Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Lithuania: Conference at Faculty of humanities in Kaunas, students' lectures and workshops

By call from professor Dr. Raminta Pučėtaitė, from Faculty of humanities in Kaunas, University of Vilnius (Lithuania), About and around curating was presented at the international scientific conference Creative urban development: Culture, Business, Community, with a topic Curating environment with dedicated creative force.
Day later, a short two-day version of our course (lectures and workshops) was held for students of Art management at the same faculty. 

























Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Festival DJART '14, 6th-15th November 2014 in Algiers


Dear followers,

We are proudly announcing multimedia festival DJART '14 which will take place in Algiers from 6th till 15th November.

Our Civil association ARTIKAL and About and around curating project are part of the organization, coordination and artistic program, as well of the Trans-Cultural Dialogues team. 

Press: https://www.mediafire.com/?x7bdf27z9hb98zw
...


DJART '14
Algiers, 6th-15th November

Trans-Cultural Dialogues is a platform composed by a group of young professionals from different cultural and artistic Euro-Mediterranean associations. This platform aims on examining various contemporary social issues through a multidisciplinary cultural approach to offer solutions and new sustainable models for mobility and exchange between cultural and artistic actors, and researchers in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

To serve this purpose, Trans-Cultural Dialogues is organizing a regional project with local importance taking the shape of a multidisciplinary cultural Biennale to be held in different Euro-Mediterranean cities. This year, and to welcome the first edition of this initiative, the city of Algiers was unanimously chosen given its rich history, cultural diversity and its place in the Mediterranean area. This first edition was titled: DJART (a contraction of the words Djazaïr and Art, a combination that sounds "Jar" meaning neighbor in Arabic).

DJART '14 encourages the democratization of culture and promotes art as a way to share knowledge, discourse and various practices. DJART '14 program was designed following a research path in Algiers by TCD team, meeting the needs and expectations of the public regarding the artistic and cultural initiatives. DJART '14 aims to bring art (often forgotten, disparage or put into the background) to the Algerian public by making it accessible, affordable and appealing to the audience. DJART also aims to raise public awareness among Algerians on themes that concern them as: identity, citizenship, North African and Mediterranean dimensions of Algeria or exchange and mobility among artists.
It is envisioned through participatory methods in the hope of creating social impact in an optical consistency and sustainability by integrating activities that are open to general public with the "Do It together" spirit, home-made or recycled creations and low to zero-budget productions.

DJART also encourages the public to reclaim urban spaces that have been left behind and long abandoned by giving them a new meaning and an alternative use while exploring their historical memory and considering their current state. In this perspective, a multifaceted approach is emerging combining visual arts, architecture, performances, and research that will lead to creative workshops, discussions, exhibitions, happenings and various artistic events.

The DJART '14 program offers various activities:
- Walid Bouchouchi - graphic artist will lead a workshop on the diversion of images providing the opportunity for participants to express themselves through stickers, they will paste around the streets of Algiers. Walid, who’s also the creator of AKAKIR collective and concept from Algiers, will set his visual creations in an outdoor exhibition squatting various stairwells and buses inside the city.
- eL Seed, French-Tunisian calli-graffiti virtuoso whose frescoes adorn the walls of many countries, will meet and exchange with his young local peers and leave a trace of color in the main street of the city center.
- Architect Salim Lamari, from Algeria, will conduct an open to public workshop to redesign the Ben-Boulaid square creating street furniture using recycled materials.
- Algerian photographer Youcef Krache proposes a series of portraits of Algerian women to be screened in a place in which many Algerians pass by every day.
- Also in the series of exhibitions programmed, Tunisian artist Nicene Kossentini through her urban sound installation that lets testify five Algerians on their daily life, will guide the audience on a journey through monuments and museums which lately lost attention from the public.
- The program also includes discussions on art in public space and artistic mobility bringing together artists and cultural actors from different nations and backgrounds, such as: curator and art critic Nadira Laggoune-Aklouche (Algeria), independent curator Yasmina Reggad (a.r.i.a. - artist residency in Algiers), artist Mohamed ben Soltan (BAC center, Tunis), writer and performer Mustapha Benfodil (Algeria), visual artist Annalisa Cannito (Teatro Valle Occupato, Italy), art historian and curator Xavier de Luca (Spain/Tunis), visual artists and performer Souad Douidi (Algeria), curator Djalila Kadi-Hanifi (Algeria), Karim Ouaras  Mostaganem university professor, CEMA, Algiers), Camille de Witt (Trans-Europe Halles, Sweden/France) and Lorena Cosimi (Teatro Valle Occupato, Italy).

These will be joined and coordinated by a multitude of international organizations and associations such as the Teatro Valle Occupato (Italy), JISER Reflection Mediterrànies (Spain), Algerian association Chrysalisde and Mains d'Oeuvres from France (part of Trans Europe Halles network).

Following the traditions of festivals, music & celebrations won’t be missing in DART ’14. Two open to the public concerts are scheduled with the group Yacine Belhacene & The Oriental Groove (Barcelona), Oranian new generation of reggae-rock band Democratoz, storyteller Faycal Belattar who will perform with oud musician Labib Benslama (Algiers), and musician Hamza El Fasiki (Fez, Maroko), as part of the celebration of first Cultural Innovation Day (Cultural Innovators Network).

DJART '14 has more surprises still to discover from 6th to 15th November 2014. 

For more info visit:

Trans-Cultural Dialogues is a platform and project developed with great support of Cultural Innovators Network and Mediterranean Goethe Institutes in 2012. The team consists of partner organizations and freelance professionals: Khaled Bouzidi (TEDxCasbah, Algiers), Xavier de Luca (JISER Reflection Mediterrànies, Barcelona/Tunis), Srđan Tunić (Civil association ARTIKAL, Belgrade), Annalisa Cannito (Teatro Valle Occupato, Roma), Khaoula Bessame (Algiers), Hichem Merouche (Annaba), Slavica Ilieska (Skopje-Amsterdam), Sonja A. Linke (Berlin), Chrysanthi Koumianaki (3 137, Athens), Victor de las Heras (Generación Espontánea, Madrid), Bouchra Saab (Beirut), Malik Chaoui (SAYKA, Constantine), Nassim Hadj-benali (Algiers) i Myriam Amroun (Algiers).

Support and cooperation: Andrej Bereta (Civil association ARTIKAL, Beograd), Muhamed Ben Soltane (BAC center, Tunis), Anass Heddan (Morocco-Belgium), Nesrine Merzougui (TEDxCasbah, Algiers), Ghanes Mohamed Walid (Algiers-Paris), CIN radio, and organizations Chrysalisde (Algiers), A.R.I.A. (Algiers) i AIESEC Benak (Algiers).

Financial support and sponsors: Goethe Institut (Alexandria i Rabat), Cultural Innovators Network, North-South Center / European Commission, AnnaLindh fondation, Instituto Cervantes in Algiers, Mairie d'Alger centre, Air Algerie, Avenir Déco, LVSC Méditerranée, Arts Collaboratory, Stichting DOEN, Hivos, Ministere de la culture de Algeria, Embassy of Netherlands in Algiers, Embassy of USA in Algiers, ONDA, Agence Algérienne pour la Rayonnement Culturel, ETUSA, IFAlgérie, European Institute of the Mediterranean.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Do you know what we were doing this summer?

If you were somewhere in the Balkans this summer, we'd agree that it was... pretty unsummer-ish, to say it mildly. 
We hope that you you managed to take some creative rest and that you're ready for autumn's challenges. We are, as always.

This is what we have been doing, chronologically:
  • We were part of the organizational team of Mangelos 2014. award (Young Visual Artists Award in Serbia) together with Independent artistic association REMONT and had a lot of activities to prepare for this and for next year too. Most of it wasn't so visible, but here are the actions that were...
  • About and around curating #28 was focused towards the Mangelos award itself as means to support the contemporary art in Serbia, from it's very start till nowadays (guests Branislav Dimitrijević and Maja Ćirić, Belgrade Youth center).
  • We had a lecture for art history students at Novi Sad's Academy of art, by call from docent Dr Dijana Metlić.
  • As members of CIN (Cultural Innovators Network, Goethe Institut network in the Mediterranean) we were in Berlin.
  • About and around curating #31 was dedicated to this year's Ars Kozara: art in nature laboratory in The museum of contemporary art of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka (MSURS).
For forthcoming regional and international events we'll keep you posted. 

After almost two years of work, as co-organizers, we are announcing an art festival in Algiers, as part of biennial DJART


Afterwards, we will take part in conference in Kaunas (Lithuania) and a short edition of our academic course for students of Department of Art management of Kaunas faculty of Humanities, by call from Prof. Dr Raminta Pučėtaitė.


And yes - new challenges are on the way :)

Andrej and Srđan

About and around curating #31: Ars Kozara in The museum of contemporary art in Banja Luka

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

7th Ars Kozara 2014

As a part of our regional activities, this year's Ars Kozara was originally designed from a curatorial point of view, as a collaborative activity between the artistic and the curatorial team. However, due to various cuts, it was reduced down to its basics. Our role was just a curatorial one, taking care of the concept and production of artistic works on mountain Kozara, as part of an residency art laboratory.


This year's organizers were Nemanja Čađo (project manager), Andrej Bereta (curator of 7th Ars Kozara), Dragan Inđić (artistic production and logistics), Charlotte Whelan (curatorial associate) and Biljana Banović (coordinator of project activities).







Participants of 7th Ars Kozara were artists from Zagreb, Belgrade, Krupanj, Banja Luka, Maslovar, Užice and Prijedor: Goran ČupićAleksa GajićMiodrag JovićDavor PaponjaAleksandra KukoljacBojan Matović FliglerMelita Matović FliglerIrena MirkovićBojana RadenovićVladimir SekulićIvana ŽivkovićTanja MarićDanka Terzić and Suzana Vulović, were selected on international open call by Art association Tač.ka from Prijedor.

International cooperation: Trans Cultural Dialogues in Berlin

As participants of several independent projects from CIN (Cultural Innovators Network, Goethe Institute), we are developing activities in cooperation with several partners from the Mediterranean (Euro-Mena). A series of working meetings was organized with members of projects Artivists4Change and Trans Cultural Dialogues. As such, TCD (Trans Cultural Dialogues) platform was developed as an open space for mutual exchange of ideas and creative narratives within contemporary arts and culture. The trip to Berlin was important to enable in person work with colleagues from Italy, Greece, Algeria, Spain, Macedonia, Tunis and Germany, in order to finalize plans for an unique art multimedia set of events, similar to biennial, being held in different cities every time. The first edition is called DJART, which stands as an acronym which connects geographical location (Algiers), neighborhood concept and arts.

We are happy to announce that DJART will take place in November 2014 in Algiers, after reaching material and technical support, in the times when fundraising for these kind of international/continental cooperations in arts and culture are hard to sustain. More on DJART and TCD: http://transculturaldialogues.net/
























Foto: Hichem Merouche & Andrej Bereta