Bad Ischl in Austria, Tartu in Estonia and Bodo in Norway are the cultural capitals of Europe this year. They prepare cultural spectacles there
Bad Ischl is a well-known tourist destination in Austria, a picturesque alpine town near Salzburg, where the former Austrian nobility used to go on vacation. Deutsche says.
Tourism - and today's flood of tourists is one of the motives for many of the 300 cultural projects organized by Bad Ischl together with 22 surrounding towns that were included in the World Cultural Heritage in 1997.
As Elizabeth Schweger, the curator of the program there, explains, the goal is to "illuminate the positive and negative sides of the entire region, and not just make fireworks or some kind of festival out of it."
But there must still be a spectacle: at the opening on January 20, Tom Neuwirth - much better known as the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest Conchita Wurst, who comes from that region, will perform, together with rappers and a chorus of yodelers with a thousand participants.
Another important motive for cultural events, apart from the beautiful landscape, was the reason for the wealth of the area and the flood of tourists, which is why Salzburg got its name - after the salt deposits.
"We emerged from salt, we became rich from salt, and with it we are going into the future," sums up Schweger. "Now it's time to add one more element as necessary: culture, it is the engine for coexistence."
The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will also show his view of the exploitation of salt in that area, and a special event is being organized about the abuse of the local salt mines during the Nazi era - there they tried to hide the works of art they plundered all over Europe.
Although much larger, Tartu in the east of Estonia is not so well known. In fact, with its one hundred thousand inhabitants, it is the second largest city in the country. Tartu is an ancient university city that belonged to the association of Hanseatic trading cities in the early Middle Ages.
"Tartu has always been the center of science, education and culture in Estonia," boasts Mayor Urmar Klass.
It is one of the oldest cities in the entire Baltic, and there was also the cradle of Estonian national consciousness, the birthplace of the Estonian song festival, the cradle of Estonian theater and, in fact, the entire country.
It was there in February 1920 that the peace agreement with the Soviet Union was signed - in which the communists from Moscow recognized the sovereignty of Estonia, which was only created in 1918.
However, as in many other agreements with the Kremlin, that independence did not last long, so that, quite appropriately for that Baltic country, the main motive of the manifestation is the "art of survival".
The opening will be on January 26 with a specially composed anthem of Tartu as the "city of young blood".
However, in the "art of survival" the most important thing was to be humorous: in the summer, the mass kissing event "Kissing Tartu" will be held, "Naked Truth" - a polemic festival in the sauna - will be held for the first time, and the play " Business as usual" about the Danske Bank money laundering scandal in Estonia.
Tartu Pride will also be held in August - from this new year, same-sex marriage is also legally allowed in Estonia.
The third cultural capital of Europe, Norway's Bodo, is special for at least two reasons: it lies all the way to the north along the west coast of Norway and will thus be the first capital to be located above the Arctic Circle.
Another feature is the space where more than a thousand events will be held: they will be across the vast region of Nordland, which stretches for about 800 kilometers.
And there, the stunning beauty of arctic nature is one of the main attractions that organizers hope will attract half a million visitors in 2024. That is why the relationship with nature and sustainability is one of the main motives and Bodo wants to be the "most sustainable" cultural capital ever.
"Bodø2024" is the biggest cultural event ever organized in that part of Norway. Thus, the culture of the Sami, the indigenous population of the area, will have a special place, but it is also the culture of today.
Thus, already at the opening on February 3, a spectacle will be arranged on the floating stage in the port of Bodo, and a special manifestation will be held on June 22, on a day that has no night so far north.
Special manifestations of light will be organized next November and December when the sun hardly rises at all.
The Association of Literary Translators of Serbia and the PEN Center gave the most votes to Ljubinka Milinčić in the proposal for a national pension. After that, three members resigned from the Association
Atelier 212 celebrates its anniversary on Sunday, November 15 at 8:30 p.m. on stage "Peter Kralj" - 100th performance of the play "Constellations"
Goran Kosanović, the author of the novel "Inside the Eternal Present" talks to those who have left a mark on culture, connects their times with ours, and it is very inspiring
In Belgrade, someone wrote graffiti on the window of the Salon of the City Museum, where the exhibition of the October Salon is held. The graffiti was removed by the end of business hours. The perpetrator should have been captured by security cameras
I hope that the new generations, with a very clear attitude towards the past, not agreeing to revisionism and indoctrination and respecting the decisions of international courts, will break away from nationalist ideologies and start building a different society
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Interview: Branko Stamenković, public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office
A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
