Borka Pavićević, laureate of the 2009 Routes Award for Cultural Diversity, will be the special guest for a round-table discussion to debate the role of art in challenging populist political discourses, at De Balie (Amsterdam), Thursday January 28th.
Friso Wiersum (Programmer of debate centre TUMULT (Utrecht) is the moderator of the evening.
Dramaturg and irrepressible cultural activist, Borka Pavićević has devoted her career to art as a form of expression that can and must combat a politics of fear. In 1995 she established the Center for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD), a vital resource and independent cultural space in the heart of Belgrade. Up against the state-oppression and war-propaganda of the Milosevic-regime, the aim of the Center was to bring different performers, artists and intellectuals together to produce cultural strategies as a means to ‘decontaminate’ the Serbian society of the negative atmosphere of xenophobia, ethnic hatred and nationalism during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. Now, with the increase of populist political movements throughout Europe, the strategies of decontamination are arguably as relevant as when the Center first opened its doors.
On the panel with Borka will be among others: Manja Ristic, artist and cultural entrepreneur in Belgrade, Gal Kirn, Slovenian scholar in political science, philosophy and film, and Laurens Runderkamp, European policy maker. These contemporary artists and policy makers from both the Balkans and the Netherlands, will tackle the role and power of art in post and potential conflict areas.. The main question will be: What are the new challenges for artists and independent cultural spaces in cultural decontamination for the future?
Doors open 20.00, roundtable 20.30 - 22.00. Discussion will be held in English.