This conference is part of a project that deals with the performing arts scenes in the two former Yugoslav countries (Serbia and Macedonia). Two following events are being organised as part of the project; first event held in Novi Sad in the form of symposium with Serbian Performing artists, theoreticians, researchers in the field who come from abroad, as well as participants (still) living and working in Serbia (Kanjiza, Subotica, Belgrade, Novi Sad) and second event in a form of conference held in Skopje (Youth Cultural Centre) that gathers participants - PhDs in theatre, philosophy and cultural science, МАs in management in culture and cultural policy, choreographers, dancers, programmers of contemporary dance educational programmes, theatre producers and directors from Macedonia, Serbia and Germany. The project is developed and organized by Per.Art and Hannah Marquardt (active cultural manager from of Robert Bosch Foundation programme) in Novi Sad, Goethe-Institute-Belgrade, Lokomotiva - Skopje and Ksenija Chochkova (alumna of the programme for cultural managers of the Robert Bosch Foundation) in Skopje.

The conference in Skopje is conceptualised by Biljana Tanurovska – Kjulavkovski and Iskra Sukarova from Lokomotiva – Skopje. The conference is organized by Lokomotiva – Skopje in cooperation with Ksenija Chochkova. The realization of this conference is financially supported by the Goethe Institute and the Robert Bosch Foundation (Serbia), Association - Society for Macedonian-German friendship and cooperation, Skopje (Macedonia) and it is realized with a friendly support of the Goethe Institute, Liaison Office in Skopje.

The project deals with cultural policy and its effect on working conditions, needs, existing potentials, funding structures, and its effect on (forced or voluntary) mobility of performing artists, and vice versa, with the effect of this specific type of (forced) mobility on the local scene.

In the past years in Macedonia small initiatives developed that struggle (and succeed) to build an independent, yet very small contemporary performing arts scene. Although still some Macedonian artists have left to work abroad, new structures and possibilities have arisen and the local scene have shaped strong relations with similar scenes in the countries in the region and furthermore in Europe. Lokomotiva from Skopje has established a contemporary dance and performance festival LocoMotion, the regional project Nomad Dance Academy, and different collaborative projects within the Balkan region as with Western European countries. There have been organized different trainings and collaborations by organizations such as Media Artes from Ohrid, CDU T-House from Skopje, and different independent theatres, dance projects were produced; two academies for dance have been established: The first one is the State academy for Dance Pedagogy as part of Faculty of Music at the State University St. “Cyril and Methodius”, and the other is Academy for dancers within the private University of Audiovisual Arts - European Film Academy ESRA .
All and not only these have been developed in Macedonia in the past 10 years, and still those changes do not affect the holistic scene development. Many system changes are still needed and should be done as part of the cultural policy for performing arts that in this moment is very much oriented towards conservative and mainstream theatre. Links and collaboration between the independent, contemporary scene and the mainstream scene do not exist, not even in the frame of capacity exchanges.
On the conference in Skopje, the working conditions, constraints, concerns of the scene would be discussed in relation to national, local cultural policy and the effect on mobility of artists – across actual state-borders, but also across institutionalized borders that occur in one single city and art-form. We would like to open discussion by including artists, theorists, choreographers, directors, academics in the field, but also responsible from the ministries, cultural institutions and NGOs. Also, as the project is funded by Goethe-Institute and Robert Bosch Stiftung (Serbia) and Association - Society for Macedonian-German friendship and cooperation Skopje (Macedonia), we are relating it to the German scene/artists living in Germany. Every event bears the opportunity for networking between actors in Germany and among actors from the three countries as well. 

The overall conference programme can be downloaded here.
The short biographies of the participants of the conference you can download here.

Види ИЗВЕШТАЈ See REPORT