Watch Through Festival 2023 - Center for Balkan Cooperation

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WATCH THROUGH is a festival that brings together writers, peacebuilders, and activists and aims to create a synergy that can stimulate positive change in society and inspire others to act toward a better future with the perspective of European Integration. By focusing on education, literature, civic engagement, and environmental protection, it is intended to promote understanding, empathy, activism, and critical thinking, which are essential for peaceful coexistence and sustainable well-being. WATCH THROUGH festival is organized by Center for Balkan Cooperation LOJA and its partners in the frame of EU funded project Regional Network for Cultural Diversity – READ and the Civil Peace Service project – CPS, supported by BMZ – Germany.

The festival took place during the 26. – 28. April. 2023

Watch Through_Facebook event cover image

3-day program:

Wed., 26.4.23

17:30 – 18:15
Location: National Gallery, Cifte Hammam, Skopje, MK

Opening Ceremony:
Opening speeches by Regional Director of Goethe-Institute, Katrin Ostwald-Richter
Keynote speaker: Writer and president of the PEN association, Burhan Sönmez
Watching Through the Wall. A keynote speech on the impact that the “walls” nowadays have on the lives of the people, cultures, society.

The festival opened in Skopje with greeting word by Katrin Ostwald-Richter regional director of Goethe-Institut and a keynote speech by the Turkish writer Burhan Sönmez, President of PEN International. His presentation, Watching Through the Wall, was an approach on a global level to the relations between literature and freedom, and consequently civic engagement.

Wednesday 26.4.23

18:15 – 19:45

Panel discussion: Open Balkans, EU Balkans?
This panel will discuss the question of whether the project “Open Balkan” is helpful to the European integration of the Western Balkans or not.

Panelists:
Veton Surroi (writer, publisher, politician)
Sonja Biserko (diplomat, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights)
Phd. Saso Ordanoski (journalist, political analyst)
Moderation: Bujar Lumar (CBC LOJA)

The keynote speech was followed by the first panel discussion, whose approach was on regional level: Open Balkans, EU Balkans? The panellists where Sonja Biserko (Serbia), Veton Surroi (Kosovo), and Saso Ordanoski (Republic of North Macedonia), who are among the leading public intellectuals in the Balkans. It was moderated by Bujar Luma, the Director of Center LOJA. The discrepancies between this initiative and the process of European integration were precisely the cornerstone of the panellists’ presentations, each one having their own country as a starting point while the three of them converged to the regional panorama. It was especially highlighted that, while the process of European integration took place among countries with priorly shared democratic values, this is not the case of “Open Balkans”. Besides, it was stressed that “Open Balkans” has no juridical framework. The panellists were critical to “Open Balkans” as a project that, after all, adds more confusion to the perspective of EU membership of Western Balkans.

Followed by a musical performance from Perija

Thursday 27.4.23

10:00 – 12:00
Location: Hall of Faculty of Arts – House of Culture, Tetovo, MK
Panel discussion: Watch through Me: Multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue
How does respectful engagement with and appreciation of different cultures look like? What is the role of education, the role of youth and intersection with social justice in this process?

Panelists:
Ylljet Alicka (University Professor and writer)
Lidija Georgieva (Institute for Security, Defense, and Peace)
Benjamin Blänkner (former regional coordinator of Civil Peace Service for WB, Kurve Wustrow)
Moderator: Enver Abdullahu (professor, diplomat, author)

The second panel discussion, Watch Through Me: Multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue, took place the next day in Tetovo. The panellists were: Ylljet Alicka, writer and university professor from Albania; Benjamin Blaenkner, former regional coordinator of KURVE Wustrow for the Western Balkans; and Lidija Georgieva, of the Institute for Security, Defence, and Peace, Skopje. It discussed, among other topics, the role of education and of youth, and the intersection with social justice. Multicultural education, being a central issue of LOJA, stood out in this panel as crucial for the national context of North Macedonia and for the Western Balkans at large. The moderator, Professor Enver Abdulahi, with his interventions and comments, played an important role for the dynamism and pertinence of the discussion.

16:30 – 18:00
Location: Center LOJA, Tetovo
Panel discussion: Watch through Art: Literature and civic engagement
This panel will discuss the relationship between the literary or artistic activity of an author and his or her civic engagement in different contexts (totalitarian, vs. post-totalitarian, ethnic conflict vs. postconflict).

Panelists:
Filip Jovanovski (АKTO, visual artist, activist)
Doruntina Basha (writer, activist)
Seray Sahiner (writer, activist)
Moderation: Bashkim Shehu

The third panel discussion, Watch Through Art: Literature and Civic Engagement, took place the same day in the afternoon, in Tetovo, with the participation of Dori Basha, Albanian playwriter from Kosovo, and Filip Jovanovski, Macedonian visual artist and civic activist. It was moderated by the Albanian writer Bashkim Shehu, Artistic Director of the festival. The panellists spoke about their personal experience of activism through art, of how they challenged the authorities under different political circumstances.

20:00 – 22:00
Location: Paradox, Tetovo
Evening: Café Europa – an evening of literary readings, performances, discussions, and music intervals, with the public and the writers seating around the table, in an atmosphere of literary café (invited authors from TR, MK, KS, SRB, ALB, DE, USA, FR)

In the evening of this day there was an event of a special format, Café Europa. This format was created by Borderland Foundation, Poland, as a revival of the fin du siècle literary café, and adopted by LOJA for this Festival. It consists of literary readings, performances, discussions, and music intervals, with the public and the writers seating around tables with food and drinks. The invited authors read poetry in Macedonian, Albanian, German, Turkish, English, French, and Tadjik. It is a vehicle of communication aiming to bring literature closer to the public.

Friday 28.4.23

11:30 – 16:00
Location: Scardus, Popova Shapka / Kodra e Diellit, MK
Panel discussion: The Nature Watch: Environment and Cultural Transformation

A special panel focused on the crucial topic of environmental protection. It will discuss the question of the environmental challenge as a potential catalyst for cultural transformation. This will include discussions on the role of art and storytelling in promoting environmental awareness and action.

Greeting speech: Kushtrim Ahmeti (Rector of University of Tetovo)

Panelists-moderators:
Metodi Chilimanov (SharOutdoors – Adventures in Macedonia and the Balkans) Environmental campaigner
Arianit Xhaferi (Co-founder of Eco Guerrilla, eco-activist) Environmental activist
Professor Asan Idrizi (Tetovo University) Department of Ecology
Krenar Zejno, Poet and Biologist

The fourth and last panel discussion, The Nature Watch: Environment and Cultural Transformation, took place in the Shar mountain near Tetovo, at 2000 meters above the sea level. It was organized in cooperation with the University of Tetova. The panel tackeld the question of the environmental challenge as a potential catalyst for cultural transformation, which included discussions on the role of art in promoting environmental awareness and action, as well as strategies for creating more sustainable and resilient cultures in the face of environmental threats. After the opening speech by Kushtrim Ahmeti, Rector of the University of Tetova, the first panellist, Metodi Chilimanov, environmental campaigner living in Shar mountain, took the floor. He spoke about his experiences in the mountain, which is an enormous richness from the environmental point of view, and about the necessity of activism for its protection. The second panellist, Arianit Xhaferi, eco-activist from Tetovo and co-founder and ex-director of the organization “Eco Guerrilla”, gave a panorama of Tetovo, which, in terms of air pollution, has been one of the more problematic towns in the world, a situation that has improved recently due to environment protection activism. He also described and explained the strategies and actions of his organization. The third participant in this panel was Professor Asan Idrizi, who made a generalizing sum up of the issue. The last one, Krenar Zejno, Albanian poet and biologist, through a beautifully poetical reflection, provided an outline of the relations between literature and art, on the one hand, and nature and ecology, on the other.

Watch Through festival is organised by LOJA – Centre for Balkan Cooperation and its partners in the frame of EU founder project “Regional Network for Cultural Diversity – READ” and the Civil Peace Service project – CPS, supported by BMZ – Germany.

READ is an EU funded project (that aims to promote intercultural reading skills and democratic values through reading culture and the handling of supra-regional high-quality literary works) directly related to the EU-Western Balkan Flagship initiatives to support the transformation of the Western Balkan, mainly initiative 6 “to support reconciliation and good neighborly relations” and is by the Goethe-Institut as a lead partner and 5 partner organizations from the region: Center LOJA (NMK), Instituti I Librit dhe i Promocionit (Albania), Kalem Culture Association (Turkey), Krokodil (Serbia), Qendra Multimedia (Kosovo).

The CPS is BMZ (Germany) supported project implemented by Centre LOJA and K. Wustrow in partnership with Southeast European University – Tetovo, State University of Tetovo – Tetovo, Saints Cyril, and Methodius University (UKIM) – Skopje, University Goce Delcev (UGD) – Stip as well as the University St. Clement of Ohrid (UKLO) – Bitola). As of this year, CPS is expanding in the region of WB6 and has start the process of establishment of Western Balkans Academy on Peace Building and Civic Activism.