Reconstructing Cultural Productivity in the Region of South East Europe

DATE

December 2-4, 1999

ORGANISERS

ERICarts together with Finn-EKVIT (Helsinki), "Blue Dragon" NGO (Sremski Karlovci), CULTURELINK (Zagreb) and the Goethe-Institute (Sarajevo).

PROGRAMME STEERING COMMITTEE

Dubravko Bibanovic (Sarajevo), Danielle Cliche (Bonn), Ritva Mitchell (Helsinki), Dimitrije Vujadinovic (Sremski Karlovci), Andreas Wiesand (Bonn).

FUNDERS

German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish National Commission for UNESCO, the Austrian Federal Chancellery/Department for the Arts, KulturKontakt Austria, Canton of Sarajevo and local firms.

ABSTRACT

The main aim of the Conference was to re-establish and re-vitalise transborder artistic and cultural ties within the Region of South East Europe, between its nations and with other European countries; a precondition for the return of mutual trust between different peoples in the Region. It also aimed at facilitating dialogue among the relevant actors, including professional artists, cultural institutions, local businesses, policy makers and international organisations.

While problems of artistic and intellectual exchanges in South-East Europe were addressed frequently at other meetings, the crucial roles of the culture industries and media production in the reconstruction process were largely ignored. Therefore, the Conference was also designed to promote the possibilities which the culture industries could bring to the process of reconstruction and to identify concrete projects, to explore possibilities for organising and financing them.  

The Conference identified:

1. Specific problems/barriers for transborder co-operation inside the Region of South-Eastern Europe and with other parts of Europe, as well as steps to overcome these problems;

2. Methods and tools for developing an atmosphere for cultural co-operation within the Region as well as concrete projects;

3. Conditions and instruments of support for the reconstruction of firms/organisations working in the culture industries in the Region and for the establishment of new independent structures.