What is “Du Monde aux Balkans†?
“Drugi Most, another bridge to the Balkans†organises cultural and civic events linked to exYugoslavia. Each year since 2000, Drugi Most puts on the “Du Monde aux Balkans†festival (created to echo the “Mostar Intercultural Festival†, Bosnia & Herzegovina). This event is the fruit years of cultural and human exchanges between organisations, artists and activists from France and ex-Yugoslavia.
Within this framework, we aim at:
- setting up times and spaces dedicated to contemporary art with particular attention to cross-disciplinarity (photography, painting, sculpture, music, theatre, dance, video, etc.)
- allowing activists to engage in debate
- maximizing exchanges between organisations, artists and projects-bearers
- heightening public awareness of various French and ex-Yugoslavian issues by focusing each edition of the festival on a specific key topic
- engage in logic of partnecreated during the events
2006 edition : self-built venues, commited collectives, cultural alternatives
In 2006, we would like to focus on artistic and civic intiatives supported by alternative cultural venues (self-built and managed venues, restored factories and other cultural alternatives).
Why ?
Because for four years, Drugi Most was involved in a project aiming at the rehabilitation of an industrial wasteland in Grenoble. Despite a long-lasting collaboration with four local associations, the municipality of Grenoble finally preferred to exclude the bigger part of the associative participation in this project. Four years were lost. Four years and a great contribution to a project we felt very strongly about, since the rehabilitation of this old industrial plant would have offered great opportunities to the associative scene and to the public.
Because our organisation is working on organising events in Grenoble in collaboration with various squats which find themselves in a difficult situation or have already been thrown out...
Because we are working since 2001 with our Mostarian partners on the rehabilitation of the former municipal cultural centre, destroyed during the war because of its location on “the front line†(the centre was only reinvested last summer by cultural organisations)...
Because we know for a fact that, in ex-Yugoslavian countries, a large number of places (like military bases) will be evacuated sooner or later. It is necessary to start thinking about a way for the population to appropriate themselves these spaces and participate in their construction.
We would like to give way to this emerging world, actually struggling for survival; to give way to the projects which took off and also to those which sank. We would like to support this will of doing things differently.
We would like to debate collectively crucial issues aroused by these many cultural initiatives: the place of art and artists in the public space, the relationship between civic and social commitment and artistic creation.
What we want to do
Our aim is to support these initiatives by giving them the opportunity to meet the public, to get to know each other and to share good practices and difficulties they met on their way.
Investing the remaining premises of the Bouchayer - Viallet plant, Grenoble The festival will take place mostly on the site of Bouchayer - Viallet. We invite you to come and create on site during the festival, to “besiege†this piece of land and to give way to your inspiration, on your own or collectively.
Highlighting artistic works created by emerging cultural venues We would like the entire artistic programming to be linked to these venues. It would be interesting to think about a presentation of the organization, the collective, the venue you will be representing in Grenoble. This could be done through the performance itself, by an oral presentation before or after the performance or by some kind of illustrated boards.
Facilitating good-practice sharing between emerging cultural venues from ex-Yugoslavia and from elsewhere
We would like to set up workshops, where everyone could discuss and learn from the others’s experience.
Drugi Most proposes a set of four questionings, which could be used as a basis for the workshops discussions.
This set may of course evolve according to your expectations and interests.
1. What kind motivation bring these places alive?
2. Fundings: between grants, volunteering and scheming... How to get along on it ? What is independance?
3. Connections with political issues: between negociation and confrontation... How to express an “active citizenship†?
4. Public: what kind of public? How to attract and to get people involved?
Organising a public debate on the issues brought up by alternative cultural venues.
Here are a few questions, ideas and issues (not sorted out and for information only).
- How do these collective spaces experience new cultural and social forms?
- Which role for art in the society? And for activist artistic creation? Which role do these venues play in the public (urban) sphere?
- How can “active citizenship†be achieved?
- Which interactions and equilibrium between the individual & the collective, between the inside & the outside, between closed & opened space, between the private & the public sphere, between the projects & the venue?
- How can we explain the fact that places with similar objectives are to be found in very different historical, local and social contexts?
Dates of the festival
The whole thing will take place in Grenoble, France, from Monday, November 13 th to Saturday, November 19 th 2006.
Participants must arrive in Grenoble at the latest on Sunday November 12 th (with the possibility to arrive earlier in case of a creation on site).
We plan to visit the candidates from ex-Yugoslavia in June or July 2006.
Host conditions

The “Du monde aux Balkans†festival is a non-commercial event: most organisers are volunteers and the entrance is let to the public’s appreciation.
Our budget being limited, we can not afford to pay the artists and activists we are inviting. Nevertheless, transport costs, visa fees, accomodation (in volunteers’s homes) and collective catering will be borne by Drugi Most.
We also organize a media coverage, which includes local and national newspapers, TV-channels and radio stations.
If you wish to take part in the festival
A full application file should include:
• The filled out application form with complete and correct information.
• Information about your technical needs for your performance.
• Presentation material (CDs, pictures, videos or any, which may allow us to appreciate your work)
If you have any doubt about any point of document, if you need help or further information, do not hesitate to contact us: drugimost@free.fr.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS MAY 31 ST, 2006.
Final selection of the participants will be made during July. Assessment criteria will be the motivation shown, the militant commitment, the artistical proposal, but also our capacity to host everyone correctly.
Where to send your form ?
From Serbia-Montenegro:
Gradjanske Inicijative Tijana Moraca (asistentkinja na programu za mlade)
Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 79 - 11 120 Beograd
SRBIA i CERNO GORE
Tel : 011/ 3808 465, 3808 500, 24 24 800
tijanam@gradjanske.org
From Eastern Europe and the Balkans: (incl. Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia)
MIFOC
Ante Starcevica, bb (OKC “Abrasevic†)
88000 Mostar
BOSNA i HERCEGOVINA
Tel : 0(0387) 61 386 432
mifoc@yahoo.com
From the rest of the world: (including Slovenia)
Drugi Most
15 rue Georges Jacquet
38000 Grenoble - FRANCE
Tel: 0(033) 438 210 515 Fax: 0(033) 476 484 985
drugimost@free.fr