Krzysztof Czyżewski at the EEPAP Conference in Lublin
The Eastern European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) picks up speed as the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the City of Lublin signed a bilateral agreement on the 22nd of October for Lublin to become the official partner of EEPAP. Lublin will become the platform's official headquarters as of January 2012
The Mayor of Lublin, Krzysztof Żuk and Paweł Potoroczyn, director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, signed the agreement at the Mayor's cabinet in Lublin's Town Hall. That evening, the I, CULTURE Orchestra performed the first concert of their European tour. The orchestra is a cultural initiative of the Eastern Partnership, promoting young musical talents from Eastern Europe.
EEPAP, a platform for international exchange of performing artists and curators from Central and Eastern Europe officialy launched its activity with an EEPAP conference in Kraków on the 5th and 6th of October. The project aims to create a network of performing artists who work in countries to the East of the EU.
Marta Keil, the author of the project and curator from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute explains:
The programme of activities put together by the platform is a result of many years' travels and meetings. It was created in cooperation with various independent practicioners and theoreticians of dance and theatre from the EEPAP member countries. Specially conducted research showed that borders of the Western European Schengen zone single out an area of cultural exchange and the flow of information about performing arts. Artists, curators, critics and theoreticians from countries outside of this area know very little of one another.
At present, members of the EEPAP come from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarussia, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic. The platform is to offer new possibilities of cooperation between young specialists of the region, facilitate contact between them and provide them with chances for instigating international projects. The network thus constructed will become a plaform, capable of applying for funding from the EU and creating its own projects.
The www.eepap.org official site was launched in order to facilitate the exchange of information and open new possibilities of cooperation. The site invites directors, actors, writers, playwrights, designers, and curators from Central and Eastern Europe to post their profiles with information and news of ongoing events, as well as audio and video links to their own websites.
The 6 months of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council are just the beginning of the platform's activities. Its projects already expand beyond the scope of the Polish Presidency: an educational programme for curators and producers and a residency programme for artists is planned for 2012, and further projects are under way for 2012-2014.
Date: 22nd of October, 2011
Venue: Lublin Town Hall, Lublin
Organised by: The City of Lublin, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Also see: I, CULTURE Orchestra at the Lublin Philharmonic