Project »From People To People« in Peace Messenger City of Slovenj Gradec is incorporated in European Capital of Culture Programme Maribor 2012. It is a multi-layered open-air event to celebrate International Peace Day 2012. Traditional »Peace Festival« in the Peace Messenger City of Slovenj Gradec promotes Culture of Peace through activities of different non-governmental institutions and is therefore linked with issues related to ideas of social participation, urban public space and social inclusion. Project addresses citizens which are no longer just passive consumers of urban spectacle but important participants in democratic opinion and decision making as well as critical and active subjects of renewal of social and natural environment. This year festival will be a joint project with “Festival of Otherness” organized by Paraplegics Association of Koroška.
All-day performance is complemented by inauguration of the International Children Drawings And Literary Contest sponsored by City Municipality of Slovenj Gradec under this year topics dedicated to “EY2012: European Year of Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity”, “International Year of Cooperatives 2012” and “International Year of Sustainable Energy For All”, and also by the openig of the exhibition “Public Speech” at Koroška Art Gallery (on display until October 28th).
International art-project “Public Speech” was made in co-operation with artist tadej pgačar and P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Art presenting commissioned works of art by Abaz Dizdarević (Montenegro), Polonca Lovšin (Slovenia), Maria Papadimitriou (Greece), Darinka Popmitić (Serbia), Isa Rosenberger (Austria) and Alma Suljević (Bosnia/Herzegovina). Participating artist's inter-action confronts situations in different urban milieus of chosen European Cities, also in the »new democracies« of Eastern Europe and in circumstances of specific local traditions traumatized by the conflicts in recent history. Goal of the project is to challenge different aspects of European self-consciousness through art and to detect (di)similarities between different cultural traditions on one hand and to recognize unpredictable situations and critical elements which have the potential to create positive force against totalization and uniformity, in order to meet and promote cultural diversity as one of the basic principles of the EU.