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Projects current year
Small actions are realized in the different countries of the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (SCP). They are in the responsibility of the SCP local offices and decided upon by local boards consisting of 4 cultural experts and a representative of the local Swiss Cooperation Office (SDC). Short summaries of the projects selected for a small actions grant are listed below:
Small actions Prishtina
	Molla e parë: album CD and concert DVD launch Music	Applicant(s) Shpat Deda	Time and place Prishtina from: 01.06.2010 till: 01.09.2010	Grant CHF 5'000.00
	Already underway and in its final stages of production, “Molla e parë” is a collection of 12 original Pop/Rock songs recorded on CD and DVD that invite the listener on a journey towards discovering oneself through love, people and self exploration. Serving as the initial platform that brought together an unprecedented team of the best local musicians and sound engineers, this album aims at offering real value and quality to listeners that are growing increasingly disappointed at their national music scene. All song lyrics are written exclusively in the local Gheg dialect, aiming to increase its presence in the media and in the local Pop/Rock music scene. Though currently Gheg is used more acceptingly in the hip hop scene, “Molla e pare” aims to invite artists of all music genres to embrace their widely used dialect, and to foster the cultural debate about the widened use of this dialect in media and culture.
	Personal Exhibition: 3D Art and Photography Visual arts Personal exhibition of 3D Art and photography of the young artist	Applicant(s) Leart Zogjani	Time and place Prishtina from: 15.01.2010 till: 25.01.2010	Grant CHF 4'866.00
	3D Art is mainly a new art technique that has experienced tremendous growth in Computer Arts in the last decades around the world. This Division of the exhibition is also subdivided in: • The Pride: This chapter contains 3D artworks that represent different spheres of life as a Kosovan. From history portraitures, to national sports, 3D collages, tradition, architecture and sci-fi fantasy are wrapped with a lot of emotion and interpreted from different points of view: pride, anger, love, nostalgia, and personal experiences. Created in different time intervals, they all tell their stories with different interactions between the objects in the scene while still sharing some kind of “gravitation” between the picture and the viewer • Contemporary Expression of Art: This chapter contains a more contemporary look of the artworks. Having been inspired by what’s beautiful, modern and trendy, has given me a different vision and pushed the 3D professionalism to the limits. Photography: Violence in Schools: it has always been a problem, and has always pushed all sorts of artists to create even some of their masterpieces while interpreting this phenomenon. Trying to go out of the boundaries of documentary photographs, and expressing violence in terms of “Beauty gets defeated by the Beast”, then coming to an even more harsh end: as the victims try to hide their sorrow by making some kind of fake masks, as finally, they become even more violent than their predecessors. • Europe and the Places: While travelling you always see the things in a different way comparing to the local people and get sudden attacks from the views of that part of the world. Sharp-eyed artists have achieved absolutely magnificent results by only photographing the same architectonic monuments that millions of people can see everyday of their lives. Giving a different emotion, or so-called “Emotions from Abroad” in photographs where your city is shown, always make the viewers feel good for where they live, for what is theirs, and for what they’re proud of. In a way, these photos show the author's way of seeing different places around Europe. • Out of the Box: The photographs in this chapter represent the sudden and striking inspirations that have influenced me from time to time. They are not ordered in a storyline, they do not always show the reality, but they express the purest emotions of me as an artist, and strike the viewer in a surprising way.
	Exhibition at Visual arts	Applicant(s) Lorik Sylejmani	Time and place London from: 15.11.2009 till: 26.04.2010	Grant CHF 1'213.40
	The artist will exhibit 10 artworks in different mix media, mainly in painting and digital pictures. The artworks are prints in plotter, generally standard-sized 50x50cm, framed in 70x70cm with urban life subject are characterized by motto: Neon, Concrete and Rock’n’Roll
	“Now” – A platform for up and coming alternative bands Music A practical multimedia project that aims on promoting the music scene in the region	Applicant(s) Dritero Nikqi	Time and place Prishtina, Tirana and Skopje from: 15.11.2009 till: 15.02.2010	Grant CHF 7'500.00
	Now is a practical multimedia project that aims on promoting the music scene in the region by means of promotional recordings both on CD and internet, promotional concerts in the region as well as a web portal. In this recent time in Prishtina and the region there is an eruption of a new sound that very much reflects social and cultural changes in the region. Most of them are young bands/artists that work in a professional manner but do not get exposure, especially across borders. Most of these artists can only be listened to in the rare concerts organized in the city, their music most of the time remains unrecorded and unheard of. The aim of the project is to represent and collect the new sound of the alternative music of the region in a joint CD that will include the seven bands from Prishtina, Shkup and Tirana.
	Swiss Triple Bill Video, Contemporary dance, Hip Hop music A multidisciplinary performing evening from Switzerland	Applicant(s) ART-Plus Compagnie Linga	Time and place Prizren and Prishtina from: 04.11.2009 till: 11.11.2009	Grant CHF 4'000.00
	This special event promotes cultural communication and cooperation between Swiss artists and socio-cultural organisations in Pristina and Prizren. It offers a special evening with visual arts, contemporary dance and hip hop music, associated with activities that will stimulate creativity, interactions and shared experiences with the local audience. This special event will bring together: 1. The projection of Elodie Pong’s film Secrets for sale (2003), a film about the interactive installation that took place at the Arsenic Theatre (Lausanne, CH) in which each visitor was invited to confide and then contractually sell a personal secret, filmed by 8 surveillance cameras. Secrets for sale deals with intimacy, oscillating between voyeurism -in an era where everything is on sale and under surveillance- and assertive self-expression. 2. The contemporary dance companie linga presents no.thing, performance for six dancers. For this new work that will be Premiered in October 27th, Katarzyna Gdaniec and Marco Cantalupo started with a question: Can the authenticity of a gesture still provoke an emotion at the era of superficial physical performances? This creation focalizes on dance itself and its relationships with music. It proposes a physical dance, tender and powerful, inherent to the style of the company. 3. The show Rap Titan, a hip hop music performance composed by Roberto Garieri and DJ Eagle, singing about the socio-historical conditions of hip hop, the nightmare of the urban world, and how hip hop’s protagonists, tired of violence, gave birth to a real culture. This performance is in English and French and includes local hip hop dancers.
	Klanica 5 - Slaughter's House 5 Theatre KLANICA PET – SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is an theater production of Studio for Electronic Theatre. It is a form of new theater - CyberTheatre. www.qendra.org	Applicant(s) Qendra Multimedia	Time and place Prishtina from: 01.09.2010 till: 31.10.2010	Grant CHF 2'000.00
	It is a form of new theater (CyberTheatre), based on `Slaughterhouse Five` novel, 1969, by Kurt Vonnegut. "Slaughterhouse-Five" mixes science fiction, political and social theory, religion, dark comedy and tragedy. The narrative veers chaotically from the fire-bombing of Dresden, which the story's hero, Billy Pilgrim, endured while a POW imprisoned in Slaughterhouse-five during WWII, to the planet Trafalmadore, where he lands after being abducted by the Trafalmadorian aliens... CyberTheatre or Digital Performance is a specific kind of multimedia theatre which always applies some form of interactivity between the performer (or spectator) and digital scenography (audio/visual material, e.g. light, sound, video etc.). The actor (or spectator) with the position and movement of her/his body changes the audio/visual characteristics of the performance. In this way the actor gains a better control over the technical part of the performance while the spectator is granted the possibility to ‘change’ the very content of the performance. The interactivity, beside the apparent technological enhancement of the theatre making process, also represents the abundant source of the new aesthetic possibilities. The core technological feature that makes this artistic practice possible is the actor/computer (i.e. human/machine) interface.
	Body: Object of Salvation Visual Arts Unique exhibition that will present an innovative exhibition form using different expressive artistic disciplines.	Applicant(s) Rudina Xhaferi	Time and place Prishtina from: 15.06.2010 till: 30.09.2010	Grant CHF 4'471.00
	"Body: Object of Salvation" exhibition is a unique exhibition that will present an innovative exhibition form using different expressive artistic disciplines in order to provide to the audience more thorough artistic perspective of the artistic work presented in the human body. The exhibition "Body: Object of Salvation" is planned to be exhibited at the second part of September 2010. Having the human body as the main reference point, this exhibition conceptually makes a strong emphasis of the importance of each and every human being in the society we live in, consisted of diverse backgrounds and cultures of these human beings. Conceptually the exhibition reflects the cultural diversity and the important place these cultures take in the diverse cultural identity of our general society. The audience will be able to artistically enjoy enriching perspectives that body art work can transmit. Painting onto bodies is booming in the time we are living, but it is no new idea. Traditional cultures have used body art for thousands of years as a way to enhance the rituals honoring the stages of life and death. Body painting has many uses in many different areas of work, all of them having potential to bring an artist creative of freedom and satisfaction. A visual artist may move into body painting to give their art a life of its own. Traditional cultures using body art demonstrate common links between history, spirituality and the body. Painting onto the body is a process of transformation and enlargement of the soul.
	The Culture Lobby Visual Arts ‘Culture Lobby’ Exhibition is a show of photographs and audio records produced by artist researches throughout year 2009. www.theculturelobby.com	Applicant(s) Laboratory for Visual Arts	Time and place Prishtina from: 20.05.2010 till: 31.05.2010	Grant CHF 2'431.00
	‘Culture Lobby’ Exhibition is a show of photographs and audio records produced by artist researches throughout year 2009 on the subject: ‘what will change or disappear when your country joins the EU.’ It is a part of a regional, artistic initiative to create a participatory "active archive" of cultural memory in the Western Balkans by documenting visually (photographs) and aurally (audio recordings) what citizens think will change or disappear when their territory joins the EU. The recorded results researched during 2009 will be produced and publicly presented as an online archive, a book, an exhibition in all capitals of all seven countries, and as a downloadable GPS map with which people will be encouraged to navigate the art (and thus the region) physically. ‘Culture Lobby’ Exhibition hosted by LAB will be held at Tetris, the manipulation space in Prishtina followed by a debate on the same subject with artists and young decision-makers. The curatorial content of the exhibition will have answers collected, photographed and displayed which will act as a barometer of the concerns, fears and aspirations of the citizens of the Western Balkans, providing them the opportunity to participate in the creation of an alternative cultural history as an artwork in itself.
	Prishtina-closed city Documentary film This film is about open spaces of city of Prishtina and why the most of them don't work for people.	Applicant(s) Astrit Hajrullahu	Time and place Prishtina from: 15.05.2010 till: 15.03.2010	Grant CHF 5'500.00
	Based on direct observation of what people actually do, the film aims to present an engaging and informative tour of the Prishtina urban landscape and to look at how it can be made more hospitable to those who live in it. The film will include interviews of architects, city planners and artists from various fields within which their activities may affect the improvement of public spaces in the context of functionality and artistic expression. In the aftermath of war in 1999, Kosovo entered a period of transition where one of the biggest challenges was, and still remains, the management of massive movements of its population. In addition to refugees returning from other countries, the rural population began to touch down in cities. Most of them settled in Pristina where the number of inhabitants, for a very short time, grew to uncontrollable proportions. This situation provoked a great lack of space for housing, forcing people to build in an uncontrolled way. This kind of construction became an urban and architectural chaos because of lack of legal infrastructure and relevant planning institutions. In this chaos, public spaces were "first urban victims" due to lack of ownership even though they belong to everyone. They were transformed into cafe-terasses, private fenced parking and private plots for illegal constructions.
	Theatre for Free Documentary movie The main idea of this Documentary is the raise and fall of theatre called : “ Teatri I babes” founded Kosovar actor Enver Petrovci.	Applicant(s) Driton Hajredini	Time and place Prishtina from: 14.05.2010 till: 26.07.2010	Grant CHF 3'500.00
	The main idea of this Documentary is the raise and fall of theatre called : “ Teatri I babes” founded by Kosovar actor Enver Petrovci. The aim of this documentary is to sensitize the opinion here in Kosova and abroad about the problems in art in general what we have here and in same way to give a sign or impulse about the fact how difficult is to be an artist but in other side how important is for a nation to have and recognize the artists of all fields.
	Nightlights Music To promote non-mainstream urban music and contribute to Kosovo representation in regional and international art scene.	Applicant(s) Agnes Nokshiqi - Band Manager	Time and place Prishtina from: 01.05.2010 till: 30.09.2010	Grant CHF 2'800.00
	It represents a new genre of avant-garde music produced locally, as by appearance, energy, style, charisma and creativity. Another significance of the band is its authenticity in making a music which comes from inspiration of living under specific circumstances of post war Prishtina. The members of the band are very young in age (from 19 to 21 years old) and carry a lot of enthusiasm which is generally lacking in the music scene in Kosovo. In addition, the band will promote the album at concerts to be held in Prishtina, Skoplje and Tirana. Also, a music video for a promo single from the new album will be produced, in order to extend the promotion to broadcast media.
	Aktiv Live Music Festival Music In the occasion of EU week, NGO Aktiv will organize the Music Festival Active Live Music, in the northern Mitrovica. www.ngoaktiv.org	Applicant(s) NGO Aktiv	Time and place Mitrovica from: 01.05.2010 till: 15.05.2010	Grant CHF 4'049.00
	This festival will be unique opportunity for promotion of new cultural dimension for youth and local bands in Mitrovica in order to demonstrate and share their musical achievements and creativity. In light of the festival it is foreseen participation of international bands from Italy and Netherland along with a participation of international and domestic DJ’s. We try to achieve genuine interaction between bands, both, domestic and international that will mark this festival and its aim as a significant cultural event in this part of Kosovo. The event will take place in north Mitrovica during the weekend of 8th and 9th of May following the 30 days organizational and logistical preparations. The format of the festival that will last two days, envisage 60 minutes performance of each band and DJ while entrance will be free of charge with maximum security and medical support provided to all participants in order to ensure qualitative and smooth programme of the festival.
	Vocal Technique - Vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer Music literature Dedicated to singers of all levels who want to improve their stamina, increase their range, develop a better sound, and enhance their vocal health.	Applicant(s) Alma Bektashi	Time and place Prishtina from: 15.04.2010 till: 01.09.2010	Grant CHF 4'000.00
	“Vocal Technique - Vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer “discusses the elements of singing, addressing the specific needs of singers of popular (pop, rock and jazz) music. It is intended for singers of all levels who want to improve their stamina, increase their range, develop a better sound, and enhance their overall vocal health. The workout consists of a sequence of exercises, and it’s important to perform the exercises in their proper order. The sequence provides a natural warm-up and builds to more muscular exercise, and it connects the breath to their emotion, increases vocal resonance, and finally frees the voice. “Vocal Technique - Vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer “and its companion DVD are the ideal tools for creating course for students of almost any age group, from junior high school to college to professional. Since 1999, I have been teaching voice at Academy of Arts, where I have developed a course called “Elements of Vocal Technique”. This book is result of these efforts and of my teaching experiences. DVD content vocal workouts: 1)Balanced onset exercise; 2) resonance exercise; 3) blending exercise; 4) articulation exercise; 5) sliding warm-up; 6) major/minor triplet for flexibility; 7) flexibility and sustaining exercise; 8) legato and long tones exercise; 9) dynamic flexibility and control; 10) alternate rhythm pentatonic triplets; 11) octave arpeggios for range extension and flexibility.
	5th DAM International Festival of Young Musicians 2010 Music 5th DAM International Festival of Young Musicians 2010 in Prishtina and April. In this edition there are going www.damfest.com	Applicant(s) Music Art Centre Association DAM	Time and place Prishtina from: March 2010 till: April 2010	Grant CHF 2'350.00
	5th DAM International Festival of Young Musicians 2010 will take place in Prishtina from 25 March to 20 April 2010. Among many artists from different countries in the world, the festival foresees the concert of famous Swiss violinist Alexandre Dubach with the participation of Kosovo tenor Luan Durmishi. Dubach is going to perform the famous 24 Caprices by Paganini while in the end of the concert together with Mr. Durmishi and ensemble there is going to be intonated the well-know song “Baresha” by Rexho Mulliqi arranged in new version by Kushtrim Gashi.
	Bahtalo - International Roma Day Festival Music	Applicant(s) Radio Urban FM	Time and place Prishtina from: March 2010 till: April 2010	Grant CHF 5'000.00
	The project is part of a three day festive programme in Prishtina and it also presents a map of different activities in different parts of Kosovo. Despite the efforts to proliferate the celebration of Roma Day, it is paradoxically not very well known among the general public, and instead familiar to people working in the civic sector. In comparison to previous year’s celebrations of International Roma Day, this year, the overall idea is to target the Kosovo-wide population and mobilize awareness around the Roma community’s richness of culture as an integral part of Kosovo society. Thus, the broad Kosovo audience will have the unique opportunity to experience and follow the example of Roma and non-Roma musicians, artists, photographs and writers. Kosovo communities will have the chance to dialogue with each other in interactive manner and get to know more one another. The SCP support to the project will be utilised for orgnziation of the concert of world famous Roma singer Esma Redzepova and her band.
	Dardha pas bunari Theatre New approach and theatre experience realized in the rural environment.	Applicant(s) Iliriana Arifi	Time and place Village Kukaj from: March 2010 till: April 2010	Grant CHF 4'000.00
	"Dardha pas bunari" theatre play will be the first to be performed in the premises of the Ethno Theatre in village Kukaj in Gjilan/ Gnjilane municipality. ʹDARDHA PAS BUNARI ʹ Play is a family tragedy and play that appears in the right time and in an open ambient. Incapable to run away, the need for opposite party, and violation do surround and vacuums the chained three of a circle, which is as naïve as realist.
	Out of Love Mobility grant Participation of film assistant director at Berlinale 2010 "Out of Love" film premiere	Applicant(s) Kaltrina Krasniqi	Time and place Berlin from: February 2010 till: February 2010	Grant CHF 560.00
	‘Out of Love’ is a film project initiated by a well known danish film director Birgitte Staermose. This film project developed within two years 2007-2009. Finally in May 2009 the shooting begun, I was with the film from its beginnings and as a result was engaged as a Line Producer and Assistant Director. ‘Out of Love’ deals with the everyday life of kosovar children that live and work in streets of Prishtina. The innovative methodology of research designed brought the author in the heart of life that children and their families lead in the suburbs of Prishtina after the war. Concerning the form this film does not fit any traditional genre this comes as a result of the process that we followed. Interviews carried with children were transcribed and than artistically written by Peter Amussen (the screenplay writer of Lars Von Trier’s ‘Breaking the waves’). Afterwards in agreement with children and their families their stories were filmed in fiction manner . ‘Out of Love’ was finally released in October 2009 and premiered in Copenhagen Dox. This year the film is a part of the official selection for Rotterdam Film Festival 2010 and Berlinale 2010.
	Kosovatrans Two Documentary film	Applicant(s) Labinot Sponca	Time and place Kosovo & Serbia from: January 2010 till: July 2010	Grant 5'346.43
	Kosovatrans, a documentary produced in the year 2000, explored the effects of war and politics in the cultural development of Kosovo. It focused mainly on music which at that time was, and to a large extent still is, the most developed of the arts in Kosovo. Additionally, focusing on music industry was appealing due to the controversies surrounding a scene overloaded with kitsch and poor production that was/is very popular. Kosovatrans Dy will continue where its predecessor left off. It will aim to answer as well as raise questions, by looking back on the last 10 years and exploring the progress made to date. The documentary will aim to explain what we have achieved, where we stand against our neighbors, have we done enough, could we have done more and, most importantly, what do we need to do to help the outburst of young talent in all cultural industries to thrive thus ensuring Kosovo’s place in the cultural map of Europe.
	Coffee Houses Documentary film	Applicant(s) Saranda Sahiti	Time and place Kosovo from: January 2010 till: April 2010	Grant CHF 5'015.46
	To produce a short documentary movie that will show the night life of youth in different places in Kosovo and their vision about night life in Pirshtina.
	Solo Concert Music This is a solo concert of clarinetist Fidan Osmanaj	Applicant(s) Fidan Osmanaj	Time and place Mitrovica and Prishtina from: 25.12.2009 till: 31.12.2009	Grant CHF 4'000.00
	The aim of this project is to introduce the modern way of playing clarinet and works of famous composers that were not played before in Kosovo. Fidan Osmanaj will play different works of composers such as Debessy, Poulenc, Meassien and Brahms accompanied by the recognized pianist, Misbah Kacamaku. These concerts in two towns, Mitrovica and Prishtina will introduce new side of clarinet.
	Song&Wine Music	Applicant(s) Genc Salihu	Time and place Prishtina from: 17.11.2009 till: 19.03.2009	Grant CHF 5'000.00
	This project supports the recording of the music album "Kange e vene" (Song &Wine) that carries a personal tone that is considered to be its main quality. Music and lyric as siblings invite the listener in for a long and intensive visit to an aesthetic setting that tries to invoke instant empathy and self-reflection, tangentially referencing a suffocating social environment. This is one of the main reasons why it deserves to be shared. Its fourteen songs are written exclusively in the variant of the Gheg dialect that is spoken in Kosova and it sets its writer and its listener free to roam within a wide range of lyrical possibility, at the same time recruiting itself in the lines of a small camp of thinkers, linguists and artists that promote the idea of reconsidering Gheg as a worthy dialect that deserves inclusion, even slight dominance, in the Standard Albanian Language.
	Retrovizorja Music	Applicant(s) Retrovizorja- Band	Time and place Prishtina from: 15.11.2009 till: 15.03.2010	Grant CHF 3'037.00
	Retrovizorja, the music band from Prishtina aims at recording their third album and have a tour in the region and play live music. The Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans Local Office Prishtina will support the making of the video of their new song which is to be realised in March 2010 on the national TV stations and Retrovizorja's web site.
	Prishtina – Photo Book / Panel Discussions and Website Literature and Cultural debate Publishing of the book that will unfold the evolution process of city’s architecture viewed from different social, political and cultural aspects.	Applicant(s) re:Public	Time and place Prishtina from: November 2009 till: August 2010	Grant CHF 6'000.00
	"Prishtina" is a photo book presenting the city landscape of Prishtina aiming to capture and illustrate city’s essence ten years after the Second World War. As such, the photographs in this book form the collective memory of its oldest inhabitants. It intends to represents the changing process of city architecture by portraying the historical evolution of the city. It is an attempt to reconstruct the city culture, citizens’ habits, transpiration means, people and places. It will touch upon the memory of its oldest inhabitants and past glories, irreversible destruction of valuable buildings and architecture. The book will unfold the evolution process of city’s architecture viewed from different social, political and cultural aspects. Photographs, as primary medium will be accompanied by a text researched by ethnologists and journalists by interviewing old residents of Prishtina who remember the social and cultural context of that period. The text will portray memories and emotional responses to a particular time and place, trying to understand people’s construction of their personal histories and how the history of the individual is implicated in that of a larger group.
	Publishing the MM journal Cultural debate The Journal MM is a quarterly on Theory and Arts	Applicant(s) Centre for Humanistic Studies "Gani Bobi"	Time and place Prishtina from: 10.04.2009 till: 30.04.2010	Grant CHF 30,000.00 CHF 10,000.00 contribution of SCP Regional Office
	The Journal MM is published four times a year and covers different fields of theoretical and Art, including: philosophy, sociology, social issues, art, architecture, and literature. MM offers an interdisciplinary, critical, and innovative approach. MM aims to reflect on key issues of different fields of contemporary life, both home and abroad. In the period of November 2008 – October 2009 we plan to publish four editions of the journal with average volume 200 pages of A4 format. Each edition of the journal will be illustrated with creative work of a local or international artist, including visual artists, photographers, or architects. Centre for Humanistic Studies “Gani Bobi” (CGB) is an NGO founded in 1997, which deals with educational activities, media monitoring and publishing. Since 1997, CGB is in charge for publishing MM, the journal and books collection. The MM journal has been considered as the most valuable periodical publication in Albanian language not only in Kosovo. The publishing activity that holds the name MM (2000 or the third millennia in Latin numerator) has started its activity 13 years ago by publishing the journal MM and publishing the books of two Kosovo authors.