Syndicate: survivours groups extremely growing in the Balkans

[zana poliakov <zana@c3.hu>]

...and here is another "belgrade contribution to the discussion on the
cultural renewal of the Balkans region and the initiatives launched by
the artists themselves." ...very closely cooperating with Zadruga
(CO-OP)...:)))

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

REMONT
independent artistic  association
Belgrade '99


Contemporary Yugoslav cultural scene is a unique phenomenon. It was
built on the grounds of various local and global experiences and
frequent breakdowns, rises and falls marked its history.

Constant changes in this region related to its geo-political position
and a peculiar mixture of various influences have brought about the
creation of a self-bred culture, with all advantages and shortcomings of
such a concept. During the past few decades, the contemporary art in
Yugoslavia did have its highlights. However, the dramatic political
events have ruined all these efforts to democratise culture and create
an elite-free and decentralised art scene. 

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of young and talented people have left the
country and here we are again at the "level zero". Deep mental
depression is just one of the consequences of the wars in former
Yugoslavia, recent NATO bombings of Serbia and Montenegro and constant
political turbulence in the region. People feel isolated from the rest
of the world and they lack the will and the strength they would need in
order to re-establish the artistic network. Such a network would enable
the evaluation of the present state of affairs and the individual
projects to become visible.

The Yugoslav regime took the opportunity of the war and the war-induced
fear to label all its opponents as non-patriotic forces. All the
institutions that have made some efforts towards connecting Yugoslavia
with the global processes were closed or taken over by the regime.

As it always happens in major crises, culture was the first to be
choked. Choked was its role to point to possible ways out of the crisis,
too. The regime banned the independent media and closed the institutions
that nurtured and supported free communication. Resulting damage is so
severe and will be hard to mend unless something is done in short time.
The weakest points of Yugoslav culture at the present moment are both
local and global communication.

A group of Yugoslav artists and art historians has concluded that the
first step to be taken should be to establish an independent
association/network. 

The situation mentioned above led towards starting the project entitled
REMONT. The term was used in countries of Eastern Europe to denote
maintenance and servicing of industrial facilities, ships, factories,
etc.

REMONT is:
- An NGO;
- An association of individuals who have and will be working on
development of cultural scene;
- A movement for revitalisation of contemporary culture devastated by
the war and internal political repression.

Aims of REMONT are to:

- Produce high-quality programmes and through them change the image of
Serbia as a conservative and stagnant place.
- Gather information on current projects and ideas and exchange the
information among the artists.
- Help the local artists to enter the global scene and to organise their
shows abroad and guest exhibitions of foreign artists in
Serbia/Yugoslavia.
- Make the local artistic scene international while preserving the local
heritage.
- Help young people to overcome xenophobia through international
exchange.
- Promote recent projects of domestic and foreign authors.
- Collaborate with authors who left the country during the 90's and
present their recent work.
- Make the artistic scene "visible" through local presentations of as
many projects as possible, to support the existing ideas and make the
ground for a competitive and dynamic scene
- Offer consulting and logistic support to individual members and their
projects.
- Organise educational courses and workshops in Yugoslavia and abroad.
- Help the inter-generation exchange between artists, especially
transferring the knowledge of elder artists to the younger ones (some of
which have never crossed the Yugoslav border).

1. Darka Radosavljevic - art historian
2. Uros Djuric - artist
3. Zana Poliakov - web designer
4. Milica Tomic - artist
5. Branko Pavic - artist 
6. Sasa Gajin - designer
7. Boris Mladenovic - artist and musician
8. Jovan Cekic - artist and art theorist
9. Mirjana Djordjevic - artist
10. Tanja Ostojic - artist
11. Sasa Markovic - artist
12. Dragan Protic - artist
13. Djordje Balmazovic - artist
14. Sasa Rakezic aka Aleksandar Zograf- cartoonist



contact adress:
Cara Dusana 228, 11080 Zemun - Belgrade, Yugoslavia
tel/fax + 381 11 618 025
mail: darka@remont.co.yu
site preview at http://www.cyberkuhinja.co.yu/remont
www.remont.co.yu...soon

------Syndicate mailinglist--------------------
 Syndicate network for media culture and media art
 information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate
 to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at>
 in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress