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Throughout the
program "Serbia and Kosovo:
Intercultural Icebreakers" the
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
in Serbia gives young artists and
activists the oppurtunity to listen
to lectures and talk to different
people who deal with the cultural
cooperation of Kosovo and Serbia and
the artistic practices that lead to
social change and change to the
value system.
One of the
lecturers on this year's program,
and all previous years, was Sasa
Ilić. Sasa Ilic2 is a writer who
works at the National Library of the
Republic of Serbia as one of the
editors, which is not very
interesting information. What is
interesting is his work on
connecting Serbian and Kosovo
society through culture, that is,
using culture as a tool for
peacebuilding. Sasa Ilić talked with
the participants about this, but
also about the literature of the
divided worlds, which is directly
related to his work.
Together with a
group of associates and friends from
Kosovo, he noted an existing problem
which is not new, namely the lack of
translation of literature from
Serbian into Albanian and vice
versa. This problem prevented
cultural co-operation, getting to
know the two societies, and the
normal flows that they should exist.
Their response was the POLIP
Festival - an International Literary
Festival held in Priština and
organized by one organization from
Priština and one from Belgrade.
According to
POLIP, it is not just a literary
festival, but rather the
participation of authors in a joint
project, despite the radical
confusion of the two communities
from which the authors come - Serbia
and Kosovo. They see the festival as
an action of transforming conflict
and building peace.
Sasa Ilić
presented to the participants the
model in relation to which they came
up with the idea for the festival,
and noted that the opportunity for
change is so great. Specifically, he
talked about connecting individuals
first with the same or similar ideas
and interests, and then grouping
them and moving to the public stage.
This is exactly what the Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
has been doing for five years
through the project "Serbia and
Kosovo: Intercultural Icebreakers“.
The talk about
literature and the language barrier
was a direct inspiration for the
work of UTOPIA presented by Arife
Muji. Arife says she has noticed
that the two languages speak "two
truths.“ As she stated in the
concept of "Knowing unusually little
of the language of another, with
only a few reciprocal translations
of literary works, nations that have
been neighbors for centuries are
perceived as belonging to different
cultures and civilizations.“
Developing a utopian alphabet and
writing combined parts of poems by
one Serbian and one Albanian poet,
Arife Muji gave a different view of
the language, unburdened by the
past, division, but focused on
communion and overcoming barriers.
Although the
program "Kosovo and Serbia:
Intercultural Icebreakers" cannot
use such language, it is precisely
the language practices of the
program, where it is possible to
speak about topics that are more
emotional or difficult in their own
language with full respect and
understanding of the language,
including exchange and by learning
at least some words, the program
sends a clear message.
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