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Interview to Dragan Protic + Djordje Balmazovic (SKART, a founder of HORKESKART) in Jun.2006 
*How did you start HORKESKART? We formed SKART group in 1990. We have had some street-actions so far. For the show-presentation of our street-actions "YOUR SHIT - YOUR RESPONSIBILITY" (stick the flag that was designed as meaning prohibition of left dog shit, to the dog shit on the street) in Center for Cultural Decontamination (Belgrade, November 2000), we decided to form extended collective - choir and orchestra. Informed by radio B92 - announcement, more than 50 people came and all of them were immediately accepted, without audition and music-talent checking. It became the rule - everybody can sing or play in HORKESKART. 
*What is the concept?- Openness of the collective: everybody can join - even without music talent - To recognize cultural margins: performing in forgotten/unused public spaces - To use traditional form of choir/orchestra to develop experimental collective - To research through different music traces (from post-revolutionary songs from 50's and 60's to singing poetry, ex-Yugoslav and international poets and off poetry scene, rearranging sub-culture songs and, finally, starting with own authors production) - To involve choreography/costumes - To brake cultural/political prejudices and xenophobia by traveling/performing out of Belgrade (80% of people in Serbia never traveled abroad, 70% of students even don't have a passport) - To create critical opinion about society now, or make songs about it - To activize collective (45 people) in different, not only music-issues *Please let us know about your activity as artists in the field of contemporary art. As we mentioned, we formed SKART group in 1990. through the group-work we tried to develop various collaboration strategies and media-crossing experiments (as choir is one of them). In two words: design + poetry + art-books-production + street-actions + collaborations. *You are contemporary artists & designers. Why you start HORKESKART? . Exchange of (artistic) experience is necessary. After 10 years in SKART we decided to share it with the newcomers - ones without art-skills and art-carrier-soldiers. Now, after 6 years, it looks it functions!  *What do you think about present contemporary art scene? . We are not following art scene so strictly. It's happening always - the know-everything-ones don't have time to work - they are over-informed and creatively-useless. Importance is to be ready receive some new things and to react on time. In general - art scene seems to be very dispersed, sometimes very polarized - and more end more engaged, dealing more with so called "political" topics (everything is political now). *Please let us know about general HORKESKART's activities. . As we mentioned, constant action (creating new repertoire, perform-visiting new places, sharpening criticism)... *Please let us know about the program (concept and explanation of some pieces) at solitude. . Solitude concert had premiere on May 1st in Kassel's Fridericianum as the opening program for the exhibition "Collective Creativity". For this occasion we prepared block of revolutionaries songs. Exhibition was about international collective experiences and Horkeskart was the only music-collective which took part in it. Second and third part of the concert are short-cuts of our previous works. Accent is on "singing poetry" and open-Yugoslav list of poets. It means not only Serbian, but also Macedonian, Bosnian, Croatian, Slovenian.... And, of course, some others, like French, Korean, wherever they are from. Avant-garde classics in the same line with punk poets. Cultural/political break. What do you think about present situation in Serbia? . In the moment (which lasts for several years) Serbia is divided - retrograde traces are stronger and louder day by day. There is huge lack of any kind of vision, solidarity and optimism. But... there is, also, another side... |