It is time to put a little bit about my work in last period. I read some books, expertise and it seems that there are lot of things going on about cultural cooperation in Europe at the moment. Cooperation, institutes, councils, festivals, foundations… The great source is European Cultural Foundation. Just go there and browse through their links and you can find a lot of things which are… hm… what to say - great!

Now I will put something about people with who I spoke with in last period. I tried to be as balanced as I can and to have really different view on cultural cooperation and mobility of ideas. I mean, the cooperation is basicly a mobility of culture, ideas, people, products and thoughts.

All the photos are made by Davor Konjikušić if not otherwise stated.

The second person I spoke with is ALEKSANDAR DRAGAŠ, journalist and writer who works in daily paper Jutarnji list. He is one of the most influential rock critics in Croatia.

Dragas thinks that culture space does not exist anymore in the region of ex Yugoslavia, if it existed at all before, and that he is a good example. He stated that he was only one time in Belgrade and that only thing for cooperating in the future would be a common market in music products. He sees mobility of products (CD’s for example), but the illegal market destroys any chance of growth in economic way. For him the concerts are only way of learning for some bands, but he is optimistic and he would advise all new bands that they sing in their own languages, since after they will have larger market.
For his generation and his friends, the culture cam from Western countries and the White Stripes are for example the most important music group in his life. Read more in my research…

Among the first music band that from Croatia went to Serbia is punk-rock group HLADNO PIVO.

I spoke with their guitar player ZOKI about how it was before and how it is now to play in some east neighborhood states. They are well known in Bosnia And Herzegovina and Serbia, and very popular in Croatia for sure. Even if a lot of people will say that now they are mainstream, they are still in some way engaged band. Zoki thinks that for them it is important that they play in Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia and that cultural exchange is developing. More about HP you can read here or watch their spot for the song “It is hard to be cool”. And I like the music spot for song “Zimmer Frei” inspired with tourism.

Some of older generations from Yugoslavia for sure will remember the singer JOSIPA LISAC. I remember that my mother listened Josipa in the car on our road to summer holidays in Pula. Before she was really popular in all former republics of Yugoslavia and here is her video of hit song “Where Danube kiss the sky” from the music festival MESAM in Belgrade. She made a lot of cooperation with singers from other ex-YU states. At the beginning of war in Croatia she recorded one song with Italian singer Guido Mineo “We’re gonna be free”. She is still active and here is a very interesting production of her song “Na na na”.

Photo with courtesy of Josipa Lisac

She played in Belgrade last year for the first time after the war. She says that there is a lot of wounds in Croatia and that Croatia is sopped with blood after the war. She said that she goes there to play for a good people and that now she only thinks about good things, but for her going to play in Serbia was not a easy decision. It was a very interesting interview and discussion after the interview.

I started this research with Serbian actor NEBOJŠA GLOGOVAC who represent the younger generation of very popular film stars in Belgrade. After one theater show last year in Zagreb Glogovac was beaten by some football hooligans, but he didn’t wanted to make a big media story of it. He thinks that you can find “morons” anywhere. You can watch a trailer for his last movie “The Trap”.

Photo with courtesy of Nebojša Glogovac
He is always for cooperation, mobility and exchange in culture, but he thinks that at this moment Serbia is more open then some other countries. He doesn’t want to people understand him wrongly and he added that he opinion can be perfectly wrong. Glogovac is a very interesting person and we spoke a lot about cultural cooperation in movie industry. I just heard a gossip that this summer he will work with famous actor Rade Serbedžija on Brijuni island in Croatia.

The first expert I spoke with is SANJIN DRAGOJEVIĆ. He is a professor at Faculty for Political Sciences at University in Zagreb. He is a great knowledge in cultural politics and mass media problematic.

I spoke with Mr. Dragojevic for almost four hours and it was really intense and good conversation. On the science level he explained what is the cultural space (he use other term like cultural exchange) and what is the inter-cultural dialogue. We also spoke a lot about mobility of culture in wide sense as well.

The first Croatian movie maker I spoke with is VINKO BREŠAN. This movie director and his movie “How The War Started On My Island” is the first blockbuster of new Croatian cinematography.

bresan is the one of the first Croatian directors who invited one Serbian actor Mirjana Karanović (maybe you know her from the movie “Grbavica”) to have a role in his awarded movie “Witnesses” in which he used a dramatic story from the war period in Croatia. The movie was critised by some war veterans organizations and some politicians. You can watch or download a trailer from this movie here. We spoke mostly about what cultural cooperation and mobility of actors in the region means for movie industry and Croatian cinematography.

I spoke also with young journalist NATAŠA BODROŽIĆ about mobility in underground queer culture. Sorry still no photo. She put some really interesting questions and parallels about wide range of minority cultures in Croatia.

Probably most of the people in the region know who is ARSEN DEDIĆ. He is a bard of Croatian shanson, writer, poet - artist in one word. He represented some kind of superstar (let’s use this term only once) in cultural space of Yugoslavia. His son, Matija Dedić, is for example at top ten music list of B-92 in Belgrade for at a moment.

Photo credit from Zappan @ www.muzika.hr
I spoke with Arsen mostly about the times before wars in ex-Yugoslavia, the role of politics in culture, his new concerts in Bosnia and Serbia, exchange of ideas with his friends who now live outside Croatia. His enormous career and life experience would hardly be published in only one book. He gave me his new book and that was really nice from him. And those who like to listen Arsen can watch his music spot “Amigo”.

The movie director RAJKO GRLIĆ from Zagreb left Croatia at the beging of war in Croatia. At the moment he is a professor at Ohio University in United States. He is a founder of Motovun-film-festival.
Photo with courtesy of Rajko Grlić
His last movie “Karaula” (karaula_trailer_01.wmv) is made in co-production with almost all states of former Yugoslavia including Slovenia. For him it is a good example how to make a budget on regional level. So we spoke about his movie, mobility in producing it and off course some other things that you are going to see in the final research.

Professor VJERAN KATUNARIĆ is a sociologist of culture at Philosophy Faculty in Zagreb. He is also an expert of Council Of Europe for culutural politics and among other things author of the expertise “Croatia In 21st Century- Cultural Development Strategy”.

Mr.Katunaric that Croatia don’t have any cultural politics at the moment. He spoke about a lot of obstacles in cultural cooperation.

SNJEŽANA BANOVIĆ is a theater director and professor at Art Academy in Zagreb. She was a theater director in Croatian National Theater, but she was fired in 2002. year, after she initiated the first visit of this theater to Belgrade after the war.

Ms. Banović is pretty much pesimistic about future of cultural mobility and cooperation in this region. She thinks that most important state cultural institutions will not break the barriers. Insted of them the alternative culture scene is doing that job and they do not disturb anyone cause they are not big institutions with big budgets.

ZVONKO MAKOVIĆ is a president of Croatian P.E.N. center, poet, publicist and university professor.

Makovic thinks that today Croatia, Bosnia And Herzegovina and Serbia are independent states and that they do not have any problems in cultural exchange. He thinks that Croatian culture is not anti-Balkan. Croatian culture is not build on anti concept. It would meanthat we do not have our own resources, he added in our talk. Makovic thinks that new generations needs more space.

SABINA SABOLOVIĆ comes from WHW collective in Zagreb and she is also a custos in Gallery Nova.

WHW team
Sabina thinks that things are slovely changing in Croatia, but she pointed on lack of system culture exchange. She thinks that non institutional culture usually do not representing the national culture, so for example artist in modern art can cooperate, share and work together easily.

KRUNO LOKOTAR is a editor at one of the biggest publishers in Croatia - Algoritam. He thinks that there is a lot of problems for exporting and importing books. We spoke a lot on financial aspect of cultural products and the role of literature in reconciliation proceses.

VITOMIRA LONČAR is a well known Croatian actor. She is a director of MALA SCENA theater in Zagreb.

Photo By Martina Cvek
She thinks that cultural space in ex-Yugoslavia never existed, only some cooperation specially in the filed of movie and theater. At the begining of war in Croatia she founded “Croatian Art Force”. She thinks that artist had a big role in building independent Croatia and after the war she never went to Belgrade. When the war started she expected that someone from coleagues from Serbia just call to see how she and others are. But no one never called. Ms. Loncar addes that Croatia needs to build its own cultural space and only conect with others at some specific projects.

During the period of arraging the meeting in ARTE television I had a serious problem in communication with them. I realized that they do not speak English, just French and German. Then I thought, maybe I can try to call their office in Baden Baden, maybe the Germans want or know to speak English. After I finally explained to the secretary what do I want on my prehistoric Deutsch, she connected my line with anonymous guy. Just see the conversation, I will mark him with X, I will be D.

X: What do you want?
D: Hello. I’m doing a research about mobility in culture for Balkan Fellowship… bla …bla… so it would be for me very interesting to speak with someone from ARTE about how can the media like your company can help in cultural exchange, building tolerance and prevent conflict. Especially because France and Germany had a long history of wars, like we had recently in the ex-Yugoslavia.
X: Ok, but you need to learn German if you go to Germany.
D: I’m so sorry that I do not speak German, maybe I will learn it.
X: Ok, but you need to learn French if you go to France. French and German are our company languages. You can not do much if you don’t speak any of them.
D: But, maybe someone speaks English.
X: Learn German.
D: Ok but do you learn Croatian when you go to our coast during summer?
X: No, I speak English.
D: You see? The same is with me.
X: What do you want?
D: Just if you can give me some contacts in Strasbourg.
X: it is a French rule that we do not give contact from our employees.
D: So what I can do now?
X: Send an e-mail.
D: On what address?
X: And you need to learn French.
D: Come on don’t be so euro - centric.
X: What do you want?!!! You want to say “*uck you” to me?
D: No. But I do think that in CNN they behave more better than you.
X: Go there, go there!!! This Europe man…!!! (he started to scream and I couldn’t understand what he said later)
D: Forget it. Goodbye.

At the end off course I arranged the meeting in ARTE and I will be there on 6th July and the person I communicate now is really kind and helpful. But this kind of talks was, what to say, crazy and stupid. But it could be used for some TV novel, since it can be funny, but it is not, cause it is true. Who knows maybe I spoke with someone from The Balkans

And really, come on Davor, you could learn that German. I tried in high school with Franch, but I was horrible.

MESSSAGE 1: Hei, Olen lomalla 17.7. asti. Vastaan viestiisi palattuani. Mikäli asialla on kiire, ota yhteyttä osoitteeseen…

MESSAGE 2: Jeg er først på kontoret igen onsdag 1.august. God sommer. I’m out of the office…

MESSAGE 3: It sounds very interesting, but unfortunately will I be on holiday the days you are in Denmark…

I’m going to be really fed up with a lot of answers like from the messages above and really I’m starting to be anxious about my travel to Nordic countries. Is there going to be anyone in Stockholm for example, or I’m going to speak with a lot of backpackers about how they see Sweden from US perspective

At the same time I maybe succeeded to find some place for accommodation in Stockholm, at gallery of one artist from the Balkans, but I will probably need to pay for other sleeping places. And prices are hell expensive up there. The dormitory room in hostel costs about 30 € and traveling around is pretty much expensive. For sure I do know that I will spent some time in Stockholm, then probably move to Helsinki, maybe Tallinn if I arrange some meetings there and after that in Copenhagen, from where I have a flight back.

I just do hope that everything is going to be all right.

Davor

Finally, I had some time to prepare the photos from Vienna made with my other photo camera. Maybe you will enjoy or not, but please do not complain about how you look on the pictures… I gave the best! Keep that in mind

If you are just too curious to find out more about what I have done and photographed in Vienna you can go at my photo blog Obojeni and just in the categories click on Vienna.

Write to you soon, it is almost 2 am. I need to sleep a little bit.

Davor

Do you remember the Franz Fischler, former
EU-Commissioner for Agriculture?

Our official photographer caught behind the wall…
He was sneaking all the time.

Eleonora, Jasmina, Veronika And Anna listening
carefully what their colleague Sokol is talking about.

And Bogdan was really focused all the time…

Bojana was worried about alga problems in Adriatic

Our dear organizer and mentor Anna sometimes drinks
a lot of mineral water.

Fellows at the editorial briefing in Der Standard. We
asked them some really hard questions. And I really
enjoyed there, in the real journalist daily production
rush space…

The editor of interior politics pages. He has the best
outfit in Vienna for sure…

Mr. Gerfried Sperl, the editor in chief is speaking…

Aleksandra Foderl Schmid from Der Standard is thinking
how to answer at our hard questions…

Just the details from the table of editor of interior
politics…

Another detail from one office in Der Standard.

Don’t trust to this sticker. Altin is waiting to punch me
with the door

Veronika, Eleonora, Milorad, Anna, Jasmina and
Polina in Vienna Institute for International Economic
Studies.

Mr. Vladimir Gligorov is explaining the transition process
in the states of South - East Europe

Milorad and Jasmina are chatting how to help their
colleague who had serious dentist problems.

Over the past three weeks of my research, I have send out over 80 mails to friends, experts, organisations and institutions that are in any way related with my topic. My fingers are sore from typing, but my enthusiasm is affected by the number of replays, which reaches 20, mostly from friends or pre – recommended persons. It looks like people are either uncooperative, or busy or, the most frequent excuse – on vacation.

Yes, true, it is summer, it is hot and the beach is a more preferred destination then the office, but criminals work even in the summer time, people travel illegally and get trafficked even under the burning UV 9 factor.

I was really surprised when I wrote a prominent German State institution and I got the answer that: 1. They are not covering the area I am interested in (OK, I must have gone astray); 2. If I want a statement anyway, it would be difficult to meet with their representatives, since in July people are usually on vacation.(?!)

Wait, Germans take vacations??

I thought it was only down at the Balkans that all institutions have a moratorium on work during the summer… Well, well, it seems that instead of bringing European habits to the Balkans, we are exporting Balkan habits to Europe.

Or, maybe we just have completely wrong perceptions of the West?