04 - allianz main partner, the allianz cultural foundation from berlin, helped us to host alida...

04081216182834

VENUES

FESTIVAL

PROGRAMME

INTRODUCTIONS

MOSTAR

ILLUSTRATED

PREVIOUS FESTIVALS

PHOTO GALLERY

SPONSORS

BIOGRAPHIES

LOCATION Ghetto Club, Dosud ulica 10, Split

20.00h Lindita Arapi, Renato Baretić, Mirko Božić,

Thomas Brussig, Julia Franck, Edi Matić, Jurica Pavičić, Ivana Sajko,

Olja Savičević Ivančević HOSTS Alida Bremer and Mario Glavaš

LOCATION Restoran Didaktik

15.00h Meet&Greet

LOCATION Galerija Rondo, Trg Hrvatskih Velikana bb

17.00h In Conversation: Alida Bremer & Ivana Sajko:

On theater and prose: Zagreb and Berlin, Pula and Split, language,

translation, reading classics and interpreting reality

LOCATION Lenjinovo šetalište / Lenin’s promenade

18.30h Around the World: United World College and OŠ Petar

Bakula Students read poetry in their native languages

LOCATION HD HS Kosača, Trg Hrvatskih Velikana bb

20.30h Video: Anna Best-Film

21.00h Ladies First: Europe in Crisis, Part 1: How authors view

Europe today and discuss topics concerning their interests Lindita

Arapi, Tea Tulić, Ivana Sajko, Julia Franck HOST Tina Laco

22.30h After Party: DJ Maja

20.SeptemberSplit, CRO

Split CitiesPoligonPreview

21.SeptemberMostar, B&H

FestivalPoligon

festival poligon2017 pg 5


LOCATION Fra Grga Martić Gymnasium, Kralja Tomislava 9A

11.00h Locally and Universally: Marko Gregur, On dialectal literature in Croatia

LOCATION United World College, Španjolski Trg 1

11.00h Brexit: Europe in Crisis, Part 2: Niall Griffiths & Tony White

Lecture on Brexit and literature


15.00h In Conversation: Lindita Arapi & Jonathan Bousfield

Literature in migration HOST Katrin Thomaneck

LOCATION Ćorović House, Maršala Tita 178

19.00h In Conversation: Tony White&Niall Griffiths

Reading of The Fountain In the Forest by Tony White/with Igor Vidačković HOST

Mirko Božić

LOCATION Pavarotti Music Center, Maršala Tita 179

20.30h Divided Cities, Divided Regions, Divided Continents: Europe in

Crisis, Part 3: Radek Knapp, Thomas Brussig, Edi Matić, Ahmed Burić, Andrej

Nikolaidis/with Igor Vidačković HOSTS Alida Bremer & Mirko Božić

22.00h After Party: Orhan Maslo, Vjeka&Dane Concert


FestivalPoligon


FestivalPoligon


FestivalPoligon

LOCATION United World College, Španjolski Trg 1 16.00h Anita

Pajević and Ivan Šunjić-Engagement and Empathy in Literature

LOCATION Mostar City Library, Trg Hrvatskih Velikana bb

17.00h In Conversation: Thomas Brussig and Radek Knapp

Humor in literature: The boundaries of political Correctness, playing

with genres and styles/with Igor Vidačković HOST Mirko Božić


19.00h In Conversation: Julia Franck & Mirko Božić

Two different voices, one audience: the novels West & Kristalno

zvono HOST Seid Serdarević

LOCATION Black dog Pub, Jusovina 5

20.30h Culture of Periphery/with Igor Vidačković

Mili Đukić, Tony White, Niall Griffiths, Marko Gregur, Stevan

Tatalović HOST Mirko Božić

22.30h After Party: Tale Quale, Ahmed Burić: medley

LOCATION City park, Trg Hrvatskih Velikana

12.00h Literary Picnic- guest authors

festival poligon2017

festival poligon2017pg 6 pg 7

Michael Thoss, Allianz Cultural Foundation

This year, the Allianz Cultural Foundation is a committed partner in organizing a long literary summer by

participating in debates, readings and performances in Berlin, Marseille, Mostar, Priština, Ptuj, Sarajevo,

Skopje and Warsaw, all of which deal in different ways with the momentarily delicate situation in Europe.

Literature crosses all borders when regarded in the context of translation (the real language of Europe, according

to Umberto Eco). This is why this encounter and discussion with foreign authors is a natural step towards

overcoming bigotry and prejudice, nationalism and antipathy towards strangers. Simultaneously, by carefully

listening we discover stories that bring us together in joy and sorrow and point towards a possible unified future.

Since Mostar and Berlin share a common history as divided cities, and the festival Poligon is opening up towards

the world, we feel as close allies and want to help build bridges of understanding from Mostar towards the rest

of Europe. We are convinced that the recognition of cultural diversity strengthens social cohesion within Europe.

Which is why, since 2000, the Allianz Cultural Foundation funds cultural projects in which several countries of

Europe and the Mediterranean region are involved.



Alida Bremer,European Literature as an Exchange of Poetics and Experiences

Mirko Božić, Festival Poligon

The launch of this year’s Poligon Festival is scheduled in Split, where the authors from Berlin and Vienna on

their way to Mostar will read from their works and discuss about different European issues with authors

from Split. The representatives of the Allianz Cultural Foundation, one of this year’s most important partners

of the Poligon Festival, will also be present on this first festival evening in Split and later in Mostar. This event is

co-organized with the cultural non-profit association Kurs from Split, which is in charge of the most important

writer-and-artist-in-residence program in Croatia, „Marko Marulić“. The September guest of the residency, the

British multimedia artist Anna Best, will present her work both in Split and Mostar.

The participants from Germany and Austria will be joined in Mostar by authors from Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, the UK and Slovenia. This international gathering will provide an

insight for the local audience into the new poetics and themes dominating European literatures today. The authors

will be discussing different issues like translation and reception of literature, the literary market, the differences

between poetry, prose and drama today, the local and global problems of language and literature, dialects and

also the literature of so-called migrant writers who have left their language and country. The authors will also talk

about the fall of the Berlin Wall and its consequences, about “split cities”, about borders in Europe nowadays,

about Brexit and the EU.

During the Poligon Festival Mostar will become a place of European communication and exchange of

experiences. Authors from German-speaking countries will share some biographical experiences with the authors from

Southeastern Europe, such as the experience of life in a socialist system, and the problems of transition. Lindita Arapi

comes from Albania but lives in Germany; Radek Knapp is originally from Poland but lives in Austria as well as Thomas

Brussig and Julia Franck who were both born in Eastern Germany, in divided Berlin. The guests from the UK, who

are writing from the position of the most dominant language in Europe, will talk about their interests in the region of

Southeastern Europe and about their views of a polyphonic European community of languages and literatures.

Writers are used to describing precisely their feelings, memories and perceptions, stimulating their

readers’ memories and thoughts. This ability is especially important in our times filled with electronic images

and quick, superficial communication and an influx of information. That is a reason why an international literary

festival as a place of direct encounters with authors could be a precious oasis in a world full of fears and everyday

worries on one hand, and superficial entertainment on the other.

Arsen Dedić once said that “Mostar was a city with a hundred thousand poets”. The local literary scene

is an important part of this cultivated myth about the city as an intersection of cultures. Places like the

Svetozar Ćorović house and events like the Aleksa Šantić Poetry Festival have a long pre-war tradition.

Since 2015 the Poligon Festival is a natural continuation of this cultural tradition in the city of Mostar. The

name Poligon suggests the essence of our program: multimedia, multiculturalism and accompanying programs

promoting the cultural and natural heritage of Mostar and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The leading thought from

the very beginning was the reactivation of the literary scene and repositioning the city within the regional scene.

During the festival, Mostar becomes the meeting place of authors presenting their work for local audiences.

A literature happening here and now, in a natural cohabitation with visual art, music and other forms of artist

expression is also prevalent in Mostarian society. This way, through direct contact with authors and their

languages, we broaden our audience and allow different cultures to expand beyond the confines of enclosed

institutional spaces, into the streets, parks and pubs. The paradigm of perception of literature shifts together

with an approach centered onto the audiences and works as communication with the audience.

This year, in the third edition of the festival, for the very first time, we’re hosting guests from all

over Europe- not just from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, but also from

the UK, Germany and Albania. Our main partner, the Allianz Cultural Foundation from Berlin, helped us to host

Alida Bremer, Thomas Brussig, Radek Knapp, Julia Franck, Lindita Arapi and Ivana Sajko, while the network

Traduki helped us to host some authors from Southeastern Europe like Andrej Nikolaidis. The program starts

on September 21st with an evening called Ladies First and a film screening by Anna Best. Ahmed Burić will be

treating us with a medley of his own, among other things. Besides a real treat - a literary picnic in the city park

with our authors - there is a new program called In Conversation, with our guests addressing different subjects.

The icing on our literary cake is called Around the world, with the students from the United World College

reading poetry for local citizens. We certainly wouldn’t be able to organize such a huge undertaking without the

generous help of our partners - Allianz Cultural Foundation, HD HS Kosača, Pavarotti Music Center, the United

World College, the City of Mostar, Mostar Youth Council, the network Traduki, OSCE and others. Their support

shows that Mostar still indeed is - and always will be - a city with a hundred thousand poets.



This is one of the primary venues for arts&culture in town, and one of the three venues of Poligon ever since its

beginning. A monumental building housing two art galleries, a concert hall and an amphiteather, it seems to be

hugging the Rondo with both of its wings. Built in the 1960s by the architect Reuf Kadić, in its entrance hall it

boasts a group of copper bas-reliefs representing different art genres. Usually during daytime, the buildings seems

like a music box due to the piano sounds coming through the windows of the music school in the upper floors.

HD HS Kosača



The famous Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti founded the

Pavarotti Music Center in the building of a former school

in 1997 as a place of gathering around music and other

forms of art. Todays, it is, among other things, famous for

the Mostar Blues Festival and the Rock School attended

by the local youth. The Center has been a partner of

Poligon ever since the beginning of the project. It also

hosts exhibitions, art performances and readings.

The local literature museum is located in the house of

the local author Svetozar Ćorović, who lived in the house

and which is also known as the place where Aleksa

Šantić, one of the the most recognized authors from

the city, died in 1924. The three attractions of the house

are rooms dedicated to three authors Aleksa Šantić,

Svetozar Ćorović and Hamza Humo, with a display of

their manuscripts, furnishings and personal belongings.

Behind the house itself is a garden with a great view of

the river Neretva which hosts literary programs and this

year, for the first time, Poligon as well.

The building of the Gymnasium from the 19h century is one of the most famous examples of pseudo-Moorish style

in Bosnia and Herzegovina,practiced in architecture during the Habsburg period after the Berlin Congress, when

the country was proclaimed corpus separatum of the empire. The Gymnasium is famous for its long tradition and

the many famous alumni, both locally and abroad, who attended it, like the 19th century poet Aleksa Šantić and

the writer Predrag Matvejević. Ever since 2006, the building is also the host of one of the branches of the United

World College, which has been the educational&meeting point of generations of international and local students

who encounter the many dimensions of the city and make new friends from all around the world. The college has

been very active in different programs of collaboration with the local community.

Pavarotti Music Center

The Svetozar Ćorović House

United World College



Born in 1972, the Albanian author and journalist

is listed among the most important contemporary

Albanian writers. She has been living in Germany

since the late 1990s, where she published several

books of poetry. The poetry collection By the Sea,

By Night (2007) was her first published in German

translation. Her first novel Vajzat me çelës was

awarded Book of the Year in 2010 in Albania and

was translated into several languages.

Born in London in 1965, a multimedia artist dealing

with an exploration of the local and particular of

narrative structures and the complicated process

of creating art with others. Her work covers a wide

range of media, publishing books, websites, film

and live events.

Lindita Arapi

AnnaBest

Photo Credit Peckham Platform



Born in Mostar in 1982, where he graduated in

English and Croatian. He writes poetry, prose,

reviews and columns. After three books of poetry

and a monograph called Mostar-Behind the Scenes

(2017), he published the novel The Crystal Bell. He

is the director of the international literary festival

Poligon, and he was included into anthologies

and magazines at home and abroad, and has

participated in several literary festivals. He is the

winner of four literary awards, the CEI Fellowship

Award (2014) among others, and a participant of

the Serbian theater play Ljudi iz struke (2010) and

the German movie Home Stories.

Born in Split in 1959, Bremer is a Croatian and

German writer, translator and a literary theorist.

She studied comparative literature, Romanistics

and Slavistics at the universities in Belgrade, Rome,

Saarbrücken and Münster. She was the creator

of the Croatian Guest-of-Honour program at the

Leipzig Book Fair in 2008. She published numerous

translations of Croatian authors into German and

she edited many anthologies. Her prose, essays

and poetry were published in magazines und

newspapers in Croatia, Germany and in Austria. In

2013 she published the novel Oliva’s Garden.

A writer and journalist working in the field of

tourism and culture, he was lucky enough to get

to know Zagreb at a time when its underground

features were just beginning to recover from the

wartime and postwar depression of the 90s. He

dived into the city’s scene and immersed himself

in it, but his British background and writing skills

allowed him to perceive it from a certain distance

too, thus managing to paint a picture of the town

characterized both by fondness and objectivity. He

wrote the comic strip Crimson Lagoon with artist

Igor Hofbauer, and also runs Stray Satellite (www.

straysatellite.com), a blog dedicated to culture,

history and the occasional bit of travel.

Born in 1965 in East Berlin, where he studied

Sociology and Dramaturgy. He debuted on the

German literary scene in 1991 after the fall of the

Berlin Wall with the novel Watercolours , and got his

breakthrough with the novel Heroes Like Us (1995).

His third novel, At the Shorter End of the Sonnenallee

(1999), was also a bestseller, whereas the movie

based on it won the award for the film of the year

in Germany. The monologue How to Become a Man

bedazzled the audience both as a short story and

a theater play. In his most recent novel Look at the

Light, set between the summers of 1989 and 1990,

he described the disappearance of the GDR.

Mirko Božić

AlidaBremer

Jonathan Bousfield

Thomas Brussig

Photo Credit Ambra Durante

Photo Credit Denis Kapetanović



Born in Sarajevo in 1967, he is a journalist, poet,

literary critic, publisher and script writer. He has been

translated into English, French, Czech and Slovenian;

he himself translates from Slovenian into Bosnian. He

translated Forgive Me, Poetry (1999) by Esad Babačić

and Bye,Bye Foreigners (Goran Vojović, 2009). His

own most important works are God of Transition

(2004) and The Last Tears of Blood and Oil (2010).

He was the author and journalist of the film Siege,

about the siege of Sarajevo (1997), and wrote the

script for a short movie called 724 by Dino Mustafić

in 1998. Also, he was one of the producers of the

movie Christians of the East, Muslims of the West by

Jacques Debs and Mesut Tufan and collaborated in

the film Corner Images by Jasmila Žbanić.

Born in East Berlin in 1970, at the age of eight she

moved with her sisters and mother to West Berlin.

She debuted in the literary scene in 1995 with a

win at the Open Mike, the Berlin competition for

young writers. Her first novel, The New Cook was

published in 1997, two years later followed by

Loveservant. In 2003, the novel West was published,

and in 2007 Lady Midday, which was awarded with

the prestigious German Book Prize. Her books are

translated into more than 30 languages.

Born in Mostar in 1987, he is a DJ and the author of

two books of poetry: Collected Works From a Body

Distraught (2014) and A Hard Winter is Coming

(2015). He lives and works in Mostar.

Born in Koprivnica in 1982, a writer of prose and

poetry published in numerous magazines in Croatia

and abroad. He won several literary awards, the

Prozak for the best prose author under 35 in Croatia.

The author of the poetry book Lyrical Graphomania

(2011), the prose books FIAT 126 (2012) and A Great

Day for Drinkopoly (2014). The novel And So Burneth

the Holy Trombetassicz is his most recent publication

(2017). He was included into the anthology of young

Croatian novelists No Knocking, No Doors (2012).

Ahmed Burić

Julia Franck

Mili Đukić

Marko Gregur

Photo Credit Milomir Kovačević



Born in Liverpool in 1966, he is the author of seven

novels, several non-fiction books and collections of

poetry. The screen version of his novel Kelly+Victor

won the BAFTA award in 2013. He studied post-war

poetry at the Aberystwyth University and debuted

with the novel Grits in 2000. His novel Sheepshagger

received raving reviews, and the novel Stump won

two literary awards. He also writes travelogues and

for The Guardian. He published the poetry book Red

Roar: 20 Years of Words. After numerous readings

around the world, this will be his first visit to Mostar.

Born in Split in 1962, he has exhibited his photographs

in Croatia, Austria and Germany. He is a poet and

a prosaic as well. His debut A Woman is Needed

Here was described as the „first female novel

written by a man“. The novel Grimalda (2012) won

the Steiermärkische Bank Literary Award and was

published in Austria, in Macedonia and in Serbia.

The novel Foreign Region was written at a residency

program in Priština and published in 2016. He is a

member of the Croatian Writers Society and a honorary

member of the PEN in Bosnia and Herzegovina since

2007. In 2007 he started KURS, an association for the

promotion of arts and literature, with Maja Vrančić.

They organized the first Croatian residency program for

international artists and writers.

A professional writer, he was born in Warsaw in

1964, where he lived until the age of 12, when he

moved to Vienna, and this autobiographical moment

was described in his novel Der Mann, der Luft

zum Frühstück aß (2017). In Vienna he graduated

in philosophy. He published several novels and

stories, and won numerous literary awards: the

short story collection Franio won the Aspekte

Award in 1994. He also wrote a book about Poland,

Gebrauchsanweisung für Polen (Instruction Guide

for Poland). His novel The Recommendations of Mr.

Kukas was turned into a movie in 2008.

Born in 1974 in Sarajevo, but living and working in

Ulcinj. A writer and a columnist, he published essays,

columns and articles all across Southeastern Europe

where he is enjoying the reputation of one of the

foremost critics of society. He published the novels

Mimesis, Son, Departure and Delay. His novels have

been translated into German. His novel Paresis won

the Milosavljevo Jevanđelje Literary Award and the

European Union Literature Award.

Niall Griffiths

Edi Matić

Radek Knapp

Andrej Nikolaidis

Photo Credit Deuticke Verlag

Photo Credit Cropix



Ivana Sajko (born in 1975) is a Croatian author, director

and playwright. She graduated in dramaturgy at the

Academy of Drama Arts, after which she obtained

a M.Sc. in Humanistic Science at the Faculty of

Philosophy, both in Zagreb. Since 1996, Ivana Sajko

has been a member of the editorial board of Frakcija

(International Magazine for Contemporary Performing

Arts) and a co-founder of the theatre group BADco.

Her plays have been staged, translated and performed

throughout the world: among many others are Woman

Bomb, Europa, and Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

Sajko’s novel Rio Bar, published in 2006, has been

translated into several languages. She has received

numerous grants and awards for her oeuvre, including

the Croatian National Award (Marin Držić).

Born in Rijeka in 1978, she is a prosaic translated into

English. French, Slovenian and Polish. In 2011, she

won the Prozak award for her fragmentary novel Hair,

Everywhere as well as the Croatian Ministry of Culture

Award for one of the best novels of the year. A member

of the board of the Lapis Histriae Award, she is also

a member of the informal literary group from Rijeka,

RiLit and the the co-creator of their short story book.

Together with Enver Krivac and the band Japanski

Premijeri, she published the spoken word album

Albumče in 2011.

Born in Sarajevo in 1991, he works and lives in

Jagodina and Belgrade. Making Space was his first

poetry book (2016), and was awarded the Branko

Award for the debut of the year. „In his poetry,

he deals with Yugoslavian, Serbian and European

heritage in a cultural, political and economic

context, as well as confronts the reader with the

world of late Capitalism, in which the last remains

of the social state are lost due to the demands of

profit, with the growing class inequality, and the

tension between the center and the periphery

enables the accumulation of wealth for one group of

people, whereas the others are exposed to violence“

(from the award comitee).

Born in 1964 in Farnham, Surrey, White is the author

of short stories, essays, five novels and a non-fiction

book An Another Fool in the Balkans: in the Footsteps

of Rebecca West (2006). His new novel The Fountain

in the Forest is scheduled for 2018 with an exclusive

premiere at the Poligon Festival. Together with

Borivoj Radaković and Matt Thorne he published an

anthology of Croatian short stories: Croatian Nights.

The former literature editor of Idler, he was also

published in The Guardian and The New Statesman,

as well as the creative director of the French

Department of King’s College in London. At the

moment, he is on the editorial board of the London

radio station Resonance 104,4 FM.

Ivana Sajko

Tea Tulić

Stevan Tatalović

Tony White

Photo Credit Hassan Abdelghan Photo Credit Jutarnji List

Photo Credit Chris Dorley Brown



SponsorsOrganisers



ZORAN ZELENIKA

WWW.ZZELENIKA.COM

FRAM ZIRAL

MOSTAR

200

PIECES

MIRKO

BOŽIĆ

UDRUGA

POLIGON

GRAPHIC

DESIGN

PRINT

WORK

EDITION

VOLUME

PROOFREADING

PUBLISHER

04 - allianz main partner, the allianz cultural foundation from berlin, helped us to host alida...

Documents