Institution Building and Cultural Ecology in Kosovo
Thursday, April 5th 7pm, KADIST office, Paris Talk by Ares Shporta, in conversation by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez Since the end of the war and now 10 years after the independence, “institution-building” has been an active part of the public vocabulary in Kosovo. While the phrase has been mainly used for political, economic and juridical institutions, little has been said in this regard about the legacy, function and the future of the cultural institutions. Political changes have affected both institutional and civic actors, while mainly citizens have tried to build and maintain a cultural ecology through a set of festivals, arts organizations and initiatives around spaces. Through the case of Lumbardhi Cinema in Prizren , Shporta will speak about the development of the independent scene since 1999 and discuss the future of the cultural system under conditions of normalized instability. Ares Shporta is a cultural worker based in Prizren. After studying cultural policy at the Istanbul Bilgi University, in 2015 he became the director of Lumbardhi Foundation, which was founded to continue the Initiative for the Protection of Lumbardhi Cinema. His work comprises of sustaining an active community of contributors around the initiative, coordinating the institutional and spatial re-thinking of the cinema and running the programs in its formative phase. Previously he has been engaged as a film producer and translator, while also working in different capacities in festivals, cultural networks and various civic platforms in Kosovo and its surrounding region. With the support of the Ambassade de la République du Kosovo en France.