News

First Eastern Partnership Culture Congress to take place 21-23 October 2011 in Lublin

12 September 2011

The Eastern Partnership Culture Congress will be the first event of its kind devoted to cultural cooperation for Eastern Partnership countries, offering their representatives a possibility of participation and a long-term action perspective. The Congress will become a platform for idea exchange, a place where you can develop tools to support effective cooperation and establish a common representative group at European level. Congress objectives: • to establish a platform “cultures for changes” based on: congresses held every two years, think-tank and work group activity; to issue publications, to organise summer schools and other partnership events, • to establish Eastern Partnership as a cultural product, • to develop a long-term cooperation with Eastern Partnership neighbouring countries: European Union, Russia, Turkey and many others, • to engage culture in social change, • to elaborate organisation and financial tools for common ideas and arrangements. Artists, people connected with culture, representatives of non-governmental organisations and local authorities, mainly from Eastern Partnership and EU countries, also from Russia and other European countries will take part in the Congress. Work within the Congress will be focused on five themes: culture facing independence, culture facing education, culture facing co-existence, culture facing development, culture facing organisation. Those themes will be elaborated during the two-day cycles of Myslarnias (discussion sessions) and Maisternias (workshop sessions), and summed up by Congress Recommendations. The Programme Council consists of prominent individuals from Eastern Partnership and EU countries: Krzysztof Czyżewski (Poland) - the head of Programme Council and Vahram Aghasyan (Armenia), Oleksandr Butsenko (Ukraine), Andrei Chadanowicz (Belarus), Milena Dragićević – Šešić (Serbia), Tarlan Gorchu (Azerbaijan), Witek Hebanowski (Poland), Basil Kerski (Germany), Levan Lagidze (Georgia), Monika Szewczyk (Poland), Larisa Turea (Moldova). The Eastern Partnership Culture Congress, held in Lublin between 21-23 October, will be run by Lublin City Office and Foundation Trans Culture, co-financed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in cooperation with the Centre for Culture in Lublin, the city of Lviv and Tbilisi, Polish Institute in Kiev, Polish Institute in Minsk and Polish Institute in Bucharest and Borderland Foundation in Sejny. The Congress is a part of a wider project entitled “Eastern partnership as a cultural product”. The underlying assumption is that the Eastern Partnership initiative should be built as a cultural product, not being limited to the “coal and steel” perspective. This comes from the conviction that culture should be perceived from a wider perspective, as a factor connecting European identity, “soft power” giving a chance for EU to affect neighbouring countries. In a time of a current multicultural European society crisis, a question to pose is: is Europe able to run a neighbourhood partnership project which does not neglect culture, making a nation a state domain out of it. In the organiser’s opinion, the European Union should find a place for cultural and social initiatives in its long-term strategy of neighbourhood partnership establishment. Participation in the Congress is free of charge. All parties interested in participating in the conference are asked to confirm their attendance only through applications available here. CONTEST “CULTURE ABOVE BOARDERS” There is a contest for the best Eastern Partnership projects and cultural initiatives “CULTURE ABOVE BORDERS” organised within the Congress. The main idea of the contest is to promote examples of cooperation beyond boundaries. The competition is designed for all “creative units” without any legal limitations, for cultural institutions, non-government institutions, informal artistic groups, individuals, local authorities, business entities running artistic activity, both from EU and Eastern Partnership countries. The idea of openness, equality and availability to all, regardless of the types of activity, country or scope of activity and status of the entity entering the competition constitute the underlying assumptions of the Congress. Detailed information about the contest and Eastern Partnership Culture Congress can be found on the project website: www.kongres.lublin.eu, or email: kongres@lublin.eu.