Panel: Europe through the eyes of Balkan urban artists

Balkan Traffic Festival

Much has been said in recent years on the need for new visions on Europe as a common project for the future, a discourse that has been even more accentuated after Brexit and political developments in Central-Eastern Europe. The purpose of this debate is to show yet another Europe, where reality is shaped by other centers of influence and visions on past and future. The idea is to initiate an open dialogue between East and West and give a space for viewpoints from Europe that might seem far away to many Belgians and Western Europeans. What vision on the European project do artists’ citizens from the Balkans have? What stories about Europe, as a political project but also as a cultural common history, can be told from this side of the continent? How can these be integrated into a common future? Taking as a starting point the work of three urban performers, as spokespersons from their cities, the panel will feature Frenkie (BiH), Marcelo (Serbia) & 12 0S Phytikos (Greece) in dialogue with Genoveva Ruiz-Calavera from DG NEAR D – Western Balkans (Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission). Rozita Dimova from Ghent University will moderate the debate.