The West Is The Best

I was born and raised in Belgrade, where I also lived for the first 30 years of my life (like many others, indeed!) So, for that 30 years, what is a proximately 3 quarters of my life, I met thousands of people, I got to know closely hundreds of them etc. etc. but still, I do have difficulties to remember someone who did not have someone (brother, aunt, friend, uncle...) leaving abroad. This fact, I thought, must have made a serious influence on our (global) perception on West and our self-image, in relation to the West.

Summerschool The West is The Best is a participatory workshop developed specially so that above described influence could be spotted, played or visualized. Within the format of the (summer)school, together with six other core-artist, we welcomed numerous od guests and developed a week-lab for co-thinking and co-creating around this very question - 'Is the West best?

As some of the 'students' of our summer school were 'locals' and the rest flew over from 'the West', answers that we collected through this one-week gathering, went beyond the expectations.

Maker, Vera Stevanovc, who successfully collects rivers through last 30 years, (started in 1991, a proximately at the time ex-YU wars started) spends significant time with us meticulously searching for that one common small object that could connect the idea of all (river) flows with that of the social flows, mirrored onto common, shared social responsibility. Designer, Brana Lucic. Artist & Scenographer Lot Lemm. Visual dramaturg & light designer Koen Raes. Play-writer for youth and oldery Irena Adamovic. Actrice Tamara Olajic.