„Common Ground. Literature from Southeast Europe“ goes digital!
Our programme in 2021 was held as part of Leipzig liest extra – a reading festival organised by the Leipzig Book Fair.
In our digital programme we presented authors and artists through discussions, book presentations, animated films, documentaries and a host of other formats – all accessible online!
1991 saw the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The collapse formed an entire generation of writers – forever marked by what they lived through. Exactly 30 years after the breakup, Common Ground put the Archipelago Yugoslavia – From 1991 to Today centre stage, presenting new books, background stories, and unexpected twists of fate. In addition, another important event was in focus: 2021 also marked the 30th anniversary of the end of the Hoxha regime in Albania.
#CommonGroundReads #CommonGroundLeipzig #Traduki
6 Southeast European Films
Plus a Q&A with the curator Marija Katalinić
The Balkan Film Week is an essential part of the Common Ground – Literature from Southeast Europe project, which presents the Western Balkans as the Region in Focus at the Leipzig Book Fair 2020-2022. The overall theme this year is Archipelago Yugoslavia – From 1991 to Today. And so, also the films we show at the 3rd Balkan Film Week deal with the breakup of Yugoslavia and its long aftermath in the 30 years since.
Archipelago Yugoslavia & Balkannacht
Unfortunately, together with most of our live events, our renowned Balkannacht at the UT Connewitz yet again cannot take place. But, we dance on! Especially for you we have created a playlist with songs by bands who have played the Balkannacht stage to date. In addition, we have asked our lovely participants to send us their song suggestions on this year’s theme. Et voilà: From Jugoton Funk to Bosnian New Wave our Archipelago Yugoslavia playlist is filled with cool melodies.
Introduction to this year's theme
We share with you Ilija Trojanow’s marvellous talk on the Balkans, which he gave at the press conference on 25th March at which we presented this year’s theme ‘Archipelago Yugoslavia – From 1991 to Today’.
Archipelago Yugoslavia Essays published in faz.net and here 15 authors from Southeast Europe have written insightful essays on their personal experience of the breakup of Yugoslavia 30 years ago.
Six of these essays as well as an introductory article by FAZ editor Tilman Spreckelsen have now been published on faz.net.
The essays:
From 30th March to the end of May we will each week publish a new essay from this series on our German Archipelago Yugoslavia page.
Read MoreIllustration by Aleksandra Nina Knežević
Book presentation, 15 minutes
A childhood in Bosnia in the 1990s. Two friends, Sara and Lejla, who meet again after 12 years, and a road trip, accompanied by limitless hope.
Lana Bastašić is a name you should certainly take note off. Already she is touted as the shooting star of the European literary scene. Her novel, Catch the Rabbit (S. Fischer 2021) will be published in 13 European languages. Thanks to Rebekka Zeinzinger the novel is now also available in German translation.
A coming-of-age novel, about the transition from childhood to womanhood, but also about dreams and the price we have to pay if we want to let them go.
Read MoreWith: Blerina Rogova Gaxha, Faruk Šehić, Tomislav Marković
Moderator: Hana Stojić
Talk, 55 minutes
How does it feel to live nowadays at the scene of a crime? How do the clocks tick after the apocalypse? Who was afforded an easy life in Yugoslavia and who was not?
In memory of the 30th anniversary since the end of Yugoslavia, TRADUKI commissioned 15 authors from ex-Yugoslav countries to write essays on that theme. Writers from different generations were asked to look back and pour down their experiences into writing. In the first talk accompanying the essay series, three authors who were born between 1970 and 1982 share their war and post-war experiences from three countries that are still tackling huge challenges and obstacles: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.
Read MoreWith: Sandra Gugić, Shpëtim Selmani, Tijan Sila
Moderators: Arno Frank, Jörg Plath, Anila Wilms
3 book presentations with readings
The only Common Ground event that will take place in real life in Leipzig at this year’s Leipzig Book Fair (Leipzig liest extra), gives readers an opportunity to discover the works of three authors whose relations to Southeast Europe are very different.
In Zorn und Stille, Sandra Gugić writes about family. And about Billy Bana, who is trying to reconcile the Gastarbeiter experience of her parents, who left Yugoslavia, with her own life. Shpëtim Selmani depicts in his Booklet on Love poetic impressions about literature, nationalism, and becoming a father. His text strikes you with anger and sensibility. Meanwhile, Tijan Sila conjures up the figure of a young punk living in the sticks in the German Pfalz: with an unpronounceable name he finds his place of belonging in music and love. Hilarious and fast-paced.
With: Dragan Markovina, Dubravka Stojanović
Moderator: Dirk Auer
Talk, 55 minutes
Illustration by Samira Kentrić
Book presentation, 15 minutes
Eleven women talk about their husbands – poets, gynecologists, ambassadors, and policemen. In the relationships they lead they are nothing more than what’s written in their relationship status – their husbands’ wives. Any act of emancipation or self-actualisation is doomed to fail.
In her volume of short stories, My Husband (Suhrkamp, 2021), Rumena Bužarovska dissects power structures in patriarchal relationships. And she does it unflinchingly, without pulling punches. Yet she also manages to make us readers laugh. Perhaps precisely because she does not hide the unseemly truth.
With this book the writer has become one of Southeast Europe’s most widely read authors.
Thanks to the masterful translation of Benjamin Langer, the book is now also available in German.
Read MoreWith: Marie-Janine Calic, Ivo Goldstein
Moderator: Doris Akrap >br>
Talk, 55 minutes
The political figure Tito was a partisan, a communist, a liberator, a reformer and a visionary, who like no other has influenced the Yugoslav space. Yet he was also the undemocratic and sole leader of Yugoslavia, responsible for the Stalinist-like prison camp Goli otok. The man Josip Broz was a locksmith and playboy who enjoyed life’s luxuries and was friends with Hollywood actors.
He was a hero, his fans cheer. He was a criminal! A mass murder!, scream the others.
What are Tito’s biggest political and societal achievements? What was his role in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement? What impact did the constitutional reforms have on the different states in Yugoslavia? What did he fail at? How was his relationship to the two parts of Germany like? And, can the EU politicians of today learn something from Tito?
Read MoreWith: Sergej Lebedew, Arian Leka, Andrej Nikolaidis
Moderator: Doris Akrap
Talk, 55 minutes
The year 1991 was of immense importance for several countries in Europe. Yugoslavia broke up violently. The Communist Enver Hoxha regime in Albania got finally toppled over. And the big Soviet Union fell apart and out of this multination state 15 new countries emerged.
What are the consequences of Stalinism and the imposed blindness to the Gulag system on today’s society in Russia? What has remained of the euphoria in Albania after the end of Communism? How do the post-Yugoslav countries function – seemingly teetering between Yugo nostalgia and hypernationalism?
Read MoreWith: Tijan Sila
Moderator: Hana Stojić
Talk, 39 minutes
In his third novel, Krach (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2021), Sarajevo-born Tijan Sila (1981) conjures up the figure of a German-Bosnian with an unpronounceable name: Sabahudin Hadžijalijagić. But thanks his nickname, everyone simply calls him Gansi! Its’s 1990s and Gansi lives in the sticks, somewhere in the German Pfalz countryside. He wants to finish high school, he fights with Nazis, and he experiences his first true love. And on the side, he also wants to take over the nation’s stages with his punk band Pur Jus.
This novel offers us the opportunity to discuss the question of identity not only from the perspective of deficiency , but it rather shows us a completely new way of finding a place of belonging.
Read MoreWith: Drago Jančar, Slobodan Šnajder, László Végel
Moderator: Jörg Plath
Talk, 55 minutes
It is 30 years that the multination state of Yugoslavia is no more. Time to look back. But is this anniversary only of interest outside of ex-Yugoslavia or is it also of importance in the former republics? What does it mean to be a Yugo nostalgic? Do only nostalgics engage with? Are there any similarities between Yugoslavia and the European Union? Can we learn from Yugoslavia’s failure?
In 2021 the breakup of Yugoslavia has its 30th anniversary. TRADUKI commissioned 15 authors from ex-Yugoslav countries to write essays on that theme. Writers from different generations were asked to look back and pour down their experiences into writing. Drago Jančar, Slobodan Šnajder and László Végel are three eminent authors of the former Yugoslavia who have contributed to the series.
Read More
What to make of the end of the world? How does one keep on living after the apocalypse? Does time really heal all wounds? What to do with one’s own (and others’) nostalgia? And where do the countries of the former Yugoslavia find themselves today? Are these post-Yugoslav societies ready to face their past? And did not just Yugoslavia vanish from the face of the Earth but also the idea of Yugoslavism itself? Where the foundations of this state plain bad? Or did it really only need one wrong man at the top to take down the whole crumbling house? (What) can Europe learn from Yugoslavia’s mistakes?
Read More
15 authors from Southeast Europe have written insightful essays on their personal experience of the breakup of Yugoslavia 30 years ago. Six of these essays as well as an introductory article by FAZ editor Tilman Spreckelsen have been published on faz.net in March 2021.
The essays are Drohnenflug by Darko Cvijetić, Brüderlichkeit und Einigkeit by Rumena Bužarovska, Das steinerne Floß by Drago Jančar, Das leichte Leben by Blerina Rogova Gaxha, Leben am Tatort by Tomislav Marković as well as Von der Namenlosigkeit by Goran Vojnović. Between the 30th March and the end of May we published the remaining nine essays from this series on our German Archipelago Yugoslavia page.
Since the beginning of August, the online media outlet VoxEurop has been publishing essays from our Archipelago Yugoslavia series in English translation.
We are immensely proud and excited that even more people are getting a chance to read the wonderful pieces that were penned for our year-long project! Several of the essays are also available in French & Italian, so do spread the word and share them with anyone interested in the topic.
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Dories Akrap studied Southeast European history among other things. She is editor of taz, the author of numerous publications, a podcaster, and a moderator for different discussion formats on politics and literature.
Jetmir Idrizi
Dirk Auer, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1970, studied sociology and political science and obtained his PhD from Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg. Since 2006, he works as a freelance Southeast Europe correspondent, mainly for radio. He lived for seven years in Sofia, followed by three years in Belgrade. He is the author of several radio features on topics such as migration, minorities, and how to remember and deal with the past on the Balkans. Today he lives in Berlin.
Edgar García Marquéz
Xhevdet Bajraj, born in Kosovo in 1960, is a poet, playwright, translator, and professor. He is the author of more than 25 books of poetry. In 1999, Bajraj, together with his family, got deported from Kosovo. With the help of several institutions he gained asylum in Mexico. Today he is a professor of Creative Writing and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte.
Radmila Vankoska
Lana Bastašić, born in Zagreb in 1986 to Serbian parents, lived after the breakup of Yugoslavia for several years in Bosnia. She majored in English and holds a master’s degree in cultural studies. She lived for many years in Barcelona and is the editor of the Spanish literary magazine »Carn de cap« and the co-founder of »3+3 sisters«, a project that promotes female authors from the Balkans. Bastašić has published three collections of short stories, one book of children’s stories and one of poetry. Her debut novel Catch the Rabbit was shortlisted for the 2019 NIN award and was awarded the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature.
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Aleksandar Bečanović, born in Nikšić in 1971, is a Montenegrin poet, translator and literary and film critic. He works for the cultural magazines Plima and Ars and as a translator from the English, mainly focussing on film theory. In 2002, he won the renowned Risto Ratković Award for the best volume of poetry of the year. In 2017, he won the EU Prize for Literature for Montenegro with his novel Arcueil (2015). He lives in Bar.
Boro Rudić
Rumena Bužarovska, born in 1981 in Skopje, is the author of three short story collections, a booklet of flash fiction, and a study on humour in contemporary American and Macedonian short fiction (What’s Funny: Theories of Humour Applied to the Short Story, 2012). As a literary translator she has translated authors such as J.M Coetzee and Richard Gwyn. She is the 2017 winner of the regional Edo Budiša prize. She is currently the prose editor of the literary magazine Blesok and an associate professor of American literature at the State University in Skopje.
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Marie-Janine Calic was born in 1962 in Berlin. After earning her PhD in Eastern European History from the LMU Munich in 1992, she worked until 2004 as an academic consultant for the Foundation for Science and Politics in Ebenhausen and Berlin. In 1995 she was the adviser of the UN envoy for the former Yugoslavia in Zagreb. Since 2004 Calic has been professor for Eastern and South Eastern European History at the LMU Munich. Since 2006 she has been visiting professor at the College of Europe in Natolin and since 2010 visiting professor at the Bavarian School of Public Policy in Munich.
Draženko Jurišić
Darko Cvijetić, born in 1968 in the village of Ljubija Rudnik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a writer as well as a director and playwright at Prijedor theatre. Since 2013, he runs the literary blog „Hypomnemata“. He is member of the PEN Centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its Writers’ Association and the Writers’ Association of Croatia. His latest book to come out in German translation is the novel Schindlers Lift (2020).
Tihomir Pintar
Lidija Dimkovska, born in 1971 in Skopje, studied Comparative Literature at Skopje University and received her doctorate on Nichita Stănescu at Bucharest University. She currently lives and works as a lyricist, essayist and literary translator in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Since 1991 she has had five poetry anthologies and one novel published. Her works received numerous awards, including the Hubert Burda Prize for young Eastern European poetry.
Bernd Hartung
Arno Frank, born in Kaiserslautern in 1971, lives off writing literature (“So, und jetzt kommst Du”), political essays (“Meute mit Meinung”) and journalistic pieces (SPIEGEL, Zeit, taz, Deutschlandfunk) on the topics of culture and society.
Zoran Kulušić Neral
Ivo Goldstein, born in 1958, is a Croatian historian, diplomate and professor and teaches at Zagreb University. His main points of research are Byzantium, Croatia in the Middle Ages and the history of the Jews in Croatia. He served as Ambassador to France and UNESCO (2013-2017). Goldstein is the author of more than 30 books, several written in collaboration with his father Slavko Goldstein.
Dirk Skiba
Sandra Gugić, born in Vienna in 1976, is an Austrian writer of Serbian heritage. She studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. She has received several accolades for her work. Her debut novel, Astronauten, published in 2015, was awarded the Reinhard Priessnitz Prize. Her poetry debut followed in 2019 with the volume Protokolle der Gegenwart.
Jože Suhadolnik
Drago Jančar, born in 1948 in Maribor, is one of the most well known contemporary writers of Slovenia. Drago Jančar has published several volumes of stories and novels as well as some of the best Slovenian plays. He has received several awards for his works, including the renowned Slovenian France Prešeren Prize (1993), the Jean Améry Award for Essay Writing (2007) and the Prix Européen de Littérature (European Prize for Literature) for his life’s work (2012).
Alain François
Samira Kentrić (1976) is an artist who transfers the social reality of her time into images. She enjoys creating surreal situations to highlight what she believes is the most real. She works in various techniques, as many as she finds appropriate. Her main interest lies in the area where public and political expressions meet with the intimate aspects of people’s every-day. She wants her work to communicate themes that lack reflection and are therefore often awkward and hidden. She has published three graphic novels Balkanalije (autobiography) in 2015, Pismo Adni (a visual and literary commentary about the refugee situation) in 2016 and Adna in 2020.
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Aleksandra Nina Knežević (Sarajevo 1973), graduated from the Academy of Arts (Cetinje, Montenegro). Her projects have been awarded worldwide and published in magazines specialised in design and art. In 2010, Knežević was listed among the 200 world’s best illustrators (Luerzer’s Archive: 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 09-10). From 2006-2010, she was President of the Bosnian Association of Applied Artist and Designers (ULUPUBiH). She is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo while also working.
Tanja Draškić Savić
Sergei Lebedev is a Russian writer whose books have been translated into 17 languages. Following his parents’ path, in his young age Lebedev worked in geologist expeditions. Since 2010 Lebedev has written five novels dedicated to the theme of the Soviet hidden past, the impact of Stalin’s repressions and its consequences in modern Russian life. The novels have been written through the lens of a family history and form a meta-novel which explores the Soviet totalitarian trauma.
Roland Tasho
Arian Leka, born in 1966, studied Music in his place of birth, Durrës and Albanian Language and Literature in Tirana. In 2004, he founded the International Poetry and Literature Festival, POETEKA, and since then has been the Chief Editor of the literary journal of the same name. Arian Leka has received several grants and prizes at home and abroad, including the prize of the Albanian Culture Ministry, which is one of the most highly regarded awards in Albania.
Edi Matić
Tomislav Marković, born in 1976, lives and works in Belgrade and is the author of poems, prose texts, and essays. His publications include Vreme smrti i razonode (2009) and the poetry collection Čovek zeva posle rata (2014). Some of his writing is available in Albanian, Slovene, English and Hungarian translation. Since 2016, Tomislav Marković is an author with Partizanska knjiga.
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Dragan Markovina, born in Mostar in 1981, is a historian, journalist, and author. Until 2014 he taught at Split Uiveristy. Today he is regular columnist for portals such as telegram.hr, Sarajevo’s Oslobođenje and Belgrade’s Peščanik. In addition, he is the producer and moderator of the TV show U kontru sa Draganom Markovinom. For his book, Između crvenog i crnog: Split i Mostar u kulturi sjećanja, he was awarded the Mirko Kovać Prize.
Tanja Draškić Savić
Andrej Nikolaidis, born in 1974, grew up in a Montenegrin-Greek family in Sarajevo. He lives and works as a freelance writer and journalist in Montenegro. He is well known for his relentless anti-war reportages and his unconditional campaigning against nationalism and for human rights. He is one of the most influential intellectuals of Southeast Europe. He wrote numerous columns and several novels as well as a short story collection. For his novel Sin [Son], he received the 2011 EU prize for literature.
gezett.de
Jörg Plath, born in 1960, is literary editor for „Deutschlandfunk Kultur“ and writes for „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“ as well as „Neue Zürcher Zeitung“. He worked as an editor, ghost writer and lector and was jury member for several awards (German Book Prize, International Literature Prize). Currently he is a jury member for Weltempfänger.
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Blerina Rogova Gaxha, born in Gjakova, Kosovo, 1982, is a poet, essayist, and journalist. She is the author of three volumes of poetry and has received many accolades, including the international Vilenica Literature Award. Her writing appears in renowned international anthologies and magazines. In German, her texts and poems have been published in the magazines Wespennest, Lichtungen and Beton as well as in the widely acclaimed anthology Grand Tour (Hanser 2019).
Dženat Dreković, NOMAD
Faruk Šehić, born in 1970 in Bihać, studied literature after the Bosnian war. He lives and works as a freelance writer in Sarajevo and publishes poetry, prose, essays, newspaper articles as well as literary and art reviews. He is regarded as one of the most talented young authors from the ex-Yugoslavian area. Some of his books, such as Hit depo, achieved cult status with readers and has had several new editions.
Blerta Hoçia
Shpëtim Selmani, born 1986, is a Kosovan writer and actor. He studied at the University of Prishtina and has acted on stage at home and abroad. His books include Shënimet e një Grindaveci (Hot-tempered Notes) published in 2015, followed by Selected Poems 2010-2017 – Poetry in Time of Blood and Despair (Multimedia, Prishtina) in 2017, and Libërthi i dashurisë (Booklet of Love) in 2019. Libërthi i dashurisë won the 2020 EU Prize for Literature.
Miriam Stanke
Tijan Sila was born in Sarajevo in 1981 and emigrated with his family to Germany in 1994. He studied German and English in Heidelberg. Today he lives in Kaiserslautern and works as a teacher. His debut novel, Tierchen unlimited, was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2017. His latest novel is Krach (2021).
Dirk Skiba
Slobodan Šnajder was born in Zagreb in 1948. He studied Philosophy and English at the University of Zagreb. Šnajder was the long-standing editor-in-chief of the Yugoslavian theatre magazine Prolog. Between 2001 and 2004 he was the director of the Zagreb Youth Theatre. His most renowned play internationally, Hrvatski Faust [The Croatian Faust], was staged at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim in 1982 and at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1993. His novel Doba mjedi won the Meša Selimović prize for the best novel of 2015 as well as several other prizes.
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Dubravka Stojanović is a historian and professor at Belgrade University. Her work focuses on democracy in Serbia and the Balkans, the interpretation of history in textbooks, social history, the process of modernisation, and the history of women in Serbia. She is vice-president of the History Education Committee and a consultant to the United Nations, working on issues concerning history, memory, and the misuse of history in education.
Dženat Dreković
Hana Stojić, born in Sarajevo in 1982, studied Translation Studies at Vienna University and works as a translator and cultural mediator. For her first translation into Bosnian, Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Liebhaberinnen, she received a translation prize awarded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Since 2008, she has been working for Traduki, helming the project since 2014.
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Mile Stojić, born in Dragičina, studied Yugoslav literature in Sarajevo and was the co-editor of several literary magazines. After his escapre from Sarajevo in 1992, he worked for ten years at the Institute for Slavic Studies at Vienna University. Today he lives as a poet, essayist, and editor in Sarajevo. Stojić is the author of more than 20 books, several of which are translated into different languages. He is member of the PEN Centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its Writers’ Association and the Writers’ Association of Croatia.
Daniel Végel
László Végel, born in 1941 in Srbobran/Sentomaš, studied Hungarian Language and Literary Sciences in Novi Sad and Philosophy in Belgrade. With Danilo Kiš, Aleksandar Tišma or Ottó Tolnai he is one of the great authors of Vojvodina. Végel published his first novel in 1967: the novel Egy makró emlékiratai [Memoirs of a Pimp] was, according to Péter Esterházy, „a milestone for modern Hungarian literature“. László Végel lives as a member of the Hungarian minority in Novi Sad.
Photo: vegeldaniel.com
Tanja Draškić Savić
Goran Vojnović was born in 1980 in Ljubljana. He graduated from the Academy for Film and Theatre in Ljubljana and is considered one of the most talented screenwriters and directors of his generations. His films have had a lot of success with the critics and the audience. Also an author of several novels that have been translated into many languages. He won the novel of the year award Kersnik two times, for his novels Jugoslavija, moja dežela and Figa.
Bastian Wartenberg
Anila Wilms, born in Tirana in 1971, has been living in Berlin since 1994. She studied at Tirana University and the Free University of Berlin. In 2012, she published her first novel in German, Das albanische Öl oder Mord auf der Straße des Nordens, for which she received the Adelbert Chamisso Promotional Prize (2013). Since 2016 she is working as a guest columnist for Deutsche Welle Online.
Carmela Žmirić
Zoran Žmirić was born in Rijeka in 1969. To date he has published nine books for which he has received several accolades. He is member of the Croatian Writers’ Association. His books are also available in English, Italian, Polish, Slovene and Ukrainian translation.
Credits: Lea Zupančič
Curator
Hana Stojić
Digital concept
Anna Götte, Hana Stojić
Team
Project management
Angelika Salvisberg
Coordination
Barbara Anderlič, Anna Götte
Web design
Barbara Anderlič, Matthew Morete
Illustrations
Lea Zupančič
Graphic design
Beate Zollbrecht
Talks at LCB
Concept
Ivan Marković
Director and cinematographer
Ivan Marković
Production
Hana Stojić
Editing
Berislav Župarić
Sound
Katharina Hauke, Philipp Fröhlich
Music
Enya Hutter
Cello
Lucas Götte
Technician
Berislav Zuparić
Productio assistant
Ljubica Šljukić Tucakov
Balkan Film Week
Curator
Marija Katalinić
Coordination
Barbara Anderlič
Graphic design
Janett Andrejewski
Archipelago Yugoslavia Essays
Editors
Marija Karaklajić and Hana Stojić
PR Archipel Jugoslawien
Projekt 2508
Mirjam Flender
Kirsten Lehnert
Svenja Pütz
Credits: Dženat Dreković
What to make of the end of the world? How does one keep on living after the apocalypse? Does time really heal all wounds? What to do with one’s own (and others’) nostalgia? And where do the countries of the former Yugoslavia find themselves today? Are these post-Yugoslav societies ready to face their past? And did not just Yugoslavia vanish from the face of the Earth but also the idea of Yugoslavism itself? Where the foundations of this state plain bad? Or did it really only need one wrong man at the top to take down the whole crumbling house? (What) can Europe learn from Yugoslavia’s mistakes?
Yugoslavia no longer exists. Since 30 years. The multinational state was dilapidated and in dire need of repair, but chances to democratically reform it were missed. Crimes, flight, expulsion, concentration camps and genocide were the consequence.
However, the countries that were once joined in brotherly union – only to separate in violence, share a cultural shared space. It is this shared space that the Traduki network – 360 months after the end of Yugoslavia – dedicates its Archipelago Yugoslavia programme to. Many of the erstwhile warring and sparring ex-Yugoslav countries work today side by side together with Traduki. They meet as equal partners and have accepted the challenge of the “Common Ground”. This is not something that should be taken for granted.
Common Ground goes digital: Because of the pandemic our programme must find its own wee space on the world wide web, our booth at the Leipzig Book Fair remaining yet another year unoccupied. But this is no obstacle for us. Together with our partner, the Leipzig Book Fair, and a slew of authors and participants from Southeast Europe, we have created our own digital world where to present our diverse, ambitious, and even controversial programme. Traduki already offers a myriad of inviting digital series online. Now, with Common Ground 2021, we dive even deeper into the world of hashtags and followers.
The Archipelago Yugoslavia programme is diverse and manifold. First, there are the 15 essays, penned by Southeast European writers from different generations and walks of life, where they tell their very own personal stories of the last 10950 days. Some of them witnessed the breakup of Yugoslavia as children, others as soldiers, others as refugees, yet others as émigrés. We are honoured that Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published six of these essays, all of them will be made available to read here in the coming weeks.
In addition to these essays, 10 digital events are the main focus of our programme, including talks on current events that impact Southeast Europe as well as Europe at large: Memories, assessments, but also a look into the future and the continued exploration of this geographical and cultural space in its European context.
Presentations of new releases from Southeast Europe in German translation also form part of our programme, especially books by the younger generation. But, alas, not everything that would be interesting for the German-speaking audience is already available in translation, which is why we also have presentations on books that have yet to find their place on the German book market.
The year 1991 did not just bring about changes in the southeast corner of Europe. 262800 hours have also passed since the Soviet Union took its final bow and the communist Enver regime in Albania folded. These key events have also found their way into our programme.
The Balkan Film Week is by now an integral part of our Leipzig programme and so we will present a well-curated film selection that opens up new views on Southeast Europe – for our audience in Leipzig as well as online.
Come with us to the Archipelago Yugoslavia, ponder over the past 1.576.800 minutes, but also dare to look into the future with us. It will hopefully make certain things imaginable again, things that seemed utterly impossible these last 946.080.000 seconds.
The full programme of past Traduki events at the Leipzig Book Fair 2020 can be viewed here:
Origin and Belonging 2020