The results of the Photo Message Training Course you can see at the Exhibition “Transparent Walls 2010”
Sunday, October 31st, Becej, City Theater Creative Center 17.00 – 19.00
Day Two – New Perceptions
Posted: October 26, 2010 in UncategorizedInspirational intercultural evening resulted with some of our new friends being a little bit lagged this morning. We went to the working room carrying hopes in great results of program planned for today’s working sessions, and our two new facilitators, Ana and Nikoleta.
Program for the day was successfully fulfilled and we gathered new perceptions on poverty as a global issue through a valuable taught which our facilitators shared with us, but also those we shared amongst the team.
Our assignment, to bring photos of poverty in our countries raised up some valuable exchange of opinions when it comes to different views on poverty and how the art can be used as a tool of its reduction. Diversity of our group proved to be valuable contribution to reach an aim of understanding different concepts and perceptions of poverty.
Free time for health activities…
And finally, free night is on to enjoy hospitality of local bars and blow some steam of…
Mladen
Interviews about first impressions
Jovan, tell us what do you expect from the night out in Becej?
I expect to listen good music in a pub. I was already in a pub, it is not a new experience to me-and I liked it, people are friendly.
What new did you learn in these two days?
Meeting new culture, I learned that Italy is very similar to Serbia, that Northern Ireland is much richer than I thought. I learned that Poland has great vodka and that there is exactly 15 000 000 people living in Istanbul. I would love to live in Italy because we have similar mentality.
Jovan, Serbia
Sima, how are you going to spend your free evening in Becej?
I will just check my email and rest. I don’t want to go out but next time I will be a party girl.
And than out of blue, Sima shared a valuable information with us: Italian mothers are like Turkish mothers – they are always controlling their sons, you know.
Sima, Turkey
We had a very interesting conversation with Utku. This is his very first international project and he is very interested to develop similar projects in turkey. We say-go for it Utku!
How do you find Becej?
Becej is like a middle European city, because you know it has houses with two floors and very regular streets, corners, trees. It is different than Belgrade but it reminds me of old town in Lausanne. Here is more traditional comparing to Novi Sad. Also I don’t know Novi Sad but I can imagine Novi Sad and I think it reminds of Belgrade. We will ask Utku again to compare Novi Sad and Belgrade since on friday we are having an excursion to Novi Sad. I think he will be surpised 🙂
What message do you have for people in Serbia?
As a Turkish I can say that Serbian people are the same as Turkish people. I believe that we are the same nation and why do we have two countries!? People in Belgrade are more smiling than in other Balkan countries.
Utku, Turkey
and than finally the crucial question to Sati at 22:40h :
Sati, are we going out?
-Yes!!!!!
🙂
Yours Photo Message Team
Day One – First Impressions
Posted: October 26, 2010 in UncategorizedTired/ long trips (the longest 24 hours)/ getting to know each other/ getting involved into the local community/ trading goods (boiled eggs) with Becej locals (and as we are smart people we managed to get beer instead of it J). Bar/cheap drinks/good music selected by us. First contact with Rakia for some of us.
We experienced the hospitality of the locals, especially the bartender of ‘‘Debeli zmaj’’(Fat dragon) who supported us until late at night.
Monday morning: HANGOVER!!!! Everything started slowly, very slowly, we were all late at the library, but then we started our successful and promising journey, into photo message.
After writing down our expectations and fears Ceca presented the miracle ‘mission impossible’. And to sum up we can say: we did it! We solved the tasks from interviewing the locals to preparing a traditional dish and the other tasks we can’t be bothered to write down now.
Then the theoretical part started: poverty, definition of it which leaded us into group discussions about poverty in our own countries.
After this Ksenija continued introducing us into Youth Voice Methodology, following then with our interpretations about some pictures that expressed poverty in different ways.
We got too much involved into personal opinions, for instance how to replace the plastic bags into cloth ones, as a very ecologist and practical solution for our environment.
Our intensive working day ended up with the intercultural evening, where some of the participants presented their own country in their own unique and funny way. Ami and Daniel from Hungary had prepared for us very delicious cookies, Sima and Utku brought from Turkey some songs of the famous singer Tarkan and Yeni Raki, Marcin and Piotr put the funniest video about Poland, served us with the best Polish vodka and showed us how to dance their traditional dance, then our Bosnian fellow Mladen presented to us the different styles that people jump from the bridges and lastly the quiz of the Italian guys Francesco and Germano prepared the party mood for the next hours.
Now we’re closing it, as we want to join the others… Zivjeli!
P.S. Marcin is licking us all over… 😛
Manila, Karina and Jovan
10 things
Posted: October 21, 2010 in Uncategorized10 things you must know/bring before coming to the Photo Message training in Serbia
1. Bring your camera and if possible a lap top!
2. Think about poverty issue in your country, local stories, statistics and take pictures!
3. Bring something from your country for the intercultural evening (national drink, food, music, dance, video etc.)
4. Be prepared to present your organization and make partnerships on the seminar
5. Coming in October? Don’t let the weather supprise you!Bring an umbrella!
6. Bečej is not the same city as Novi Bečej!
7. You will be sharing rooms!
8. Remember to register in the country within 24 hours
9. Save your money = keep original tickets with you
10. Bring your creative and thinking hats for the fallow up 🙂
Finding your way in Serbia
Posted: October 16, 2010 in Photo MessageTags: famous people, finding way, money, phrases, Serbia, tradition
Just some stuff you may wanna know before setting your sails for Serbia.
Naive art in Kovačica
Money
Banknotes: 5000, 1000, 200, 100, 50, 20 and 10 Dinars
Coins: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 Dinars
EXCHANGE RATE: 1 EURO ≈ 106 Dinars 10 EURO ≈ 1060Dinars
You can change money at any of hundreds of MENJAČNICA (exchange offices) in Serbia.
Average prices
Prices in cafes:
Coffee – 0.9 EURO
Juice – 0.8 – 1.2 EURO
Prices in pizzeria:
Pizza – 4 – 10 EURO
Spaghetti – 4- 8 EURO
Prices in restaurants:
Average meal – 10 EURO
Key Phrases
Hello Zdravo
Good morning Dobro jutro
Good afternoon Dobar dan
Good evening Dobro veče
Good night Laku noć
Good bye (formal) Do viđenja
Good bye (informal) Zdravo
How are you? (informal) Kako si?
I’m fine Dobro
Thank you Hvala
I don’t understand Ne razumem
Excuse me Izvinite
Traditions
Slava
Of all Slavs and Orthodox Christians, only Serbs have the custom of slava. Slava is celebration of a saint; unlike most customs that are common for the whole people, each family separately celebrates its own saint (of course, there is a lot of overlap) who is considered its protector. A slava is inherited, mostly, though not exclusively from father to son (if a family has no son and a daughter stays in parental house and her husband moves in, hers, not his, slava is celebrated).
Kolo
The traditional dance is a circle dance called kolo, which is common among Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Macedonians. It is a collective dance, where a group of people (usually several dozen, at the very least three) hold each other by the hands or around the waist dancing, forming a circle (hence the name), semicircle or spiral. It is called Oro in Montenegro. Similar circle dances also exist in other cultures of the region.
Gusle
During Ottoman rule, Serbs were forbidden to own property, to learn to read and write and denied the use of musical instruments. Church music had to be performed in private. Gusle, a one-stringed instrument, was invented by Serbian peasants during this time in an effort to find a loophole through the stringent Ottoman laws. Filip Višnjić was a particularly notable guslar (gusle player)
Famous Serbs:
Nikola Tesla (Inventor, Physicist)
Mileva Marić Einstein (Mathematician)
Charles Simic (Poet)
Emir Kusturica (director/editor/producer/actor/writer)
Marina Abramovic (artist)
Novak Djokovic (Tennis)
Dejan Stanković (Football)
Task For The Training
Posted: October 10, 2010 in Uncategorized
Dear Participants,
I would like to ask you for a little favor, or, if you wish, give you an assignment before you come to Becej. I would like you to photograph images of poverty in your own environment. Please don’t look for them too far – I’m sure there are images that could fit the subject and you pass by them every day on your way home. It should be your idea of poverty. So, please, make some photographs, make a selection and bring them to Becej. Don’t choose more than five. We’ll talk about them the first day!
Thank you, looking forward to meet you in Becej.
Ana Adamovic
Training Team Empowerment
Posted: October 9, 2010 in UncategorizedNew member of our training team is Nikoleta Markovic, artist experienced in participative photography.
Nikoleta Markovic completed the post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 2004. Since 1999 she participated in numerous exhibitions, conferences and workshops in country and abroad. Her works investigate the position of the artist in contemporary society, reflecting all the political drama between the individual and society. Her interests are placed in the liminal space between contemporary art and potentially new audience and authors, thus testing all the complex inter-relations underlying this exchange. Recent activities revolve around concerns for development of workshop as a model of participative, non-hierarchical art education and realization of workshop praxis as the work of art. She is the author of several art works in public space (www.elevatorart.info).
Photo message training seminar will be in the hands of Ceca, Ana and Ksenija three experienced experts in youth work, poverty and social change projects, and photography.
Svetlana Kijevcanin – Ceca
She has served as program director of the World Learning/SIT Study Abroad/Princeton Bridge Year Program in Serbia since February 2009. Kijevcanin was born in Belgrade, Serbia and graduated from Belgrade University with a degree in psychology. Prior to joining World Learning, she managed the Bachelor of Education in Community Youth Work program for the Swedish NGO, Forum Syd Balkans Programme, where she also taught a course in conflict transformation and creative techniques in community youth work.
As Yugoslavia began its disintegration in the early 1990s, Kijevcanin embarked on peace activities with both local and international NGOs, including CARE International and the United Methodist Committee on Relief. She is one of the co-founders of Group MOST (“Bridge”): Association for Cooperation and Mediation. During the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, including during the NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, Kijevcanin continued her peace work, conducting trainings with youth, refugees, psychologists, teachers, and NGO activists throughout the Balkans. She has created media, including a television series on conflict, documentary films on peace studies, and picture books for youth, to explore the potential for conflict transformation and to connect people across national and ethnic lines. Kijevcanin uses theater-in-education methodology for building tolerance and understanding among youth.
In 2008 Kijevcanin completed a distance-learning course through the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy in New York. Kijevcanin was named a University of San Diego, Institute for Peace and Justice, Woman PeaceMaker in 2006. From 1992 to 2000 she was a researcher and teaching assistant in the psychology department at the University of Belgrade.
Ana Adamovic
She graduated at the department for the World Literature at the Belgrade University and studied photography at the Art Institute of Boston.
She is a founder of Belgrade based KIOSK Platform for Contemporary Art (www.kioskngo.org).
Lives and works in Belgrade.
Selected One-person exhibitions:
2007 – BALKAN SOUVENIRS, Artget gallery, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade, Serbia
2007 – MADELEINE, Zvono Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia
2006 – DAS IST KUNST, O3ONE gallery, Belgrade, Serbia
2005 – WITHOUT BORDERS, Galerie ArtPoint, Wien, Austria
2004 – METRO, gallery Dom Omladine, Belgrade, Serbia
Selected group exhibitions:
2009 – VALUE POINT, Siemens ArtLab 2009 Hosted by Hilger Contemporary, Wien, Austria
2009 – LAND OF PROMISES, Galerie ArtPoint, Wien, Austria
2008 – ARTIST-CITIZEN, 49th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
2006 – Art, Life and Confusion, 47th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
2005 – I CAN’T REMEMBER MY OWN DREAMS, KunstPavillion, Innsbruck, Austria
Ksenija Milić
A youth worker that holds a Bachelor degree of Science with a major in Education awarded by Jonkoping University, School of Education and Communication-Sweden and degree in Communicology/Community Youth Work awarded by Braca Karic University, Serbia.
She has been a member of Young Researchers of Serbia-Voluntary Service of Serbia since 2003, where she was mostly involved in organizing and leading international work camps dealing with environmental issues.
Since 2007-2009, she was involved on The Balkans Youth and Health Project, that was established in Serbia by the Canadian International Developmental Agency (CIDA), Canadian Society For International Health and Ministry of Health of Republic of Serbia. During that period she gained a certificate of trainer for usage of the “Youth Participation, Youth Friendly Approach and Youth Voices Methodology Toolkit”.
Milic also holds certificate for Facilitators in non-formal education with young people in the field of social inclusion by Council of Europe.
The last two years she was part of the consultative process of establishing a National Association of Practitioners in Youth Work in Serbia-NAPOR.
Today she is very active on international and local level, cooperating with ONO-Omladinska Nevladina Organizacija, Centre for Youth Work and many others.
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