"Cultural Policies as Crisis Management?"

ODA - Kosova Art Gallery - KIJAC, Pristina | 21-23 Sept. 2006

A Workshop organized by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina (Stacion CCA) in cooperation with eipcp – European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, Vienna and translate. Beyond Culture: The Politics of Translation http://translate.eipcp.net/

There is not much ambiguity in today’s role of cultural policy in the Balkans. It is almost entirely determined by the process of the so-called postwar normalization, which follows strictly the pattern of liberal multiculturalism. Now, when the political constitution of their independent nation states is coming finally to an end, the peoples of the region are expected to reorganize all their relations, including cultural exchange, in accordance with the principles of mutual recognition and democratic tolerance. They should accept each other’s cultural differences as essential features of their national identities and never violate the right of the other to claim its cultural uniqueness and singularity. This is believed to be the only way to achieve the ideal of peaceful coexistence in the Balkans.

However, there are also critics of this concept, who say that this is not historically new to the region. Therefore, instead of being a solution, the multiculturalist vision of cultural policy appears to be part of the problem. Moreover, it seems to legitimize retroactively the very cause of the nationalist wars in the nineties including the practice of ethnical cleansing.

The workshop will take up the criticism of this concept and discusses other theoretical and practical approaches to the question of cultural exchange as well as possibilities of translating them into a concrete cultural policy.


Programme


Thursday, 21.9.06
Venue: ODA Theater, Prishtina

17:00   Opening of the workshop and presentation of  “European Cultural Policies 2015”, Andrea Hummer, Boris Buden, Albert Heta

Friday, 22.9.06  Open Sessions
Chair: Boris Buden
Venue: Kosova Art Gallery, Prishtina

10.00   Albert Heta: Opening Remarks: "Cultural Policies as Crisis Management?"
10.15   Boris Buden: What if … On the limits of today’s concept of cultural policy (abstract) | On the other side of future (text)
10.50   Shkelzen Maliqi, Mehmet Behluli: Cultural Policies: Introduction to the Kosovar Context
11.35   Petrit Selimi, Besnik Pula: Social Engagement: The Kosovar Context
12.10   Astrit Salihu: Cultural Policies and Politics of Culture
12.55   Borka Pavicevic: Reflections on the Exhibition Pertej, Belgrade 1998
14.40   Branimir Stojanovic: The State and Contemporary Art
15.25   Dusan Grlja, Jelena Vesic, Milan Rakita: Prelom Collective
16.30   Marion Hamm: Global Social Movements as "Cultural Practices from Below"? Reclaim the Streets and Indymedia
17.15   Erden Kosova: Dispersal of a Constellation: The Shortcomings of the Engaged Art Practice in Turkey
18.00   Marita Muukkonen: Current state of crises in the the arts and culture / politics vs. policy making

Saturday, 23.9.06  Presentations and Closed Workshop

Venue: Kosova Art Gallery
10:30   Milica Tomic: Discussion with the artist

12:30  Closed Workshop
Venue: KIJAC

Participants

Boris Buden
Albert Heta
Marion Hamm
Shkelzen Maliqi
Borka Pavicevic
Branimir Stojanovic
Branislava Andjelkovic
Milica Tomic
Astrit Salihu
Migjen Kelmendi
Erden Kosova
Jelena Vesic
Dusan Grlja
Marita Muukonnen
Nita Luci
Luan Mulliqi
Andrea Hummer
Petrit Selimi
Besnik Pula
Arber Hadri
Aleksandar Nikolic
Willem Houwen
Mehmet Behluli (TBC)


The texts from the workhsop were published in:

Albert Heta, Vala Osmani (Eds.), The way between Belgrade and Prishtina has 28000 un-proper build objects. So, never it will be an autobahn!, Prishtina: Stacion Center for Contemporary Art 2008 (ISBN 978-9951-543-00-2)