Borderline Offensive Talks

25 May 2021, online
With Ylva Svensson, Ivana Rapoš Božič, Anke Coumans, Marijana Cvetkovic, Bistra Ivanova, Despoina Syrri and Tea Vidovic
A day full of talks with academics, artists and experts from Sweden, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Greece, Croatia, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. Exchange knowledge and perspectives on the role of art and culture for social integration between newcomers, oldtimers, outsiders, and insiders.

Program:
9:00-15:00 Presentations & Case Studies,
15:30-16.30 Parallel Open Talks

Work language is English.

Online and from Göteborgs Litteraturhus
Co-creation with migrants at CZKD, Belgrade, 2018
9:00 – 15:00
9:00
9:00
Welcome by Conny Brännberg,
President of Cultural Affairs Committee at the
Västra Götaland Region
9:10
9:10
Festival Intro
Tiago Prata, Festival Manager
9:20
9:20
Panel Dialogue 1
How to bring outsiders inside? What meaningful relationships and balances of power can art and humour stimulate?
Panel dialogue on the Swedish experience with Ylva Svensson from Högskolan Väst, + Abduljabbar Alsuhili, theatre maker and former ICORN artist in Helsingborg + Ivana Šáteková, visual artist from Bratislava
10:00
10:00
Coffee Break
10:30
10:30
Panel Dialogue 2
The perils of artistic creation and collaboration within socially-engaged artistic projects: transcultural dialogue within Borderline Offensive.
Panel dialogue on the Slovak experience with Ivana Rapoš Božič, Masaryk University in Brno + Peter Kočiš, Actor & Director, Theatre Na Peróne
11:10
11:10
Panel Dialogue 3
Subverting the dominant system with art and playfulness? How do art and serious gaming disrupt different power systems?
Panel dialogue on the Dutch experience with Anke Coumans, Minerva Art Academy, Groningen + Isaak Kraft van Ermel, game developer.
11:50
11:50
Lunch Break
13:00
13:00
Panel Dialogue 4
Affective Alliances in the Arts: creating temporary and/or long-lasting communities via collaborative artistic practices.
Panel dialogue on the Serbian experience with Marijana Cvetkovic, from University of Arts in Belgrade + Darinka Pop-Mitic, visual artist + ŠKART, visual arts collective.
13:40
13:40
Panel Dialogue 5
Xenophobia without strangers? Art and humor as an alternative public discourse, and their role in understanding the migration phenomenon on low-migration locations.
Panel dialogue on the Bulgarian experience with Bistra Ivanova, Multi Kulti Collective + Gergana Dimitrova, Theatre director + Stanislava Tasheva, Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture.
14:20
14:20
Conclusion and Comments on the Borderline Offensive Method
Summary remarks with Despina Syrri, Symbiosis, Council of Europe affiliated-School of Political Studies, and Tea Vidović, Centre for Peace Studies in Zagreb.
14:50
14:50
Coffee Break
Sweden
Ylva Svensson
Researcher at University West/Högskolan Väst, Sweden. Her research focuses on identity development and social integration in various context, such a schools, neighborhoods, and countries. What makes young people feel that they belong, to what and to whom? Trying to understand the processes, she explores the factors that promotes and hinders the creation of a shared "we". Coming from an artistic background, Ylva is also interested in the role of art in identity development.
Yemen
Abduljabbar Alsuhili
Actor and cultural activist from Sana'a Yemen, using his craft for social and political change and development of performing arts scene in Yemen. As part of the Rawabiit Cultural and Media foundation, he has produced plays, stand-up comedy, radio and TV shows. Abduljabbar was the first ICORN artist-in-refuge in Helsingborg, Sweden from 2016–2018, period during which he was part of several local artistic productions and projects.
Slovakia
Ivana Satekova
Visual artist from Slovakia. In her work she deals with various topics and the language, for example folklore and folk creation appear as the greatest visual sources of inspiration.
Slovakia
Ivana Rapoš Božič
Researcher at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She specialises in the cultural sociology of migration, wanting to understand better the role of shared cultural meanings in the production of "otherness" and "closeness" in society. For her Ph.D., she studied civically engaged festivals in Central European cities organized to promote more inclusive urban environments. Besides her academic career, she cooperates with several NGOs in Slovakia that focus on migration, human rights, and urban space.


Slovakia
Peter Kocis
Actor and director in Theatre Na Peróne. Theatre Na Peróne is a professional independent theater that has been operating in Kosice since 2005. The repertoire of the theater contains authorial performances for adults and international projects with a strong author testimony of the founding members.
the Netherlands
Anke Coumans
Professor at the Minerva Art Academy, Groningen, the Netherlands.
THE NETHERLANDS
Isaak Kraft van Ermel
Game developer, filmmaker, animator, designer based in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. He runs STUDIO PUSHPLAY since 2016. Initially Isaak focused on creating trailers and other post-production oriented projects, but over time he cast a wider net ranging from motion graphics to producing an as of yet unannounced documentary series.
Serbia
Marijana Cvetkovic
Lecturer at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She has graduated in art history (Belgrade) and completed MA in management in culture and cultural policy (Belgrade and Lyon). Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the University of Arts in Belgrade (museum management and development).
Serbia
Darinka Pop-Mitic
Visual artist , lives and works in Belgrade. Attended University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences before going to the Belgrade Art School. Her works were featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the +MSUM – Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.
Serbia
SKART
Visual arts collective founded in 1990 at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. While experimenting through their work, they focus primarily between the medium of poetry and design. "Architecture of the human relationships" is their main concept.
Bulgaria
Bistra Ivanova
Chairperson of Multi Kulti Collective and Bulgarian coordinator of European website on integration. Multi Kulti Collective (MKC) is one of the leading Bulgarian not-for-profit organizations working on migrant and refugee integration, community development and human rights since 2011. It operates both on grass-root and policy level to achieve bigger impact and social change both nationally and European.
Bulgaria
Gergana Dimitrova
Theatre director, playwright, and translator. Founder of 36 Monkeys, an NGO "for contemporary alternative art and culture, and one of the creators of the "ProText" platform, devoted to research, promotion and the presentation of new plays, young writers and new aesthetics.
Bulgaria
Stanislava Tasheva
Programme Manager at Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture. Stanislava has two published poetry books – "Nie s teb razlichni" and "Dajdovnitsa". She won the national singers' contest "Hit–1". For a balance and to support of logic, reads balances as a Master of Accounting. She speaks several foreign languages – English, French and Russian.
Greece
Despina Syrri
Founder of Symβiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools. Despina Syrri served as Education Specialist at the UNICEF Refugee and Migrant response in Greece, Advisor to the Regional Cooperation Council Political department in Sarajevo and Senior Expert on the Roma Integration 2020 in Belgrade.
Croatia
Tea Vidovic
Programme Officer at the Croatian Centre for Peace Studies. Centre for Peace Studies is a non-governmental and non-profit organization promoting non-violence and social change through education, research and activism. It was founded in 1996 in Pakrac and formally registered in Zagreb the following year.
Museum of Real History at Šopa Gallery, Košice at 2019
15:30 – 16:30, Parallel Open Talks
Group Talk 1: Playing with democracy: using gamification and interactive theatre to engage young people in the combat against polarization.

Open conversation about the interactive approach in theatre to address the topics of extremism, polarization and populism through the example of the election campaign with: Zuzana Kotiková, Creative Industry Košice (Slovakia), Peter Kočiš, director of theatre Na Peróne (Slovakia) and Sytze Schalk, playwright and (social) game designer (Netherlands).

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Group Talk 2: Cultural policy and migration: how can arts & culture support integration efforts for artists and citizens in exile?

Open conversation led by Abdullah Alkafri, Ettijahat Independent Culture (Syria) + Lola Joksimovic, Center for Cultural Decontamination – CZKD (Serbia) + Serra Özhan-Hocaoglu, Tandem Cultural Exchange at MitOst e.V. (Germany)

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Group Talk 3: The politics of cultural divides: freedom of expression and mobility of creators in-between Europe and the Middle East.

Open conversation led by Saliha Yavuz, Anadolu Kultur (Turkey) + Junaid Sariedeen, Zoukak Theatre Company (Lebanon) + Sally Abu Bakr, Ramallah Municipality (Palestine)

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Group Talk 4: Serious or fun? Gamification and serious gaming as tools for social and urban development.

Open conversation with Sikko Cleveringa, CAL-XL, dutch laboratory for art and society (Netherlands) + Margarita Dorovska, Museum of Humour and Satire (Bulgaria) + Petko Dourmana, transmedia artist (Bulgaria)

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Slovakia
Zuzana Kotikova
Studied at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University in Prague. Since 2013, Zuzana has been organizing the Košice Artist in Residence program. The program was established as one of the key development projects for Košice – European Capital of Culture 2013 and since 2016 it has been operating as an independent civic association, which Zuzana founded with curator Petra Housková. In addition, Zuzana and Petra founded the Šopa Gallery in 2015. Zuzana has long-term cooperation with Creative Industry Košice, where she is involved in international projects focused on the development of the culture and creative industry.
THE NETHERLANDS
Sytze Schalk
Award winning Dutch playwright, (social) game designer and transmedia content producer. After graduating from the 'Writing in Performance' school at the Utrecht School of Arts he worked as an independent creative writer on several Dutch and international productions. He has worked at the National Theatre Studios in London and the Royal Dutch Theatre.
Slovakia
Peter Kocis
Actor and director in Theatre Na Peróne. Theatre Na Peróne is a professional independent theater that has been operating in Kosice since 2005. The repertoire of the theater contains authorial performances for adults and international projects with a strong author testimony of the founding members.
Syria
Abdullah Alkafri
Playwright, cultural activist and director at Ettijahat Independent Culture based in Syria. Today, Ettijahat conducts its work based on three primary goals: to support established and budding young artists in producing their work; to improve the general environment for Syrian cultural and artistic work; and to integrate cultural work with social change initiatives.
Serbia
Lola Joksimovic
Strategic manager at Center for Cultural Decontamination based in Serbia. She is a member of the Team Europe EU Delegation in Serbia as an independent expert for issues regarding EU integration and EU public policies.
Turkey
Serra Özhan-Hocaoglu
Project manager at Tandem at MitOst (Germany). For a decade she was co-managing of the Tandem Turkey programme, aimed at establishing long-term partnerships between cultural organisations from Turkey and the EU countries. Currently, she works at Head of Turkey Programmes at MitOst, where she supervises a follow-up programme of Tandem Turkey called "VAHA: Building Common Ground for Spaces of Public Discussion and Dialogue"
Turkey
Saliha Yavuz
Curator and representative of Anadolu Kultur (Turkey). Anadolu Kültür was founded as a not-for-profit cultural institution in 2002 when individuals from various fields of the art world, the business world and civil society came together to support the production and sharing of culture and art in cities across Turkey and abroad. Saliha is a founder of Hayy Open Space / İzmir and was co-founder of online culture and art magazine GriZine.
Lebanon
Junaid Sariedeen
Actor, director, dramaturge and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company (Lebanon). He performed in more than 15 performances in the past ten years, directed several major plays devised by Zoukak. With Zoukak, Junaid leads psychosocial interventions in different regions across Lebanon that target various communities and age groups; including drama-therapy workshops in different mediation techniques, in addition to the facilitation and creation of collective theatre performances.
Palestine
Sally Abu Bakr
Head of cultural department, Ramallah Municipality (Palestine). Sally took part in the project 'Future Heritage' which is a cooperation project between Ramallah Municipality, Palestine and Public Art Lab, Berlin in the field of visual arts, handcrafts and technology.
the Netherlands
Sikko Cleveringa
Director and owner of Community Arts Lab XL, Dutch laboratory for art and society (the Netherlands).
Bulgaria
Margarita Dorovska
Director of Museum of Humour and Satire in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. Museum organizes one of the more significant cultural events in Bulgaria, the Gabrovo Biennial of Humour and Satire, once conceived as a bridge between East and West. Held every other year since 1973, the Biennial has exhibited works by artists from all over the world for 46 years, showcasing the best achievements of humor and satire in Bulgarian and world art.
Bulgaria
Petko Dourmana
Petko Dourmana is a visual and transmedia artist and organizer of interdisciplinary projects between art and information technology. He is co-founder of the InterSpace Media Art Centre, Sofia, which is a non-commercial combination of artists, computer scientists, and media activists.

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