10 years Gulliver Connect - 03-05-2007

Connecting Artists in Europe, Russia and beyond

Gulliver Connect is now the longest established mobility and work placement programme in Europe. It promotes international cultural co-operation among artists and cultural operators. On May 11 and 12 it will celebrate its 10th anniversary with former visitors and host organisations from the EU member states, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Turkey.

Thanks to its dynamic network of cultural organisations throughout Europe, Gulliver Connect is able to reach a range of host organisations from various disciplines to match the individual needs and talents of the selected visitors.
While the host organisations find valuable working partners for the future, the visitors develop their professional skills on the job and establish new forms of international co-operation. They are mostly independent self-supporting art professionals who present a new non-mainstream avant-garde in countries in transition. It is not easy to stick to your dreams in a society where culture suffers from a lack of interest and money and where the worst form of capitalism is in charge. Participants discover working environments so different from their own. For example Gulliver Connect has created matches between Cluj and London, Zagreb and Krasnoyarsk, Sofia and Almaty, Graz and Istanbul and Avignon an Ljubljana. Through Gulliver Connect they also become part of the larger networks of Felix Meritis such as The Amsterdam-Maastricht University, The People Network, and get invited to larger conferences as Forum Belgrade (March 2007, http://www.forumbelgrade.net/) or the bi-annual Berlin Conference A Soul for Europe (http://www.berlinerkonferenz.eu/.

As one of the participant from Czech Republic, working as free lance contemporary theatre projects producer in Prague said: “My placement was divided in several parts such as: getting to know the Red House team; helping co-organise ‘Goat Milk festival’ by The New Culture Foundation; pre-organising first meetings with Bulgarian artists and managers; visiting and participating at the conference ‘Performing Arts sector – European horizons’, during festival Varna Summer; visiting Dance BC association in Bourgas; meetings with local managers, producers, art practitioners and Czech companies operating on the Bulgarian market in order to discuss possibilities for co-operation with the festival “Week of Czech contemporary theatre’. The visit totally overcame even the most secret expectations and it was really great.”

Gulliver Connect has invited former visitors and hosts from the visual arts scene such as Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Centre, Istanbul, Turkey; Ars DOR ngo Chisinau, Moldova; Alt Art Foundation, Cluj, Romania; from the festival organizations Golden Mask Festival, Moscow, Russia; Maszk Association Szeged, Hungary; Nitra Festival, Nitra, Slovakia; festival Theatre in a Suitcase, Sofia; Aquarius Era, Bourgas and Rodopi Art Centre, Bostina, Bulgaria; Associazione Spina, Ferrara, Italy; HIGHFEST International Theatre festival, Yerevan, Armenia; from the media Radio Free Liberty, Kiev, Ukraine; Add Multi media company, Bucharest, Romania; from the performing arts Media Artes, Ohrid, Macedonia; Contemporary theatre projects production, Prague, Czech Republic; from cultural organisations The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate, Sofia, Bulgaria; The Caucasus Foundation, Tblisi, Georgia; Arts & Business, London; and Kulturkontakt Austria.

For the latest information please check: http://www.gulliverconnect.org