designed with three more partners from the region - Kulturtreger from Zagreb, KPZ Beton from Belgrade, and Plima from Ulcinj (Montenegro). The general aim of the project Criticize this! is to initiate a Europe wide discussion on the significance of contemporary art in enhancement of the common cultural space achieved by affirmation of critical reflection on art. The project is funded through the programme Culture 2007-2013 of the European Union.

Project description

After years of deliberate nation building narratives in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro in which state supported art was particularly instrumental, some national myths have informed the society at large. Mainstream contemporary art in these countries still very often reflects this sentiment, openly promoting prejudiced stereotypes and justifying national ideologies or political agendas. Simultaneously, these countries have witnessed a significant decrease in critical reflection on contemporary art. Since mainstream media treat culture as entertainment, it is almost impossible to publicly discuss issues such as nationalism or chauvinism in art. Art criticism has dwindled down to occasional specialized magazines catering for a very narrow and mostly academic audience. Proper newspaper art reviews have virtually disappeared.

Having this in mind, this project is conceived as widening the public space for critical discussion on contemporary art. This is of particular importance at this specific moment considering the European Union prospects of these countries, their connection to European common cultural space and adoption of European values of tolerance, participation, intercultural dialogue and inclusion. Criticism of contemporary art contributes to this dialogue inasmuch as it reveals the way in which contemporary art (de)constructs nationalistic myths, national identities and images of the other as well as the ways contemporary art deals with neuralgic and traumatic points of societies.

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Project aims

The general aim of the projects is to initiate a Europe wide discussion on the significance of contemporary art in enhancement of the common cultural space achieved by affirmation of critical reflection on art.

Specific objectives of the project are:

1. To create trans-national critical discourse on art in order to contribute to intercultural dialogue;

2. To facilitate the dialogue between artists and audiences by recreating the common cultural space;

3. To promote European values, particularly intercultural dialogue, inclusion and participation, by means of increasing their visibility in online and print media.

The project is defined by three main themes: dealing with the past, social transformation and identity. art criticism will be particularly focused on the way contemporary art treats: the past (emergence of new states, nationalism, chauvinism); social change (change of cultural framework, new economic system, decrease of public space, consumerism, censorship, freedom of speech); identity ((re)inventing national identity, building European identity, models of inclusion/exclusion of minority groups).

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Project structure

The project will focus on visual arts, performing arts and literature produced in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro in recent years. Art reviews will be produced during three Art Modules. There will be 11 participants (young art critics) per Art Module from all these countries selected based on their applications.

The Art Modules will be organized in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia and they will host prominent thinkers from the region, Europe and the world. The first part of each art module is a three-day initial event which will include: workshops for young art critics, public lectures given by international lecturers and a public discussion on the topic of building democratic and open society.

The second stage of each Art Module consists of writing essays on a predefined subject. Writing essays will be preceded by researches which will be conducted in all countries of the project (consulting archives, visiting events, interviewing artists etc.). Selected art reviews will be published simultaneously on the project web site and partner’ web portals, in daily and weekly newspapers in these countries and in other electronic media. Best art critics will be awarded a prize at the end of the project.

Find out more on the project's Criticize this! web site http://www.criticizethis.org

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.

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.

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.

Open Talks on Contemporary Visual Art Practices in Zagreb (1990-2010)

Kulturpunkt.hr is organizing an event entitled Open Talks on Contemporary Visual Art Practices in Zagreb (1990-2010) which will be held on Thursday and Friday, 9th and 10th of September at 5:00 pm in club Booksa in Zagreb (Croatia). In these Open Talks will participate artists, curators, theorists, cultural managers as well as wider public, and will be moderated by journalists and art critics Marko Golub and Vesna Tašić.


The themes of the Open Talks are critical practices in contemporary arts – practices of research, progressive and experimental character which take critical approach to reality, but also work and role of the institutional system. As the frame is rather wide and comprehends period of twenty years, it also comprehends generational gap, which is why we envisaged these Open Talks as a place of solidifying and exchanging knowledge, information and interpretation of artistic phenomena from the period. The other aspect takes into focus institutional and non-institutional, economic, social, political and other context giving the frame to the practices in focus. Although the focus of the projects are “critical practices”, the intention is to regard them in these talks in the wider context, and instead of one, unique story of two decades, to reconsider them and evoke more different narrative lines.

Open talks on Contemporary Visual Art Practices in Zagreb (1990-2010) are organized by portal Kulturpunkt.hr in cooperation with club Booksa and partners from the region – SCCA/Artservis (Slovenia), ForumSkopje (Macedonia) and Seecult.org (Serbia).

Open Talks on Contemporary Visual Art Practices in Zagreb (1990-2010) 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.

Open Talks 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.

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.

Third World Culturelink Conference

call for papers - programme - registration form

Networks – The Evolving Aspects of Culture in the 21st Century Zagreb, Croatia, 13-15 November 2009 With the support of: UNESCO Office in Venice - UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE); Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos); Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Croatia; Ministry of Culture, Croatia Call for Papers  The Culturelink Network celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. To mark this occasion, we are organizing the Third World Culturelink Conference under the title "Networks – The Evolving Aspects of Culture in the 21st Century", to be held from 13 to 15 November 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia. The conference is envisaged to bring together Culturelink Network's members, researchers, professionals, and many others who perceive networking as one of the most intriguing phenomenon of contemporary culture. The Third World Culturelink Conference will aim to investigate the role and relevance that cultural networks hold for cultural development. A retrospective overview of the cultural networks phenomena in the past 20 years will pose as grounds for debate on new perspectives of cultural networking in the 21st century. Special consideration will be given to issues regarding the position of cultural networks within cultural policies structures, as well as to the effective usage of innovative ICT and networking applications that significantly develop the modes and scopes of activities of cultural networks. The event will include discussions on the promotion and affirmation of cultural diversity and intercultural communication through networking processes and will closely look at case studies from all regions of the world, thus providing comparative examples and experiences on a global level. We invite the submission of papers to be included in the Third World Culturelink Conference programme. Paper abstracts should thematically correspond to the themes and topics listed in the preliminary conference agenda. Conference participants interested in holding a paper/presentation, should comply with the following requirements: all prospective speakers must submit a presentation proposal and a short CV, presentation proposals should be given a precise title that falls well within the scope of the chosen programme theme, and proposals should be submitted in the form of a written Abstract or Executive Summary on not more than one page (approx. 500 words). All proposals should be submitted for revision by 15 July 2009 to clinkconf@irmo.hr. Conference languages are Croatian, English, French and Spanish. For the conference programme, please see here. Contact: Conference Secretariat, Culturelink/IMO, P.O. Box 303, Vukotinovićeva 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; tel.: +385-1-4877490; fax: +385-1-4828361; e-mail: clinkconf@irmo.hr; http://www.culturelink.org/clinkconf.html

Forum Skopje 2009: The Aftershock of the Postmodernism

This year's Forum Skopje will be held from 8th to 14th of June at Mala Stanica in Skopje (Macedonia) hosting numerous European and regional architects and urban theoreticians. The concept of this year’s debate would give accent to the newest rises in the City Center, seen as antonyms to the Postmodern's philosophy. The subject of this year’s debate is set to be: the Aftershock of the Postmodernism.


Participants: Erich Raith, Sergej Nikoljski, Biljana Stefanovska, Ivan Rupnik, Antonio Petrov, Marko Sančanin, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Vera Martinez, Christiano Lepratti, Maren Harnack, Kai Vöckler, Gabriele Reiterer, Ines Tolic, Aleksandar Petrov, Maximilian Hartmuth and Ivan Mirkovski.

Programme:
8 June, 19:00h
Pre-opening night
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery
The Caffe

Lecture by: Antonio Petrov (Harvard University, Wasx.org Architecture - USA)
"Presentness and the Cultures of the Aftershock(s): Critical Formations of the Creative Unemployed"

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9 June, 19:00h
Opening night
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery
The Caffe

Jazz concert: the Georgi Sareski Quartet
Exhibition opening: 90 Years Bauhaus

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10 June, 19:00h
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery

round table night sessions

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11 June, 19:00h
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery

round table night sessions

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12 June, 19:00h
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery

round table night sessions

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13 June, 19:00h
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery

round table night sessions


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14 June
Mala Stanica, Upper level gallery

last day activities
the student workshop presentation

Forum 'Culture 2007-2013 Programme – possibilities of co-operation'

Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Cultural Contact Point Croatia and Croatian Movement & Dance Institute in cooperation with Cultural Contact Points Austria and Slovenia on June 1st at the Mimara Museum in Zagreb.

Programme:
 
9.00-9.15   Registration

9.15-9.30  Foreword: Božo Biškupić, Minister of Culture
 
Presentations:

9.30- 9.45  Vesna Jurić Bulatović ( Museum for Arts and Crafts, Zagreb)

9.45-10.15  Stephane Re (Institut Française de Zagreb) and Emma Lecoeur ( L’Oreal Croatia)

10.15-10.45  Alemka Lisinski (T-Hrvatski Telekom) and Snježana Pintarić (Musem of Contemporary Art, Zagreb)

10.45-11.15  Marina Dijaković (Zagrebačka banka) and Vesna Kusin (Gallery Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb)

11.15-11.45  Polona Lovšin (Riko Group, Slovenia) and Ranko Novak (Brumen Foundation, Slovenia)
 _______________________________________________

11.45-12.30  Coffee break
 _______________________________________________

12.30-13.00  Dubravka Jusić (Vipnet) and Ivica Prlender (Dubrovačke ljetne igre)

13.00-13.30  Leonie Hodkevitch (Austria): ”Sponsoring: Alter Ego in Arts”

13.30-14.00  CCPs Austria, Slovenia and Croatia: Presentation of the Culture 2007-2013 programme

14.00-14.30  Matjaž Farič and Ksenija Kaučič (Flota, Slovenia), Manfred Biskup and Liz King (Verein für Neue Tanzformen, Austria), Alfred Masal (Offenes Haus Oberwart, Austria), Barna Petrany (Pro Progressione, Hungary), Mirna Žagar (Croatian Movement & Dance Institute, Croatia): Dance Explorations Beyond Front@

14.30-15.00  DISCUSSION/ CONCLUSION

(Source: CCP Croatia)

ONLINE/OFFLINE festival in Skopje, Macedonia

The two Macedonian portals, members of inSEEcp, www.culture.in.mk and www.plagij.at are founders of the ONLINE/OFFLINE festival. inSEEcp members Vesna Milosavljevic (SEEcult) and Dusan Dovc (Evrokultura) are also taking part in the festival.

Supported by Pro Helvetia – Skopje, the ONLINE/OFFLINE festival, true to its name, has an online and an offline component.


The offline component is taking place in Skopje on 22 and 23 January 2009. It starts with a blogging workshop entitled 'Blogging and networking tools for artists', lead by blogger Deborah Hustic aka lomodeedee (Personal Cyber Botanica) from Zagreb, and targeting especially artists and cultural operators. 

A discussion under the title Where Is Culture, Where Is the Audience? will follow, involving not only the representatives of culture portals, but also editors of other popular, fun-oriented portals, and the audience. It will deal with the issues of interest, presentation, content, technology, social networking and web 2.0 modules and will attempt to respond to the issue of attracting audiences to culture, through portals as intermediaries in the process. The evening will end with the Plagij.at listening party.

On the second day, Artservis’ Dusan Dovc will present its Art Suitcase, featuring digital art on the topic of the survival in the art world. It will also pack within works by Macedonian artists. An exhibition of photographs from previous Plagij.at events and the festival will be closed with a concert of the Serbian band Petrol and Macedonian all-girl band Vivid.

The online part of the festival will be continuously updated and will consist of two blogs jointly managed by www.culture.in.mk and www.plagij.at. The addresses onlineoffline.wordpress.com and offline2online.wordpress.com will feature formats previously unused by the two portals – collections of works of relevant Macedonian artists, also their recommendations on other artists worth exploring, longer journalistic forms (interviews, reviews …) as well as audio and video features. Through the process of collaboration with the artists and journalists covering culture, we will aim to find the right format, satisfying the artistic criteria, while still being attractive for a wide audience. Also, one of the main role of the joint blogs, considering that a large part of portals’ visitors come from abroad, is to provide a more immersive cultural and artistic experience to audiences who cannot physically attend the events in question.

inSEECp's conference covered at Labforculture

The conference Cultu(RE)gion online!_The Future Goes By!,  which took place this week in Belgrade has been covered at Labforculture portal.

'Gathered representatives of the portals for culture collected new knowledge in order to improve their work. Through sharing their professional experiences and through the workshops of social and cultural aspects of the web 2.0, but also through the practical usage of portals, blogs, social media and free software, they learned how to use social media in a better way. With presentations of existing portals for culture in SEE and through the discussions on possibilities and challenges of the art and culture in the digital era, they also promoted importance of digital culture.'

Read the whole coverage here