Cultural Policies as Crisis Management?

September 21-23 September 2006
Prishtina, Kosova


“Cultural Policies as Crisis Management?” is part of the ongoing work of Stacion – Stacion Center for Contemporary Arts Prishtina  focused in establishing stronger art and cultural initiatives and challenging present cultural policies as an additional process to the political negotiations for the future political status of Kosova.

This project will act as a platform for intellectuals, artists and culture producers for engaging in the ongoing political process, and promoting contemporary cultural policies as models for strengthened cooperation in West Balkan countries and Europe, with special focus on the necessity for re-creation of normal communication between culture producers and culture institutions from Kosova and Serbia that could serve as a possible positive catalyst for the mainstream society in both countries.

There is not much ambiguity in today’s role of cultural policy in the Balkans. It is almost entirely determined by the process of the so-called postwar normalization, which follows strictly the pattern of liberal multiculturalism. Now, when the political constitution of their independent nation states is coming finally to an end, the peoples of the region

are expected to reorganize all their relations, including cultural exchange, in accordance with the principles of mutual recognition and democratic tolerance. They should accept each other’s cultural differences as essential features of their national identities and never violate the right of the other to claim its cultural uniqueness and singularity. This is

believed to be the only way to achieve the ideal of peaceful coexistence in the Balkans.

However, there are also critics of this concept, who say that this is not historically new to the region. Therefore, instead of being a solution, the multiculturalist vision of cultural policy appears to be part of the problem and seems to legitimize retroactively the very cause of the nationalist wars in the nineties.

The workshop will take up the criticism of this concept and discusses other theoretical and practical approaches to the question of cultural exchange. It will place the question of cultural policies in the Kosovar context and specifically investigate the role of the artistic and cultural field within the political process.

The workshop is organized in cooperation with eipcp - European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, Vienna in the framework of translate. Beyond Culture: The Politics of Translation.


Cultural Policies as Crisis Management? is supported  by European Cultural Foundation,  Kosova Foundation for Open Society, Swiss Office Prishtina.

Beyond Culture: The Politics of Translation has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for the information contained therein.