Dysfunctional cultural line

Except perhaps for the film, which I'm sure circulated more often and more easily within the region, a more or less similar situation as with the theater, I believe it is with other arts as well. The balance is this: dysfunctional and broken cultural lines, lines loaded with prejudices, with symbolism and political charges, and lines without interest in communicating with each other.

Cultural exchange and cooperation in the region, for all these 30 or so years, has happened at the most basic levels; rarely, symbolically, politically charged, and more often, that cooperation has not happened at all. A theater performance from Kosovo appeared for the first time in Podgorica only in 2023, and probably a theater performance from Albania appeared for the first time in Sarajevo only in 2024. On the other hand, no one remembers that any show of Montenegro has been shown in Tirana, much less that any show from Albania has been shown in Zagreb or Ljubljana. 

As for the theater, in recent years, there have mostly been exchanges and co-productions between artists and cultural organizations from Kosovo and Serbia. There is much to be said about these collaborations and exchanges, and at many levels, but what has stood out is the political burden imposed by the context and the symbolic act of exchange itself, which has usually drowned out and overshadowed any other debate and discussion. substantive for the artistic product itself. This cooperation and cultural exchange has often been confronted with the banalities that have accompanied Kosovo-Serbia relations in these post-war years. When a few years ago "Multimedia Center" from Prishtina and "Radionica Integracija" from Bograd realized the play "Romeo and Juliet", with Serbian and Albanian actors, the premiere at the National Theater in Belgrade seriously questioned. What turned out to be a challenging issue, seriously challenging, were the logos of the sponsors and those who had supported the realization of the show. More precisely: how could the logos of the Ministry of Culture of Serbia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, which had also sponsored the show, be placed on a poster?! A two-month work of over 20 artists was in danger of being undone with the greatest of ease. 

Except perhaps for the film, which I'm sure circulated more often and more easily within the region, a more or less similar situation as with the theater, I believe it is with other arts as well. The balance is this: dysfunctional and broken cultural lines, lines loaded with prejudices, with symbolism and political charges, and lines without interest in communicating with each other. The little that has been done in this direction is the merit of some individual artists and those few independent cultural organizations, which, however, have persistently and fearlessly carried the flag of regional cultural communication.

This text was originally published in "Novosti" of Zagreb 

www.portalnovosti.com/prekinute-linije

also Culture Supplement 2 August 2026 "Manifesta 14" and the state's naivety of five million euros

It is published in Albanian with the permission of the author.

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