[Oberlist] RS* DIS-PATCH - the demise of the annual Belgrade festival

Wed Mar 16 19:53:57 CET 2011

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: SPECTRE Digest, Vol 97, Issue 25
From:    spectre-request at mikrolisten.de
Date:    Tue, March 15, 2011 11:46 am
To:      spectre at mikrolisten.de
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:45:33 +0100
From: Andreas Broeckmann <ab at dortmunder-u.de>
Subject: [spectre] Fwd: DIS-PATCH - the demise of the annual Belgrade
festival

From: "Bojana Ljubisic" <bojana at dis-patch.com>
To: <bojana at dis-patch.com>
Subject: DIS-PATCH - THE DEMISE OF THE ANNUAL BELGRADE FESTIVAL
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:16:51 +0100

DIS-PATCH ANNOUNCED THE DEMISE OF ITS ANNUAL BELGRADE FESTIVAL

Dis-patch Festival, since 2002 the only relevant
international event from the realm of
contemporary (electronic) music and affiliated
artistic disciplines in the region of SE Europe,
will not be held this year following the
announcement of a full demise of its festival in
its hometown

The organizing team of the Dis-patch festival has
announced the full demise of the Belgrade-based
annual festival, the only event which, over the
course of the last ten years, has offered a
different approach to contemporary (electronic)
music and the investigation of audio-visual and
synesthetic concepts in Serbia. As the organizers
are stating, the idea of ending the festival has
been haunting its activities for a number of
years now, mainly because of the inability to
reach any kind of sustainable functioning.
Despite the fact that the festival was
maintaining high professional and productional
standards - which was confirmed by numerous
significant guest artists over the years - the
rise of the significance of the event in local
and international spheres was in no way followed
neither by the appropriate support from Serbian
cultural institutions nor the "socially aware"
corporations - to the contrary.

Soon after its founding in 2002, Dis-patch was
warmly welcomed on the international scene,
hooking up with important individuals and other
festivals from the "contemporary scene", but the
situation back home was fairly different.
Despite the high artistic and productional
results, since year one the event was going
through a constant fight for survival. Each new
edition was basically starting from scratch,
although in the context of the program the event
was unstoppably developing, making significant
international partnerships. Beside minor and
non-consistent financing from the city and state
cultural funds (never reaching 20% of the total
budget), in 2009 and 2010 the Ministry of Culture
of Serbia has not granted any support for any of
the 5 projects proposed by the organization
including the annual festival event, while the
Department of Culture of the City of Belgrade,
its town of birth which it extensively promotes
around the world, has let the festival without
any status or support in 2010.

The (non)financing of the event in the last two
years, as well as the paradox that this was the
period in which the Dis-patch production has
demonstrated strong capacity and potential with
no feedback whatsoever, are just some of the
reasons which added up to the decision of closing
the festival down. For example, in 2009 Dis-patch
has realized 45 different programs - most of them
self-financed or with absolutely no official
support - which goes way beyond the annual output
of most of the Serbian cultural centers. The
festival was "awarded" for these efforts by the
rejection of all of its projects at the next
Ministry of Culture open call for projects. In
the context of the more recent political reality
of Serbia, the even more recent senseless
government "reconstruction" and the general
social-political climate, there is too little
hope that initiatives like this one can survive
on any kind of "healthy roots". Obviously even
more so if they are aspiring to high professional
and artistic values and standards. All of these
facts combined are making the efforts around
developing, or mere maintenance of such an event
in Belgrade completely futile.

Dis-patch was a pioneering event not just in
local terms, bit also in the context of the
region of SouthEast Europe. Together with the
Belgradeyard Sound System radio shows and other
related activities, it functioned as a unique
educational platform for promoting bold musical
projects, and the first event in Serbia which
strongly promoted the visual aspect of music
performance and synesthetic concepts. By
combining the historical legacy of electronic and
avant-garde music, actual trends and everything
in-between, as well as the "clashes" of these
different aesthetics, it was leading the audience
through a unique and complete experience. We
should also not forget the responsible
relationship towards the audience, via low
admission fees and numerous free of charge and
educational programs open to the public.
Practically all of the artists who played at the
festival were presenting debut shows in Serbia,
including the likes of Jamie Lidell, Murcof,
Caribou, Monolake, Noze, Deadbeat or Vladislav
Delay/Luomo. The festival in Belgrade presented
no less than total of 200 shows, presented by 300
authors, around 30 workshop programs and
lectures, 5 exhibitions, 5 Artist in
Residence/Focus programs and several significant
(world) premieres. The performances and works
have been presented at numerous locations in
Belgrade and its surrounding, with authors coming
from more than 20 different countries.

The Dis-patch production has also realized
numerous other collaborations in Serbia (the
concert series Post-Piano, the RGB City,
interactive installation, regional music seminar
Synaesthtics, KidsPatch mini-festival for kids
and many othersŠ), and has also been presenting
Serbian, as well as musicians and video authors
from the region, through more than 20 guest
programs at prominent European and American
festivals. It has been one of the founders of the
festival network ECAS/ICAS, while most recently
it kickstarted a "nomadic" multi-annual project
ViceVerse together with the like-minded
Communikey Festival from Boulder, Colorado. The
Serbian state has not invested any funds into
supporting these international activities in the
past 10 years, which were promoting local
contemporary artistic output, despite the fact
that many proposals had been send to the address
of Ministry of Culture.

Instead of the 10th edition which will never be
held, soon the work on the "9 Lives of a
Festival" project will start. By mid-2012 it
should result in an extensive bi-lingual
publication and an accompanying exhibition which
will summarize the documentations, results and
reflections on the decade-long Dis-patch
experience in the local, but also the wider
global context. At the same time dealing with
theoretical and practical aspects of the festival
as a format and its significant roles in the
context of local cultural/artistic communities,
this will be the best way to round up the
"Belgrade phase" of Dis-patch.

Over the course of 2011, D-p will mostly be
active through guest programs - at the Belgrade
events Share Conference (April) and Mikser (May),
and then later in the summer as part of a new
festival which is starting up in Montenegro. In
the meantime, most of May and June will be
dedicated to the 2nd phase of the ViceVerse tour
project, which will take the team all around the
continent. End of the year will bring another
edition of the KidsPatch Festival for New
Children's Creativity, while already in April of
this year the well-known Honest Jon's label from
London will be releasing the debut album from
Vladislav Delay Quartet, which had been recorded
at the vintage studios of Radio Belgrade as part
of Dis-patch festival program in 2009. The
festival itself will be transformed into a sort
of "nomadic festival", which will be bringing its
specific sensibility and approach to, and sharing
it with partners and audiences alike, wherever on
the planet they may beŠ

The final demise of Dis-patch was celebrated in
Belgrade under the moto "End Is Always the
Beginning" with a special DIS-PATCH BURIAL party,
featuring Felony Flats, DJ Wo0))), Grimmowski,
Piece of ShhŠ and DJ Moodswinger.

On this occasion, Dis-patch would like to
specially thank to the audience which visited its
programs and made all the past efforts for its
continuation worthwhile. We would also like to
thank any and all of the individuals and
institutions which have contributed to that in
any way over the course of the past 10 years.

Links:

Photo gallery Dis-patch Burial party:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dis_patch/sets/72157626096435393/

Dis-patch Burial party mp3 recording:
http://tinyurl.com/dispatchburialrec

Dis-patch Festival R.I.P. video:
http://vimeo.com/20721308

Dis-patch Festival R.I.P. announcement:
http://www.dis-patch.com/rip/english.html

ViceVerse Tour:
http://www.viceverse.org/

Bojana Ljubisic
Press & PR

DIS-PATCH
Festival Of Cutting-Edge
Music And Related Art

m: +381.69.1672516
e: <mailto:bojana at dis-patch.com>bojana at dis-patch.com

<http://www.dis-patch.com/>www.dis-patch.com
<http://www.kids-patch.com/>www.kids-patch.com
<http://www.viceverse.org/>www.viceverse.org

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End of SPECTRE Digest, Vol 97, Issue 25
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