KROKODIL IN KRAKOW: SPACES OF FREEDOM AT CONRAD FESTIVAL

28 Oct KROKODIL IN KRAKOW: SPACES OF FREEDOM AT CONRAD FESTIVAL

After the Berlin International Literature Festival and Lesen.Hören Literary Festival in Mannheim, KROKODIL visited Krakow’s Conrad Festival, one of the most well-known international literary events in Poland, where we presented our program “Spaces of Freedom: Showcasing Contemporary Literary Creativity from Southeast Europe”.

Just like in Berlin and in Mannheim, we were once again greeted by a very curious and engaged audience, further demonstrating a clear interest in literature from Southeast Europe and its place in a broader international context. Both venues where we had our events were full, and the program and participants themselves were very warmly and positively received.

We are truly grateful to everyone who attended and to the Conrad Festival for hosting us.

The program aimed to provide a relevant presentation of the contemporary literary scene from the Southeast corner of the European continent. Four contemporary authors, expressing themselves in both prose and poetry, were presented through readings and short onstage interviews. The program also featured two dynamic panel discussions tackling some of the most pressing topics concerning the region.

In the first panel, Milena Berić explored what the Balkans truly are—a shared cultural space in flux—through a conversation with two distinguished authors who live, work, and create within its often ambiguous boundaries: Rumena Bužarovska from North Macedonia and Radmila Petrović from Serbia. In the next panel, Vladimir Arsenijević attempted to untangle the complex linguistic situation in the region, created after the shared language —Serbo-Croatian—fractured into four distinct linguistic variants, each with its own political implications, and exploring how it impacts everyday communication as well as reading, writing, and speaking across the region. He engaged with interlocutors from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — Mima Simić and Faruk Šehić—to shed light on how this linguistic divide influences regional relationships and individual identities.

Afterwards, during the dynamic and lively evening program in the unique space of an alternative cultural venue, Ogniwo Cooperative, four authors: Rumena Bužarovska from North Macedonia, Radmila Petrović from Serbia, Faruk Šehić and Tanja Stupar Trifunović from Bosnia and Herzegovina, went on stage, read from their works and conversed with Mima Simić, herself an accomplished author and translator, who also happens to be a regular, idiosyncratic and well-loved presenter of KROKODIL Festival in Belgrade, Serbia. The break in the middle of the program was reserved for a mini concert by Ana Ćurčin, a singer-songwriter from Serbia, who merges music, text, and video into new performance forms, creating her distinctive and authentic style that captivated the audience.

It was truly an exciting and inspiring day in Krakow, at the Conrad festival, and we do hope to present our programs at even more international literary platforms in the future!

The program was co-funded by the European Union.

Photographs: Kuba Szada (Courtesy of the EEAS) and Alicja Rzepa (KBF)