The unfolding “refugee crisis” in Europe demonstrates in brutal detail the consequences of Europe’s fragmentation. From Greece to Calais via Hungary and Ventimiglia, rising nationalism is causing countries to retreat from joint challenges and to remilitarise Europe’s borders. While underscoring the ineptitude of regional and national governments, the events of the last week demonstrated the breathtaking power of civil society.
“Where governments were bureaucratic, European civil society was nimble. Across the region, networks sprouted and united online and on the ground to support refugees who themselves were empowered to challenge European borders.” Said Daphne Büllesbach, a Director of European Alternatives and co-organiser of the festival. “At TRANSEUROPA, we’re mobilising the people who make this kind of change happen to move further beyond defragmentation to build a new Europe.”
“We are excited to have this lively debate in Belgrade,” adds the Ministry of Space collective, the local co-organizer of the festival, “as it is the place that vividly experiences many European policies, struggles and dilemmas, but also hypocrisies, including the refugee crisis, austerity measures, megalomaniac projects and new kinds of movements.”
The festival programme is divided into three themes: new forms of politics and movements, alternative economies and the commons. Contributors include artists, activists and leading thinkers such as philosopher Srećko Horvat, political scientist Ulrike Guérot, activist and Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, author and activist Brett Scott, theatre director Angela Richter and Guardian journalist Nabeelah Shabbir.
In collaboration with artist and activist Tania Bruguera, who serves on EA’s advisory board, the festival will highlight the interconnectedness of art and activism through the Why Artivism?performance. The performance is a transnational reenactment of Tania Bruguera’s marathon reading of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism during her detention in Cuba. Readings will take place on September 26 in Belgrade, Rome, Berlin, Lisbon, Paris and Warsaw.
With Serbia the new route of choice for so many refugees, a number of artistic performances to be held in Belgrade are particularly timely: a documentary performance on Europe’s relationship with “otherness”, a photography exhibit illustrating the crossing of EU borders’ barbed wire and a night of Syrian poetry-in-exile.
Throughout its seven year history, the festival has called upon participants to imagine, demand and enact a new Europe. Never has this call been more urgent than today: mounting crises, many self-made and re-erecting of borders such as yesterday when only those with a German, Swedish or Danish passport were allowed to enter Denmark across its southern border, show an alarming reversion to a Europe of nationalism and borders. TRANSEUROPA Festival is about the other Europe: the one that is unified and borderless and not defined by the EU.
TRANSEUROPA Festival is free and open to the public. International participants who need it may seek support for their accommodation in Belgrade.
FESTIVAL at CZKD:
>>> Wednesday (Sept. 30) <<<
– CZKD –
18:00-19:30
REGISTRATION OF PARTICIPANTS
20:00-21:30
NOT A DINNER PARTY: REFLECTIONS ON RADICAL CHANGE IN EUROPE (discussion)
with Srećko Horvat (philosopher, Croatia), Juan Luis Sánchez (journalist, Spain), Borka Pavićević (dramaturge, founder CZKD, Serbia), Jelena Vasiljević (researcher, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Serbia) and Daphne Büllesbach, Lorenzo Marsili (European Alternatives)
>>> Thursday (Oct. 1) <<<
– CZKD –
10:00-11:00
REGISTRATION OF PARTICIPANTS
11:00-13:00
OPENING CEREMONY
Jazra Khaleed (poet, Greece) and Kamerades (photo collective, Serbia)
Festival team presentation and welcome note by Iva Čukić (Ministry of Space, Serbia), Daphne Büllesbach (European Alternatives) and Ljubica Slavković (CZKD).
20:00-22:00
NIJE TO CRVENA, TO JE KRV / THIS IS NOT RED, THIS IS BLOOD by Bojan Djordjev (in collaboration with Rečotrrrč / Wordrrrrun Festival)
Performance by TkH/Walking Theory (English subtitles)
– CZKD (courtyard) –
14:30-17:30
THEMATIC CITY WALKS// BGD GENERAL TOUR & BERLIN-BELGRADE TOUR
Two simultaneous walks à 20 people
>>> Friday (Oct. 2) <<<
– CZKD –
10:00-11:30
NEW PARTIES AND NEW MEDIA (discussion)
With Juan Luis Sánchez (eldiario.es, Spain), Lorenzo Marsili (former spokesperson of European Media Freedom Initiative, European Alternatives, Italy) Adam Ramsay (openDemocracy, UK) and Dragana Obradovic (Balkan investigative reporting network, country director, Serbia)
11:30-12:00
RECETAS MUNICIPALES (film screening) 30 minute documentary
12:00-13.30
TALKING ABOUT ALTERNATIVES – MOVEMENTS TO POLITICAL PARTIES? (discussion)
with Joana Dias (Academia Cidada, Portugal), Stasa Zajovic (co-founder and coordinator of Women in Black, Serbia), Felipe Gil Gonzales (video-activist, ZEMOS 98, Spain) and Dobrica Veselinovic (Ministry of Space, Belgrade, Serbia)
14:00-17:00
NOMADIC FORTUNES (ongoing one to one performance) UnMonastery (Italy, Greece, and Spain)
14:00-17:00
VIRTUAL REALITY AND MEME CREATION (drop-in workshop) hosted by 2084 collective (France, Germany)
15:00-17:30
CONSENSUS URBANISM IN ECUMENOPOLIS (workshop) hosted by METASITU collective
19:00-22:30
MIKRO FESTIVAL OF AMATEUR FILMS
>>> Saturday (Oct. 3rd) <<<
– CZKD –
10:00-11:30
SEEKING REFUGE IN EUROPE: NEW TRANSIT ROUTES, OLD POLICIES. Beyond Dublin and FRONTEX. (discussion)
with Robert Kozma (Group484, Serbia), Sara Prestianni (Arci, Italy), Manos Moschopoulos (open society foundation, UK), Radostina Pavlova (Centre for Legal Aid, Bulgaria) and Lucile Gemähling (European Alternatives, Germany)
12:00-13:30
IN COLLABORATION WITH KIEV BIENNALE: DEFINING EUROPE FROM THE MARGINS (discussion)
with Vasyl Cherepanyn (Political Critique magazine, Ukraine), Jelisaveta Blagosevic (academic, Serbia), Niccolo Milanese (European Alternatives, France), Ségolène Pruvot (European Alternatives, France)
14:00-17:00
NOMADIC FORTUNES (one to one performance) UnMonastery (Italy, Greece, and Spain)
14:00-17:00
VIRTUAL REALITY AND MEME CREATION (drop-in workshop)hosted by 2084
15:00-17:00
SOLIDARITY MUST BECOME POLITICAL – TOWARDS A CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOR MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (workshop)
hosted by European Alternatives and ARCI
With Marc Speer (Migzsol, Hungary), Katerina Anastasiou (transform Europe, Austria), Denise Garcia Bergt (activist/journalist, Brazil), Sara Prestianni (Arci, Italy), Mussa Idris Mussa (Migzsol, Hungary), Jazra Khaleed (poet, Greece), Raffaella Bolini (Arci, Italy) and others
17:00-18:30
DITCHING THE FEAR film by Labournet.tv and film screening
19:00-23:00
MIKRO FESTIVAL OF AMATEUR FILMS
– CZKD (courtyard) –
15:30-17:30
THEMATIC CITY WALKS// BELGRADE WATERFRONT TOUR, HIDDEN ANTIFASCIST STRUGGLES IN THE HEART OF BELGRADE & PEDALLING THROUGH THE HISTORY OF NEW BELGRADE
3 simultaneous walks – for walking tours max 25 people, for bike tour max 10 people.
– CZKD (library) –
15:00-21:00
PUBLIC SPACE INTERVENTION (workshop)
exploring creative protest ideas with Franziska Dusch (Cultural Innovators Network)
>>> Sunday (Oct. 4th) <<<
– CZKD –
11:00-12:30
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE FAR-RIGHT? POLITICAL EXTREMISM IN EUROPE (discussion)
with Ian Bancroft (co-founder TransConflict, Bosnia Herzegovina), Maria Alvarou (Criminologist, Terrorism and Security Expert, Greece), Ulrike Guérot (Founder and Director of the European Democracy Lab, Germany) and Eeva Moore (European Alternatives, Germany)
12:45-13:45
LIGHTNING TALKS
14:00-15:30
TRANSEUROPA CARAVANS (film screening)
15:30-19:00
UNCONFERENCE – to pick up the pieces
19:30-20:30
CLOSING CEREMONY
Join us for the last get together of the Festival and to take home any left fragments. Afterwards we will leave together from CZKD to the closing party at boat 20/44.
All programmes are free of charge and open to public.
Check out all the details on festival website: https://transeuropafestival.eu/
