Art Interventions
*The Return of the Gastarbeiters*
22.7-10.8.2008
*Location: *Požarevac, Eastern Serbia**
*Media: *all media
*Organizers: * KUD "Art Klub", Kucevo
*Partners: *Serbian Ministry of Diaspora, Požarevac Cultural Center, Citizens of Europe, Berlin, Neocom, Vienna
* *
*Colloquium description: *
The subject of the colloquium is returning guest workers from Europe to Eastern Serbia and their influence on the local economy, politics, culture and environment.
It will consist of:
- 3-week field research by students of the anthropology department of the Philosophical faculty of Belgrade University
- a week long seminar that will include lecture on the history of the area and its current situation, on economical immigration and on engaged art and art in public space. During the seminar will be held an OpenFora by Citizens of Europe on the subject of Mobility as a Two-Way Road.
- a 2-week artist's workshop in which will participate 20 artists, 10 Serb and 10 international,
- 3- week exhibition in Požarevac
- Seminar and presentation in Belgrade
The artists will work and exhibit in public spaces in order to allow maximum communication with the returning immigrants and the population that stayed behind. The documentation of interviews with returning immigrants and decision makers done as part of the pre-colloquia research, students' research, the lectures given in the seminars and the artists work will be collected in catalogues and presented in Belgrade to create a reaction on a national level.
*Concept:*
The area of Eastern Serbia has had more then there fair share of migration to Europe, since it is a poor traditional agricultural areas. This economical emigration was heavily supported and encouraged at the time by the state (Yugoslavia) . Due to tradition and strong family relation people always kept in touch with their homes in the area and usually at least one family member stayed behind to take care and develop the property, with money sent from abroad.
In their host countries, they worked in low service jobs and always looked upon their stay as a temporary one even if for an extended period of time. They kept to themselves, often learning only a basic level of the host language. This phenomenon was propped upby Yugoslavia, supporting if not actually establishing a system of clubs around which the gastarbajters concentrated and sending many cultural activities to maintain and enhance the connection to the homeland. This self-segregation has contributed to their reduced status in the host community, which is also reflected in the need to use/abuse the privileged status in the home community. This position of power has revealed itself as a double-edged sword since the home
population has grown used to regard them only as a source of income rather then individuals that are a part of the community. This alienated situation has caused the next generation to reject the home community and to create an immigrant culture that is integrated neither in the host nor in the home community.
As the economical situation in Europe has grown more difficult some are now returning with the economical power, political understanding and visual experience, in order to reconstruct, interpreted in their own way the good life they have experienced in the West and combine it with the local culture, their own culture, as they perceive it. On the positive side, it proves that the culture is still alive and kept, that people come with initiative to develop something, that they have not lost contact with their culture and want to invest time and money in developing it in an economical, cultural and in political way. On the other hand, often their understanding of how the system operates in the west is very superficial and without
proper guidance, this understanding can deteriorate to corruption instead of economical development, nationalism instead of democratic political representation, and nouveau riche culture. It manifests itself in the minority (Vlah) politics especially in Negotin, Zaječar and Dušanovac where there is a movement for political separation instead of representation. On the economical level, the investments go to small import businesses which serve usually that same population itself and not to agriculture, industry or other long term investments therefore brings only temporary relief to the areas' poverty. Since these areas are considered rural areas there is no urban planning and no regulations as to construction, therefore the eclectic nouveau riche architecture in the area has became a known phenomenon. In other areas where the immigration has taken place earlier, only the older people return. When they die, the younger generation pays others to keep their land so the area becomes deserted of inhabitants. Eastern Serbia has been neglected for a long time and the area and its people suffer from many bad prejudices. Since this phenomenon has not yet become a social problem, very little attention has been given to it either by the local authorities, who for the most part profit from it or by the national ones. Therefore, there is no public debate whatsoever.
The double alienation today comes one the one hand, from many years of disintegration that resulted in an extended set of prejudices against immigrants, especially today with the hypered-up security ideology and the general reduction of jobs in Europe due to globalization. On the immigrants' side, it resulted in superficial acquaintance with the ideas and practices of the host community and therefore a deformed sense of participation. For instance the thinking that capitalism is centered around the money one make rather the ideas of initiative, mobility and access to information, keeps the education level low and encourages a nouveau riche consumer culture.
On the other hand, the lack of recognition from the home country as to the extant of the contribution made by the gastarbajters. This lack exists both on the private level i.e. the families that lived on the money sent home and on the national level, the huge amounts on cash coming into Serbia and ex-Yugoslavia all this years and especially during the war years.
It is our intention to open to public discussion the gastarbajters' grievances towards both home and host communities, and to raise awareness to the unique situation of these in-between communities.
*Conditions: *the artists will be provided with accommodations and food and will use local material. An additional sum of up to 75 Euro will be provided for materials.
* *
*For further details and registration, please contact as soon as possible:*
noa.treister@ gmail.com
+381 64 316 2558
*Art Interventions - Return of the Gastarbajters *
*Seminar *
22. 07. - 28.07. 2008, Cultural Center, Požarevac
29.7 -10.8 artists workshop
*Tuesday - 22.7.2008 - Welcome*
Participant gathering
19:00 Welcome
20:00 Dinner
*Wednesday - 23.7.2008 - History and Current Situation of Požarevac *
10:00 Project presentation
12:30 History of Požarevac
14:00 Lunch
15:30 Serb, Vlah, Roma and other cultures in the area
17:00 Culture - current situation and plans for further development
19:00 Dinner
Thursday - 24.7.2008 – Current Situation
10:00 Economy - current situation and plans for further development
12:00 leading industries
13:30 Lunch
16:00 Political situation
17:30 Urbanism
19:30 Dinner
Friday - 25.07.2008 – From the Gastarbajters (guest workers)
10:00 President of Klub Bambi
12:00 Testimonies of guest workers
13:30 Lunch
15:00 Influence of the guest workers on the economical situation in
Požarevac
16:30 Influence of the guest workers on the cultural situation in Požarevac
18:00 The situation of guest workers in Europe - Neda Maletić, State
secretary of The Serbian Ministry of Diaspora
20:00 Dinner
Saturday - 26.07.2008 – Mobility as a Two Way Road
10:00 City Tour
12:00 Citizens of Europe – First session
14:00 Lunch
15:30 Citizens of Europe – second session
17:00 Students articles – Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Belgrade
University
18:00 Students articles – Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Belgrade
University
19:00 Citizens of Europe – third session
20:30 Dinner
Sunday - 27.07.2008 - Mobility as a Two Way Road
10:00 Citizens of Europe – forth session
12:00 Citizens of Europe –fifth session
14:00 Lunch
15:00 Conceptual discussion –
Presentation of artworks' ideas and choosing public places to work in
17:30 Artists' presentations
19:30 Dinner
*Monday - 28.07.2008 – Art Interventions*
10:00 Visiting work places
12:00 artists' presentations
13:30 Lunch
15:00 artists' presentations
17:00 artists' presentations
19:00 Dinner
21:00 Party
Tuesday - 29.07.2008 – beginning of artists' workshop Sunday – 10.08.2008
– exhibition opening
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