balkan black box / berlin 26.09. - 02.10.

[claudia westermann]

http://www.balkanblackbox.de/

Trash, Noise, Avantgarde, Techno from Zagreb, Sarajevo, Mostar, 
Belgrade - the other Balkans were well received in the year of the 
Kosovo war. During the NATO bombardments of Yugoslavia the Balkan 
black box team supplemented the cultural program with topical panels 
and discussions, in which sometimes more than opinions clashed. It 
became clear, that the Balkan black box network united a substantial 
amount of knowledge - knowledge about Balkans which has not appeared 
and still is absent in the stereotypical mainstream discussion.

With the balkan black box Festivals 2000 and 2001 the organisers, 
again, focussed on the other Balkan. However, some more stereotypical 
features were also included: most notably the (Roma-) Orkestar Fejad 
Sejdiç became the mascot and heart piece of last year's festival.



Nevertheless the Balkan black box festival 2002 brings a drive back 
to reality. The headliners in the music program of B4 - the 
Serbian/Montenegrin singer and guitarist Rambo Amadeus and the 
performance- and sound system Alternativa Nova from Bosnia are icons 
of the other Balkans: They have little to do with the opaque orient 
and Untza-Untza - but all the more with the actual hardships of life 
at the edge of Europe.



The literature programme from the Balkans will again be a centre 
piece of the festival. Young authors from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia 
and Herzegovina as well as Serbia will show the differences of the 
Balkan countries, but also document that, all the more, they are 
building an integrated and connected literary environment. Beside 
different forms of expression - reading, performance, discussions - 
the writers will shed light on how the desintegration of Yugoslavia 
impacted on a common cultural identity and language which connects 
artists and audiences. This issue includes the question what divides 
the people of the former Yugoslavia today - within their former 
country and here "in exile".



Another focus of balkan black box 2002 will be a large section of 
recent film productions. Besides independent low budget 
documentaries, features and short films, a few large productions from 
the former Yugoslavia will be presented. We show, among others, the 
recent Serbian box office success _"Absolute Hundred"_ of the young 
director Srdan Golubovic. For details, see our _detailed film 
program_.



One of the most important features of the black box approach are 
panels and discussions. As a supplement of the radical-subjectivist 
views, which the artists relay in their productions, panels and 
discussions are building a contentual framework which brings the 
festival guests together. Not less subjectivist than the art itself, 
topics of the discussions include the metaphorical "common language" 
(literature) and the "Balkan Saga" which has been relayed by the 
media and politics throughout the last decade (Yugoslavia - the 
avoidable war).



The special ingredient of the Balkan black box festival are 
deliberate, spontaneous and unpredictable encounters. They can take 
place at the traditional Sunday Festival-Brunch, on parties, or 
during a typical Balkanic Cafe-hopping. These opportunities have in 
the past often been the beginning of great friendships and 
co-operations.



balkan black box Berlin 2002 will not only prove once more, that the 
Balkans are different - Berlin-based Balkanians and balkanian 
Berliners will examine the transformations in the former Yugoslavia 
and their effects on identities in entirely different ways. Conscious 
of the fact that the Balkans are not hundreds or thousands of 
kilometres away but have their place right here in our city. Further 
conscious of the fact that nothing happens there without effecting 
things here. And the other way round. Or simply:


The Balkans is us.



- www.balkanblackbox.de -