 According
to the crucial needs of the project Confluent Margins, a pre-project
faze was developed, consisting of two parts: Fact Finding Mission
and Organizational Development Process. This pre project was
executed in the period March 31-th to May 31-th 2003.
Kontrapunkt has several expectations from the Fact Finding Mission:
- To
make initial introduction of the project to a wider group of NGO's,
institutions, individuals and independent groups
- To motivate for cultural dialog
- To make a final resume of the needs of certain cultural
communities
- To established a connections of trust with the potential local
partners
- To make a platform for further acting
In that purpose we planed the FF Mission in several steps:
1. Preparing the questionnaires with 16 questions
2. Preparing the questions for the direct interviews
3. Sending/receiving the answers of the questioner
5. Preparing the workshop on subject: Organized acting in a process
of cultural decentralization - area of intervention and intertwining
points
6.
Realization of the workshop with the possible future partners in
Tetovo on the SEE University (we choose SEE University deliberately,
as a good example of a decentralized place, a de-tabooed
multicultural environment, and as a challenge for the people who
were coming from the other parts of the country. From the reactions
of the participants it was definitely right chosen place)
|
|
Questionnaires were sent to 150 addresses by mail and e-mail, to
NGO's, institutions, individuals and independent groups from the
field of culture. We got back 32 filled in questionnaires (which is
quite satisfying, considering the extremely bad experiences with
polls in Macedonia). More than 20 NGO's phoned to express their
eagerness for collaboration, but did not answer the questionnaires.
At the workshop 37 representatives of cultural groups or
individuals from Tetovo, Gostivar, Skopje, Veles, Shtip, Bitola,
Prilep, Kumanovo, Struga, Kichevo and Ohrid took participation. It
was five hours intensive workshop with open discussion and working
in groups that lead to productive conclusions.
There are several parts that can be fundamental for the general
image, "painted" as a result of answers of the questioners and the
workshop as well.
They will be present as quotations:
- "Finding the mechanism for coordination of cultural activities
allover the country"
- "Sharing the resources"
- "Regular and mutual debriefing on the current activities;
distribution of information"
- "Creating an annual plan between the partners for the cultural
contents"
- "Exchange of cultural content between the cities in Macedonia"
- "Presenting of artists and initiatives from the others cities in
Skopje"
- "Support of smaller local cultural projects"
- "Transfer of working experiences"
- ”Projects as a results of partnerships"
- "Creating a network"
What is extremely important is that the participants at the workshop
agreed on the idea of fighting not only for the culture, but for
social changes as well. We also agreed on a need for joint
presentation in front of the Ministry of culture which might help us
to be noticed and supported in the future activities.
From the
answers to the questionnaire and from the workshop experience, for
the beginning of the project Kontrapunkt identified the following
groups and individuals as serious potential partners:
Center for Public and contemporary arts "Elementi" - Bitola (Biljana
Isijanin)
Youth Cultural Center - Bitola (Todor Ivanovski)
Center for Cultural Dialog "Rubljov" - Struga (Dimitrie Duracovski)
"Brezi 9" - independent publishing house - Tetovo (Fatmir Sulejmani)
Association of Visual Artists of Tetovo- Tetovo (Nehat Beqiri)
Association for democratic initiatives - Gostivar (Lulzim Haziri)
House of Culture - Debar (Semija Balanca)
Association for civil tolerance and collaboration AGTIS - Prilep
(Sonja Adamcheska)
Roma Association "DARHIA"
- Skopje (Ljatif Demir)
"OHO" - Skopje (Magdalena
Shegani)
359º
- Net of local and subaltern hermeneutics - Skopje (Nebojsha Vilic)
Negotino's Circle - Negotino (Boris Kamchev)
National Museum - Veles (Spase Perovski)
"Mediaartes" - Ohrid (Goran Todorovski)
"Roots" - magazine - Kumanovo (Dimitar Masevski)
"Alternative" - Gostivar (Reshat Ameti)
Individuals: Besa Arifi – Tetovo; Brim Seiko – Tetovo; Landsite Kari
– Tetovo; Lence Mitevska – Tetovo; Nevzat Kica – Gostivar; Ljubisha
Petrushevski – Kumanovo; Marjan Dzin – Strumica; Nikola Madzirov –
Strumica; Violeta Nicheva – Shtip; Maja Chankulovska – Skopje,
Gordana Janevska - Skopje
NGOs and individuals are
oriented towards the fulfillment of the empty space of the cultural
events in their own local community, affirmation of culture and
motivating the local authors in and out of their place of living,
making the new forms of artistic expression accessible, increasing
the public awareness, training and developing working skills in the
cultural management, development of new technologies in culture,
exchange of information and events among the towns and their
presentations in the capital city, democratization and
decentralization.
The results and reactions we received from our potential partners
and cultural activists on a local level confirmed but also broaden
our information and diagnosis about the situation regarding cultural
and social life on a local level and proved that our aims and
scheduled activities are in the right direction. We estimated that
situation regarding organizational and organized action is very
fragile and weak but that there are different kinds of fruitful
ideas and initiatives, that could flourish after crossing the first
level of successful cooperation from trustful and experienced
partner. The established dialogue was of crucial importance for us
because it showed that there is a space for fruitful exchange and
reshaping of the planned activities on equal basis, directed towards
improved fulfillment of our tasks and aims. |
