REX PROJECTS 2000

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

All of these activities have been planned and will be organised in order to emphasise and shed more light on the question THE ROLE OF ARTS AND CULTURE IN SOCIAL CHANGE. This topic will be the main aim of the project named DOUBLE EXPOSURE.

Our principal aims with DOUBLE EXPOSURE are:

  • to question the role of culture in the development of the (democratic) society;
  • to raise awareness about different cultural models;
  • to participate in overlooking the local situation;
  • to offer an opportunity to those already active in this field to express their ideas and experiences to a wider audience;
  • to further develop local projects which deal with this theme. This will be achieved by treating topics such as ¡ building creative relations between young people who have left the country and those who decided to stay;
  • the position of minorities (project "Gypsies in Belgrade From the Beginning of the Century"); ¡ the present status and future of young artists (project developed by young visual artists and art theoreticians);
  • arts and culture as mediators ("Documenting Lifestyles", exhibition of photography by Israeli and Palestinian teenagers, project by Hally Pancer);
  • minority social groups and dominant cultural patterns ("100 Years of the Gay rights in Germany", exhibition from the Goethe Institute in New York);
  • the status of disabled people in society and community cultural centre practices (example of Dublin's City Arts Centre);
  • tradition through a magnifying glass (commemorating November 29, anniversary of the establishment of the former Yugoslavia);
  • committed art (example of local and international theatre practice, guest moderator Jill Greenhalgh); ¡ networking as a tool (experiences of Syndicate and the European Cultural Backbone, facilitated by Andreas Broeckman);
  • new media activism (facilitated by Micz Flor);
  • Cultural Visions - Political Ambitions - European cultural policy and local (political) developments.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE giving rise to a double set of activities

  • knowing our situation better - learning about it through open communication and direct questions among ourselves - "locally " and the forming of a local network of people;
  • trying to locate and exploit international experience. We believe that these two sets of activities in tandem can bring a new quality to the life of our community.

Our guests will be European theoreticians and practitioners, each of whom will be the guest of different person from the local scene (who will also host the round table). The guest will be of relevance to a local project produced by us. This will contribute to the formation of a local network of people interested in the topic, whose position in the society will bring awareness of the topic to a wider audience. All events, round tables and workshops will be documented and published in book and video form at the beginning of 2001.

  • Eduard Delgado - Director of Interarts (Observatory of Urban and Regional Cultural Policies)
  • Raymond Weber - Director of Education, Culture and Sports at the Council of Europe
  • Sandy Fitzerald - Director of City Arts Center (Dublin)
  • Andreas Broeckman - new media activist working for V2_Organisation in Rotterdam, coordinator of Syndicate mailing list, founder of European Cultural Backbone network
  • Hally Pancer - author and facilitator of the project " Documenting lifestyles" = a photography coexistence project by Palestinian and Israeli teenagers
  • Micz Flor - new-media activist very active in Easter European 'developments'
  • Dragan Klaic - Director of Netherlands Theatre Institute
  • Marko Hren - peace and conflict crisis activist from Cultural center Metelkova, Ljubljana
  • Jill Greenhalgh -artistic director of Magdalena Project, based in Wales (International network of women in contemporary theatre), organizer of the Blee/Breeding Ground = event which explores the response of artists in the times of war. Her current performance "Child" deals with the topic of children rights. (changes possible)

DOUBLE EXPOSURE SUB-PROJECTS

1. CASE is about building creative relations between young people who have left the country and those who decided to stay. These will be developed through a creative process in collaborative art works in different media. The creator of "Case" is a fine arts academic from the architecture faculty, Prof. Branko Pavic.

2. ROMA IN BELGRADE FROM THE BEGINING OF THE CENTURY TO THE PRESENT This project aims to present the life of the Roma in Belgrade and the way the city treats them. The project will comprise: - a mobile multimedia exhibition based on the use of video, audio, photography and computer techniques, in Romany, Serbian and English; - installations and actions in the city (billboards, news stands, markets and cafes); - a suite of media activities in collaboration with Free B92, B2-92 and ANEM. Roma radio programming produced by Roma and broadcast by television and radio stations will be linked. 3. SWING This project will be developed with young visual artists and theoreticians, musicians and these involved in new media. The project will comprise the multimedia exhibition - installation and a bilingual catalogue, round tables, which will involve students, academics, older curators among others. The theme is the present status and future of young artists.

4. DOCUMENTING LIFESTLYES This is a Hally Pancer's photographic project in coexistence by Palestinian and Israeli teenagers. Thus the photography served as an instrument of rapprochement between the younger generations of two peoples in conflict. The intention was less to focus on the conflict itself than to promote the exchange of opinions and the mutual recognition of identities. The works of the young photographers are accompanied by their texts, which capture, in written form, their feelings and thoughts during the process they were undergoing. We would like to bring Hally and 4 workshop participants to Belgrade during the exhibition. We are organizing exhibition to be shown in Budapest, Banjaluka, Pristina, Skopje and Tirana.

5. SOCIAL SUB-GROUPS AND DOMINANT CULTURAL PATTERNS Since the presence of such groups is rarely mentioned in Belgrade today (they had a higher profile ten years ago!), we intend to pay tribute to this situation in a subversive way. We will show "100 Years of the Gay Rights in Germany", an exhibition produced by the Goethe Institute in New York, moving it to a different venue every three days. Discussions will be organised on the topic of alternative minority social groups and dominant cultural patterns. These will be produced in association with Labris (lesbian association based in Belgrade) and those Belgrade NGOs with younger members.

6. OUT OF CIRCLE (working title) Belgrade is city very hostile to disabled people - many of them are unable to leave their homes or move around town without assistance, which they are unable to afford. We shall raise the question of position of disabled people in society and introduce existing community cultural centres practices (City Arts Centre from Dublin as an example). We shall incorporate works by disabled people in this process and attempt to show Belgraders how life in the city appears from the perspective of disabled.

7. NOVEMBER 29 FAIR Living in a society characterised by a poor memory of the past we plan to involve artists, sociologists, young people and ordinary citizens in an investigation into the role tradition plays in their lives and how far back their memory reaches. We shall examine tradition through a magnifying glass by remind the public of November 29 - the anniversary of the establishment of the former Yugoslavia. This year's "Fair" will be a follow-up to '99's "Fair of Border Values and Marginal Phenomena" and '98's "Fair of Failed Attempts and Misunderstood Patents".

8. COMMITTED ART To illustrate this theme we will use the example of theatre practice, both local and international: give more space to Dance Against Violence which, as a pan-European project, incorporates work with young people in Belgrade; invite Jill Greenhalgh, the artistic director of the Magdalena Project, whose work in theatre deals with the rights of the child, and exploring the response of artists in times of war. After four years of collaboration with students from the Belgrade Faculty of Music and given the social themes of opera productions mounted by them, we shall help them to produce a new work.

9. THE ROLE OF NETWORKING Given the importance of networking model of communication and cooperation, we intend to highlight its role in the local community. We shall touch on the topic of networking in discussions with various guests, but this sub-project will concentrate on networking and new media through the experiences of Syndicate and the European Cultural Backbone, facilitated by Andreas Broeckman, and support the establishment of the local (Belgrade + Serbia) network of art managers.

10. NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT - CYBER ACTIVISM As presentation facility for new media from the outset and a creative participant in the field, we are aware that great concentration of socially committed and politically aware young can be found in this area. We shall elaborate on the question of the role of the new media (as part of cultural and artistic practice) in social change with the guidance of Micz Flor.

11. EUROPEAN CULTURAL POLICY AND LOCAL POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS The cultural division of Europe by political standards and the effect of this on the European art and cultural landscape will be discussed with local and European theoreticians and practitioners. We will invite Eduard Delgado, the director of Interarts and Raymond Weber, Director of Education, Culture and Sport for the Council of Europe as well as representatives of European cultural foundations.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE RESOURCES

Our principal concern in these group of programs is to provide sufficient funds for direct and personal communication among participants in contact on a bilateral and multilateral level, to enable the process of personal contact to be ongoing, to enable people to meet and develop ideas together. This, from our point of view, is equally important as producing concrete "product" from projects in the short term. Therefore we will continue and extend our connections with other cities in Serbia and former Yugoslav scene. Crucial part for developing DOUBLE EXPOSURE will be the on-line communication and presence. Therefore we find it's aims part of developing contents for our Open new media lab.

1. CONNECTION with other cities in Serbia Since 2 years ago similar initiatives like Rex, although on a smaller scale, are being taken by different groups of young 'scene' in different cities throughout Serbia. We have established contacts with initiatives in Subotica, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Nis, Kraljevo, Pristina and some smaller towns. The idea is not only to present the work of one to others but also to develop joint projects of a mutual interest.

2. CONNECTION FORMER YUGO SCENE A similar process as in Yugoslavia are going on between groups in the towns in former Yugoslavian countries: ATTACK initiative - Zagreb, LAMPARNA cultural center - Labin (Croatia), new media initiative LJUDMILA and multicultural center METELKOVA in Ljubljana, cultural center PEKARNA - Maribor, DIA ORGANIZACIA - Banjaluka, PAVAROTI CENTER - Mostar, ALTERNATIVE SCENE ZORAN RADMILOVIC - Trebinje, initiatives in Sarajevo... We will work on better knowing each other, exchangig prodrams and developing cooperative projects.