Mladi levi festival: The Art of Engagement- round table

Asociacija, an association of 50 NGOs and 27 independent artists in the domain of culture and art, would like to introduce itself in the framework of The Mladi Levi Festival and thereby open a debate on the nature of possibilities which allow artists nowadays to respond to contemporary social questions, namely those that bear a direct link to the realities of their audiences.

For this purpose, Asociacija invited the dramaturge and intermedia artist Katarina Pejović to collaborate, an artist known to inscribe a reflective stance towards the social and political roles of art in her own artistic endeavours.

Contemporary movements of both global and local scope will serve as a referential framework for a debate that the public is to open together with Ms Pejović dealing with the specificities of engaged art. What is the difference– if there is one at all, that is– between political and social engagement? Can the position embedded in the phrase “art for art’s sake” be considered problematic without succumbing to the model which inherently pushes artists to perform secondary and at times even service-like tasks, if they want to stay true to producing art in the first place?

The debate will help us establish whether there is such a thing as a meeting point between a responsive stance towards the social environment and artistic endeavour, existing beyond the forced connections often offered by various financing programmes. Asociacija and its activities will also be presented in the framework of the round-table discussion.

Moderator: Katarina Pejović, dramaturge and intermedia artist
The round-table discussion has been prepared by: Katarina Pejović and Meta Štular