‘Art and political space in Europe’

With this round table on culture in Europe, Flanders Arts Institute and BOZAR try to understand the actual political and social context in which artists and organizations are working in Central and South-East Europe and how engaged initiatives reconnect with civil society and reinvent institutional models. Tendencies of nationalism and populism are the case all over Europe. What can we learn from each other, what are the needs of art initiatives in Central and South-East Europe and how can we work together?

In her opening keynote, Prof. Milena Dragićević Šešić (University of Arts, Belgrade) explains the role of the Independent cultural organizations in the transition of an emerging civil society in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Five organisations present their specific working context, their structure and their financing model: Albert Heta, director of Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art in Prishtina (Kosovo), Hajnalka Somogyi, director of the independent OFF-biennale Budapest, Yane Calovski from offspace Press to Exit and the network of artist-centered spaces Jadro in Skopje (Macedonia), Bige Örer, director of the Istanbul Biennial that is part of the private foundation Istanbul Foundation for Art And Culture IKSV (Turkey) and Corina Bucea and Diana Marincu of the independent en collective initiative Fabrica de Pensule in Cluj-Napoca (Romenia).