The Center for Cultural Decontamination |October 2018

performingborders (Alessandra Cianetti): The Center for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD) is a ‘place where people come to feel free’. Since 1995 you have been proposing an internationally relevant and brave art programme as a way to challenge ‘nationalism, xenophobia, and any kind of violence’. After more than twenty years, how is the ‘decontamination’ going? What are the artistic, social and political strategies the CZKD has been implementing to keep being an active ‘institution of resistance’? I am also interested in knowing about your thinking on ‘borders’ – both as notion and lived experience – and how you think they have been impacting on the CZKD’s work over the years (if they did!).

Borka Pavićević (Founder and director of The Center for Cultural Decontamination, Serbia):

performingborders (Alessandra): During our conversation in Belgrade this Summer, I was intrigued by your four-year project Borderline Offensive – Laughing in the Face of Fear with its use of black humour as a way to redefine today’s Europe while collaboratively and inclusively reflecting on migration, social cohesion and the role of art in creating a collective identity. I would love to know more about the project and its international participants and partners. Also, given performingborders platform’s focus, I wonder if you could expand on the role that live and performance artists play in the project.

Lola Joksimović (The Center for Cultural Decontamination, Serbia):

Tiago Prata (TILTT, Sweden):

Comments from the Borderline Offensive Steering Committee Members (September 2018):

Abdullah Alkafri (Ettijahat Independent Culture, Syria):

Margarita Dorovska (House of Humor and Satire, Bulgaria):

Zuzana Kotikova (CIKE +KAIR, Slovakia):

Serra Ozhan (MitOst, Germany):

Junaid Sarieddeen (Zoukak Theater, Lebanon):

Despina Syrri (Symbiosis, Greece):

Saliha Yavuz (Turkey):

For more information on the Borderline Offensive – Laughing in the Face of Fear international project click here: www.czkd.org/en/cycle/borderline-offensive/

Featured image credits: The Center for Cultural Decontamination