Two candidates were selected to travel to Japan in the late November within the third round of the ‘Kizuna’ exchange programme in 2019. They will implement their study and research there.
Candidates are:
– Nenad Savin – founder of the ‘Rebuild Collective Novi Sad’ NGO, which aims at fostering culture and art in the field of comics and local music scene. His main task is to establish direct communication and explore possibilities for cooperation for the promotion of Japanese culture in Serbia. The main focus is on manga-comic books, anime movies, theatre and film production,
– Nenad Šaponja – owner and editor of the AGORA publishing house and President of the Writers Association of Novi Sad, which promotes local and foreign literature. Poet, literary critic and writer of short pieces. He published Gioconda (1990), Bedeker Sumnja (1997), Odrazi Varke (1993), Očiglednost (1996), Izgledam, dakle Nisam (2018), etc. The aim of his travel to Japan is the promotion of the book in Serbian, entitled ‘Shoplifters’ and written by Hirokazu Kore-eda, famous Japanese author. Having in mind that the book was filmed, and the premiere was held in Cannes 2018, the idea is to do a multimedia promotion.
The ‘Kizuna’ programme is implemented by the ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ in cooperation with the ‘EU – Japan Fest’.
The aim of the ‘Kizuna’ project is to encourage exchange and cooperation between local and Japanese cultural scene. It is the opportunity for artists and cultural workers to gain new experiences, travel, get new ideas, meet colleagues and launch new projects.
Twenty cultural workers have stayed and worked in Japan within the ‘Kizuna’ programme so far.
The selection jury selects the candidates and after the selection process, they send the proposals to the ‘EU – Japan Fest’ organisation. This is followed by the final decision on the selection of candidates. The total amount of the financial grant for realisation of the study trip for applicants is 100,000 yen.
The public call for ‘Kizuna’ programme is continuously open, and team of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ will continue to work on development of suggested projects with all candidates in order to provide help with drafting successful applications.
