Grant Awarded: 59,968.2 €
In the project Unifying Strength of Diversity: European Literature Through Time, Genres and Languages IPC media will translate, print, disseminate and promote 9 works of high literary value of renowned and awarded European authors (2 EUPL winners) and present them to Serbian, French and Spanish readership. Seven of them will be translated from lesser used languages into Serbian: “La Ferocia” by Nicola Lagioia from Italian, “Příhodná chvíle, 1855” by Patrik Ouředník from Czech, “Rzeczy, których nie wyrzuciłem” by Marcin Wicha from Polish, “От изток на запада” by Miroslav Penkov from Bulgarian, “Az Illés szekerén” by Endre Ady from Hungarian, “Septem Plauti Comoediae” by Titus Maccius Plautus from Latin, “Teaterstykke” by Jon Fosse from Norwegian; and 2 of them will be translated from lesser into wide used languages: “Jaz” by Darko Tuševljaković from Serbian into Spanish, “Sasvim skromni darovi” by Uglješa Šajtinac from Serbian into French. The overall concept of this project is based on idea of mapping history of European literature and culture in general, showing its richness and diversity not as an obstacle, but as unifying strength. Diversity in this project is evident in different languages (10 of them), time (from antiquity till today) and genres (novels, short stories, poetry, plays). Selected works address various topics, which should bring awareness to a number of sensitive issues today and address socially relevant topics: migration (Penkov, Šajtinac), treatment of older people (Wicha), political (in)correctness (Plautus, Ouředník), depression and alienation (Tuševljaković), corruption (Lagioia), fate and atheism (Ady), family relationship and existential anxiety in contemporary society (Fosse) etc. Within this project IPC media wants to achieve better circulation of European literature, to reach new audience and improve transnational circulation of authors and translators.
Grant Awarded: 56,692 €
Within a carefully thought-out project named “Different is Okay – The Best of Urban Europe”, Urban Reads plans to translate, distribute, place and promote 10 European novels, short stories, illustrated novels and comics written in 8 languages, all of them dealing with specific subjects contemporary teens can relate to; the topics are meant to bring European diverse culture closer to Serbian adolescents, invoke critical thinking in Serbian youth and help them shape themselves as beings who are able to care about both other people and their surroundings.
Urban Reads is the only Serbian publisher engrossed in solely adolescent readers who seek both seriously treated topics and titles that are able to answer the questions they are unwilling or unready to discuss with their parents, peers and teachers. Every selected book deals with an issue that may show them how similar European adolescent problems are, and each topic can be recognized as crucial for forming a curious adolescent: Invisible deals with bullying, Je ger døden deals with death, Supergigante deals with family loss, Nothing deals with adolescent take on the meaning of life, Needlework deals with depression and abuse, Being Young deals with the best and worst things about being young, Being Me tells us the story of all the expectations society puts on girls, Piccolo Regno deals with coming of age problems in unstable political environment, Carmilla is a gothic classic that deals with forbidden homosexuality and desires, Elisabeth tells a story of a female friendship and late appreciation of life. Several of these novels are part of “The White Ravens” catalogue, the most important continued publication of the International Youth Library; one of the novels won Michael L. Printz Honor, an award dedicated to “best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit”, and all of them won local and regional prizes and recognitions both for their literary excellence and importance.
Grant Awarded: 44,206.3 €
For this project, Zavet have selected literary works of excellence that they feel will add real value and contribute to the cultural riches available to European citizens. These works have each been carefully chosen through a rigorous and highly selective editorial process for their outstanding literary merit and their universal qualities, which allow them to transcend local and national interests. Zavet will work with the most reputable and experienced literary translators to ensure that their excellence is upheld in the Serbian-language editions. They believe passionately that these literary works will lead to meaningful inter-cultural dialogue and reach readers and they will ensure that these translated books reach as many readers as possible through expert design, production, and publicity, marketing, and sales distribution.
The proposed project “8 Books to Remind You that All Borders Are Fictional“ includes translation into Serbian language, publication, promotion and distribution of the package of eight books. Three books are contemporary European novels originally written in French and English languages. Three books are short story collection originally written in Romanian, Czech and Slovenian. Two books are graphic novels originally written in Slovenian and Dutch. The authors come from seven countries: Romania (Florin Lazarescu), France (Yannick Haenel), UK (Sunjeev Sahota), Ireland (Jan Carson), Czech (Ivana Myšková), Netherlands (Peter Pontiac) and Slovenia (Tomaž Petrič and Veronika Simoniti). The authors have received critical acclaim in their home countries and abroad. They are not translated into Serbian yet and thus this is a great opportunity to introduce new works of high quality European literature to the Serbian audience.
Grant Awarded: 44,984.5 €
Odiseja will translate 8 children’s & YA books from less represented languages, considering each genre’s transnational circulation: many countries are well represented in Serbia with adult fiction but not with children’s; European YA novels are rarely translated, as well as Catalan and Luxembourgish books in general. Project’s goals are to promote EU literature and EUPL, help refining new skills, and its priority is to reach new generations of readers and create future consumers of EU culture. Books selection, production, promotion and distribution strategy is determined by the specifics of target group, Generation Z (age 8-22): short attention span, phone and visual-content addicted digital natives who prefer reading paper books, but inform and purchase online, usually interested in literature on global issues and real problems of contemporary people. Thus we’ll offer them fiction both popular and awarded, in best translation, visually appealing, with age-fitting text/illustration ratio, relatable protagonists and relevant themes with potential to initiate debate and raise awareness. Books will be disseminated via regular and online bookstores, digital media, book fairs and exhibitions across Serbo-Croat language speaking countries, using innovative sale methods (phone app etc). Children’s books promotion will target children (school readings & competitions) and influential adults – parents, teachers, librarians (traditional, online and direct marketing). YA will be reached via digital media (age 12-17 especially through their peers booktubers and bookstagrammers; 18+ via readings, book fairs, digital and traditional media). EUPL will be promoted during authors visit, on euplsrbija social media and EUPL Festival (we founded both in 2019). Our exceptionally well attended annual Seminar for children’s book reviewers, with eminent EU critics lectures, improves skills needed for developing of barely-existent children’s literature criticism, essential for its promotion.
Grant Awarded: 45,424 €
Project Literary Carousel: A Genre Ride is imagined as a mixture of genres with the catchword “Books for everyone!”. It is focused on pointing to the diversity of creative expression. Publishing house Prometej will translate, publish and distribute seven books, each of them of high quality of the specific genre, and each with significant literary awards, including European Literature Prize.
In the selection of the books are mostly works originally written in lesser represented languages: Slovakian, Hungarian, Estonian, Danish and Romanian, and the collection of short stories by Mira Popovic that will be translated from Serbian into French. The play by Leonora Miano, multiple awarded author, written in French will be translated, and her work will be presented to Serbian audience for the first time. Slovakian author Ivana Dobrakovova’s novel has been awarded with the EU Literary Prize, and this will be her second book in our production. Children’s book by Jonas Taul has received two awards for illustration, and Cosmin Perta is highly acclaimed Romanian poet of a younger generation. Miklós Vámos’ work was also awarded several times in Hungary, and we will publish one of his short stories collection. In our selection is an autobiographical graphic novel by Danish writer and illustrator Halfdan Pisket, who gained numerous awards for his work.
Our team is very well prepared for demanding tasks, with the long-time experience in various phases in the publishing business. With the carefully planned presentational and promotional activities our goal is to point to the fact that there are books with high quality content, for everyone. In that way we are planning to reach the widest possible audience, from children to prose lovers, to those who enjoy reading poetry or graphic novels. The promotion plan is tailored for each book individually, but the whole package will be presented as a whole in three bigger cities, in the new and creative way, reflecting the name of the project.
Dear colleagues, associates and friends,
It is with great delight that we thank you for your work and a very successful 2019.
We are very proud that the number of participants in the programme in the past year increased significantly, and also a record number of organizations applied for new projects – as many as 74!
The year was also marked by new initiatives within the Creative Europe programme – one of them is the i-Portunus competition for mobility which enabled a great number of artists from Serbia to travel and realize their projects in various European countries.
In the following period what awaits us are new possibilities and opportunities for European cooperation – competition for cooperation projects within the Western Balkans, competition for literary translations and the competition for music coproductions, and we are waiting for you on 3rd January to work together.
We wish you to enjoy your deserved vacation and that we continue forward with the same energy – Happy New 2020!
Team of Culture Desk Serbia
Creative Europe Desk Serbia
The competition is concerned with support of artistic creativity in the field of music, primarily to projects implying the process of cooperation of individuals in creation of verses and songs with the aim of commercialisation and generating revenue.
The intention is to work on enhancing international cooperation between artists, song writers and producers from different countries participating in the Creative Europe programme for the sake of joint work in music pieces intertwining their talents, skills and empowering the creative potential of the entire team.
The competition is a part of the wider initiative of the Creative Europe programme – Music Moves Europe, within which residential programmes, song writer camps and other artistic programmes are recognised as a good opportunity to display European cultural diversity through music, because they contribute to the development of new artistic practices, innovative approaches to creation and research in the field of music.
The general aim of this call is to identify and support at least 10 innovative and sustainable pilot programmes of coproduction for songwriters and musicians clearly depicting European values, in order to make the development of the European music repertoire easier.
A specific aim of this competition is related to the organisation of the European camp which will gather cultural professionals and creative individuals to improve the skills of participants in song writing. The camp should offer the opportunities to learn from experienced professionals, improve creative writing skills, enable cooperation with other participants of the camp, aid the building of network of song writers among the participants, promote networking with successful professionals from the music industry and help participants successfully obtain experience of the creative process and business knowledge in this field. Project proposals should paint a clear vision of how the produced works of music will be presented and reach the audience.
Also, in order to help artists successfully step into the music market, project proposals should encompass at least two out of several complementary aims listed in the competition announcement.
Maximum grant per project can amount to 50,000 Euros, which represents no more than 85% of the total value of the project. Project proposals can be submitted by institutions and organisations individually or in a partnership consisting of at least two legal persons.
More on the details of the competition (specific aims, proposed activities, propositions in relation to partnerships and other) can be found on the website of the European Commission in the application guide.
The competition “Strengthening Cultural Cooperation and Competitiveness of Cultural and Creative Industries of the Western Balkans” was opened on 17th December 2019 and it lasts until 31st March 2020.
The general aim of the competition is to offer encouragement to reconciliation and building of neighbourly relationships in the Western Balkans through cultural cooperation
Specific aims of the competition are:
● Strengthening cross-border cooperation within the Western Balkans region and member states of the EU;
● Strengthening competitiveness of cultural and creative industries in the region.
Therefore, the following priorities have been defined for the selection of projects:
1. Strengthening capacities of cultural and creative industries to be active on the transnational and international levels;
2. Increasing transnational circulation of art works and mobility of actors in culture and art;
3. Improving intercultural dialogue between artists, cultural professionals and the wider public.
Since the competition is financed from the EU programme IPA II, project participants can only be EU member states and the Western Balkans countries. Only legal persons can apply and the projects must be partnerships. Project partnership must be comprised of at least five partners (project leader + four partners), with at least two partners from two different countries of the Western Balkans and at least two partners from two different EU member states.
The minimum amount of grants per project will be 100 000 €, and maximum 500,000 €. The requested amount of the grant can represent up to 85% of total expenses of the project. The remaining amount (15%) will be secured by the submitter of the project proposal.
Minimum duration of the project is 24 months and maximum is 48 months. Project activities must commence between 1st January and 31st March 2021.
One should bear in mind that this competition call will not accept applications already submitted for the previous competition call for European cooperation projects.
Manual for applicants, all required conditions and documentation can be accessed here.
Creative Europe Desk Serbia and the Antenna of the Culture Desk Serbia are at your disposal for help when applying. Contact us to schedule a meeting and we can together consider possibilities to apply.
We also invite you to follow announcements on our website about the events we will organise in the future, with the aim of ensuring the best possible preparedness of domestic institutions and organisations to apply.
A mandatory activity in every successful European project and within the Creative Europe programme is creating and submitting a financial and a narrative report about project realisation.
This task is more complex when it comes to partner projects, and due to the increasing number of European projects realised by institutions and organisations from Serbia, we want to help in answering all legal and other questions.
We invite all interested parties, and especially organisations currently realising projects within the subprogrammes Culture and MEDIA of Creative Europe, to come and share their experiences and get answers to all questions they are encountering in preparing reports
The training will be delivered by Ana Ćosić, economist and coordinator of financial affairs of the MEDIA Desk Serbia, who possesses significant experience in this field. The event will be realised on Friday, 20th December at 2 p.m. in the premises of and in cooperation with the EU Info Centre (7 Kralja Milana St).
In order to participate it is necessary to apply first, and you can apply by Tuesday 17th December: https://forms.gle/XB6GVZ63rTRtCRPW6
See you in the EU Info Centre!
UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management of the University of Arts in Belgrade in cooperation with the Kolarac Foundation, OEBS Mission to Serbia and Creative Europe Desk Serbia is organising the third staged discussion entitled “Creative Cities: European Perspective”.
The topic of the third staged discussion are experiences of leading organisations from Serbia dealing with public spaces and creativity on the European level: Belgrade International Architecture Week (BINA), Nova Iskra and Novo kulturno naselje.
Their international experiences in working on projects dealing with creative cities will be presented and they are supported through the main EU programme for culture, Creative Europe, and the discussion is intended for cultural professionals wanting to deal with developing similar initiatives. The BINA project is dealing with creating the “shared” within public city spaces in Europe; Nova Iskra is working on developing cuisine as the new branch of local creative economies, and Novo kulturno naselje is working on internationalization of cities through cooperation with artists. Promotion and creation of a new European identity is the shared topic of all projects, and there will also be discussion with regards to the questions below:
– In what way do European cultural organisations really help people live in their cities?
– Which approaches are supported by the European Union?
– Which are specific experiences and learned lessions from Serbia?
– How is shared space defined in Europe? How is this space created?
– What is the relationship between the economic, social and cultural development of cities and communities living in them?
– What are problems and successful strategies and practices in working with local communities?
Participants of the discussion
Jelena Ivanović Vojvodić, Belgrade International Architecture Week, Belgrade
Relja Bobić, Nova Iskra, Belgrade
Marko Jozić, Novo kulturno naselje, Novi Sad
Moderator: Nina Mihaljinac, lecturer at the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management in Culture
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet and speak with the leading experts and practitioners dealing with public spaces, creativity and managing international projects!
See you at Kolarac!