City of Novi Sad is a candidate for the prestigious title of European Capital of Culture in 2021, when it will be for the first time available to cities and countries outside the European Union, and the winner will be known in October. In the final process of nomination, which was realized with the support of the EXIT Foundation, Novi Sad will once again prove to be the true cultural capital with a variety of content which will be presented in the following few weeks in accordance with the program concept „4 new bridges.“

One of these events is the Festival of Contemporary Art „Danube Dialogues“, whose central part will be held on August 29th and August 30th at several locations in Novi Sad, while the exhibition will be open and available to the public in September. The event will bring together artists from 14 countries of the extended Danube region, while the theme of the festival „Art in an environment of global uncertainty“  is very close to the theme of the bridge Rainbow of Novi Sad candidacy for European Capital of Culture, which emphasizes migration and reconciliation.“

Bel Art Gallery has so far hosted three official events (2013, 2014, 2015) and the prime festival (2012) in Petrovaradin, in cooperation with friendly Erlin Gallery from Budapest. It turned out that this event has met a great interest with professional circles in our country and in the Danube countries, and many artists and former participants, and a large number of people who monitored programs and exhibitions of the festival of contemporary art.

Artists from the Danube countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, as well as artists from the „macro region“: Slovenia, Republic of Srpska, Montenegro, the Czech Republic will take part at this year’s festival, while the theme is Art in an environment of global uncertainty.

All exhibitions will be opened by a critic in focus of the Danube Dialogues 2016. The first one chosen is critic Mladen Lučić, curator and former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria. This critic and theorist has a very long experience and prominent reputation in the current art scene. So far he has participated twice as an author of selection of Croatian artists.

According to current practice, the Festival has always been opened by eminent artists from Novi Sad (Mira Brtka 2013, Želimir Žilnik 2014, Slobodan Tišma 2015) and this year the Festaval was opened by Serbian and international composer Aleksandra Vrebalov (New York).

More on program and locations at http://www.belart.rs/dunavski-dijalozi-2016/.