De Balie, centre for politics and arts, presented: A ROUGH GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM. A three day manifestation in Serbia’s capital Belgrade, november 28 - 30, 2008.
This blog collects materials, impressions, announcements, program oveviews and results from this translocal cultural project.
The dutch photographer Ivar Hoekstra created a great series of photo’s in Belgrade during ‘The Rough Guide to Amsterdam’ pre-production week and at the festival itself.
Ivar Hoekstra’s digital photo album can be visited at: http://fotos.ivarhoekstra.com/beograd
Some mobile phone pictures by De Balie Media Department, taken in Belgrade during the festival weekend, can be found here: http://flickr.com/mobelgrad
And you are welcome to add your own festival photo’s to this Flickr group: http://flickr.com/groups/rgab
From the debst of our computer hacking skills we bring you this conversation between Richard de Boer and Eric Kluitenberg, not the mediatheorist.
Eric Kluitenberg
19:54
hallo richard
19:55
Voor zover mijn geheugen het toelaat ken ik je niet, klopt dat?
richard de boer
19:57
hallo eric,
19:57
ik ben even in gesprek
19:57
momentje…
Eric Kluitenberg
19:57
ok
richard de boer
20:04
ha eri
20:04
c
Eric Kluitenberg
20:04
hallo
richard de boer
20:04
was dat een serieuze vraag daarnet?
Eric Kluitenberg
20:05
ja, dat was het.
richard de boer
20:05
aha. zie je misschien bij mijn profiel alleen “dhabirecorder” staan?
Eric Kluitenberg
20:05
Nee Richard de boer.
richard de boer
20:05
en richard de boer ken je niet?
Eric Kluitenberg
20:06
Overigens ben ik niet de mediatheoreticus die dezelfde naam heeft
richard de boer
20:06
ach zo
20:06
e.kluitenberg is een andere eric
20:06
neem me niet kwalijk
Eric Kluitenberg
20:06
wellicht dat dat e.e.a. duidelijk maak
20:07
Ik heb wel een muziekinstrumenten winkel
richard de boer
20:07
ook niet verkeerd
Eric Kluitenberg
20:08
maar ik schrijf geen boeken
richard de boer
20:08
en ik speel geen muziekinstrumenten
Eric Kluitenberg
20:09
In het geval je het eens overweegt; infomusic.nl
richard de boer
20:09
bedankt voor de tip
Eric Kluitenberg
20:10
In ieder geval een hele prettige avond gewenst
richard de boer
20:10
van hetzelfde!
Posted by Wilbur Perlot
Yesterday afternoon was the debate The State of Europe.
Dutch politician Luuk Blom said that the Dutch position blocking the next phase for Serbia joining the EU is not because the Dutch are against Serbia or Serbians, but because rules are rules. In the case of Hongary and Bulgaria the rules were too easily loosened so that the two countries could join the EU and there has been serious backlash because of this decision among the Dutch population aimed at enlargement of the EU. According to Luuk Blom all that Serbia has to do is follow the rules, most importantly 100% cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague, and then the Dutch would be no further objection against Serbia joining the EU. Suggestions that the Dutch position had anything to do with Screbenica or Kosovo were denied by Blom.
Goran Svilanovic, former minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, could not understand why the Netherlands is so willingly taking a different stance than the others 26 member countries and therefore very much isolated. Blom said that he had nothing to do with those other countries and that he was only responsible for the Netherlands and that he had to do what is in the best interest of the Dutch population. Svilanovic tried to explain that the enlargement was the biggest and most succesfull peace project the world has ever known and that we are living in this world together, but it did not do much to change the position of Blom.
Blom was supported in his argument by the American foreign relations expert John Hulsman, who said that if you want to join a club, you have to listen to the rules of that club. He also said that Serbia has to acknowledge and adept to the changing situation in the world, that the EU was the best bet for Serbia’s future and that it was time for Serbia to act; it is in the hands of Serbia. According to Hulsman it is about time that Serbia stops being the victim, stops complaining and starts doing. Ljiljana Smajlovic , former editor in chief of Politica, was not necessarily opposing Hulsman’s argument, but she did disagree with the “reality has changed so should you” rationale. The way reality is perceived is the key point, but reality is always used in these exchanges of opinions as long as it serves the argument of the West and if it doesn’t Serbia is complaining and playing the victim.
Smajlovic also said that she is not an eurosceptic, that she is a great supporter of Europe and that she hoped that that did not mean that she could not be critical on the EU.
The debate was at times fierce and emotional. But all four speakers agreed on the fact that the future of Serbia is within the EU. What remains is the path to get there.
I would like to thank all four speakers for their excellent contribution Saturday and especially my co-host Jugoslav Cosic!
Posted by Wilbur Perlot
The youngsters who are now preparing their cars in the pit stop, are soon to be on pole-position: as a writer, scientist, CEO, artist or program maker. That is not merely a demographic fact; these young people simply refuse to be bound by the constraints of an established authority.
That puts several questions to the front: What are the moral anchors? How will those anchors influence the behaviour and decisions of the new generation and the ones that follow? How will they deal with a changing (global) order? Will they have a shared trademark? How different will this generation be in comparison to previous generations? Will the opinion makers examine the world differently? Will the writers put other questions forward?
Sunday evening, at 21 o’clock in Dom Omladine, there will be a general discussion about these questions with the generation of people born between 1970 and 1989. This general discussion is the result of the generation sessions that we organised with young people in Belgrade.
The generation sessions have been incredibly interesting so far. First, we found it striking to hear how much values as equility, freedom and diversity mean for this group of young people from Belgrade. This differs the samen generation in the Netherlands, where these ideals have become anchored in their mental programming that they do not name them explicitly during similar sessions in the Netherlands, more.
Secondly, another interesting point is the dominating role of recent history, especially the war in the former Yugoslavia. This might not surprise you much, still we underestimated the wars as moral anchor points of these Belgradian younsters.
Come to Dom Omladine Sunday evening for more moral anchor points for the generation 70/80!
Posted by David Glas
Yesterday, De Balie-crew had dinner at a place called “The Question mark”. We discovered that the famous dutch writer and comedian Herman Koch is working there incognito as a waiter.
He is working on a new book called ‘A Serbian bear on the road; short cooking stories from the Balkan’.
Even after we recognized him, he continued in his role the whole time.
Here is the picture from Herman Koch working incognito:
Posted by David Glas
Today is a day of celebration both in Belgrade and Amsterdam. Apart from our own festival, both cities are linking up in celebrating AVNOJ’s retirement.
On 29 November 1943, Tito and his comrades gathered in the Bosnian town of Jajce for the second meeting of his Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia. On this day it was decided to create a federal Yugoslavia, based on the right of self-determination of nations, with six constituent republics … along which lines Yugoslavia has fallen apart since 1991.
So, AVNOJ is retiring, reaching the respectable age of 65, and post-Yugoslavs in Amsterdam are commemorating this fact tonight at Paviljoen aan ‘t IJ (Stavangerweg 560) in the Spaarndammerbuurt. Entry fee is 7,5 euro and contributing with foods and booze is recommended. Kick-off at 18 hrs with fajront around 3 AM… Special guest of the party will be Belgrade’s first punkette Dubravka Duca Marković.
Posted by Richard de Boer
If all will succeed, today at 19 hrs we’ll host a live-connected public discussion between Belgrade and Amsterdam about the new and ever-changing borders on the Balkans.
The discussion will take place simultaneously in the spaces of De Balie and Dom Omladine, connected live via internet. The event brings together researchers, activists and engaged citizens in both cities around issues of border control, border management and migration, to discuss how these issues reflect the precarious relationship of the Balkan region to the European Union.
Parallel with the establishment of national border regimes in the post-Yugoslav republics since the 1990s, there has been a process of border economization (free trade legislations, free flow of financial capital, less flow of labor force, privatization). These processes are often – as in the EU itself – paradoxical: both in a sense of those who remain “non-citizens” (refugees, victims of EU readmission agreements) and political arbitrariness in accepting or refusing recognition of some newly formed borders (e.g. after this year’s Kosovo declaration of independence).
This meeting, moderated by Eric Kluitenberg in Amsterdam, Branka Ćurčić and Richard de Boer in Belgrade, aims at a comprehensive public inquiry with theorists, artists and activists into the mechanisms and impacts of the volatile border regimes in the Balkan region, and the question who is involved, locally and internationally, in operating and managing these ever shifting borders.
Confirmed speakers in Belgrade are Jovan Čekić (philosopher and artist), Vahida Ramujkić (artist and author of “Schengen without effort), Milenko Srećković (spokesman of FreedomFight – Zrenjanin), Želimir Žilnik (filmmaker), Zoran Pantelić & Kristian Lukić (both of KUDA.org – Novi Sad).
Confirmed speakers in Amsterdam are Florian Schneider (writer and new media developer, Kein.org), Željko Blaće (artist Mi2/Jan van Eijk Academy) and Paul Keller (researcher Kein.org/Creative Commons).
Posted by Richard de Boer
It has begun. A rough guide to Amsterdam has started and biassed as I am, I am going to say that it was amazing!
A lot of the staff members of Dom Omladine and De Balie are feeling sick, the others are enjoying the night life of Belgrade. I am back at the appartment. I have to get up early tomorrow morning for the debate, otherwise I have joined in. John Hulsman is somewhere in a bar as far as I know, and so is Room 11. Room 11 was great this evening, as I had expected having seen them live in het Patronaat in Haarlem earlier this year. They brought a great amount of positive energy with them and a shot of that is what a lot of people here need. Although to be fair, Serbians know how to party and they do know how to have a good time, more then we think. Still, those Serbians girls dance with their eyes closed are a sight to remember. I can not think of a better first evening of this festival than what I have just seen with Room 11. Tomorrow I will try to keep up with the debate at 13.00.
Posted by Wilbur Perlot
ps: The opening at Magacin was a big success as well with a lot of different people enjoying the work of the Subjective Atlas and the pictures by Mark Nozeman.
I just received an email from the OSCE mission here in Belgrade. That have arranged a third speaker for the debate on human security, professor Zoran Dragisic, from Security Studies in Belgrade! Is this the Serbian equivalent of Rob de Wijk…?
The other two speakers who were already confirmed are Milos Vasic and Dina Siegel. Co-host is Milos Milic. The debate includes a quiz on the Amsterdam Red Light District.
Posted by Wilbur Perlot
I am working with Natasa Jovanovic on the presentation of the Subjective Atlas of Serbia during the debate tomorrow at Magacin. Truly great stuff. The exposition opens at 17 today, together with photo´s of Mark Nozeman. Here is a sample of his work, exclusively!
All photographs by Mark Nozeman
Posted by Wilbur Perlot
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