After Comic Book City, which made Novi Sad the centre of the ninth art, November is turning the Serbian Athens into an avant-garde European corner, which offers a new artistic experience, thus making its mark on the Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture project through new, rebellious, avant-garde, minority and marginalised expressions in the language of performing and visual arts.
From the youngest musical genre, over undisputed jazz, to the pioneer of electronic music
The current programme arch, Other? Europe, brings the first world music festival Pocket Globe, conceived out of a series of concerts organised at cultural stations through the European Capital of Culture preparatory years, together with the Ring Ring Association. From 10 to 13 November, for the first time in Serbia, at Synagogue and the Youth Theatre, we can expect performances by Moroccan attraction Bab L’ Bluz, a multi-award-winning trio Monsieur Doumani, coming to Novi Sad after participating in famous festivals such as ESNS, WOMEX, WOMAD, Sziget, and Trans Musicales, the winner of the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award Kayhan Kalhor, Damir Imamović, declared the best European world music artist in 2021 according to Songlines magazine, as well as Boris Kovač, a musician whose albums were among the best according to the judges’ panel of World Music Charts Europe an incredible five times, and numerous others.
The European Capital of Culture creates a musical journey from the almost youngest musical genre, such as world music, to the more than a century-old musical direction, jazz. Therefore, in Novi Sad, from 16 to 19 November, the Norwegian jazz player, considered a pioneer of future jazz, Nils Petter Molvaer, a band called JazzXchange feat. Bojan Z, made up of musicians from three European Capitals of Culture – Novi Sad, Luxembourg and Esch, contemporary jazz star Chico Freeman and Trio Exotica and others, will perform as part of the Novi Sad Jazz Festival at the Serbian National Theatre.
Part of the finale of one of the most prestigious European titles in the field of culture will be a tribute to the pioneer of electronic music in this region and in South America, Mitar Subotić Suba, on 20 November in the District, as well as at the City Concert Hall, where the multi-awarded and world-renowned Brazilian singer CéU, whose work was partially inspired by Suba’s work, will perform. Tickets are available via Gigs Tix, both in person and online.
Along with the selected conceptual solution for the sculpture dedicated to Suba, the ‘Suba: Novi Sad’ project, organised by the association for the promotion of contemporary art music New Ears, will shed new light on his character and work. Suba’s private photographs and personal items, compilations of works of various genres created in Novi Sad before leaving for Brazil, as well as the cult-famous composition The Dreambird, created during Suba’s collaboration with multimedia artist Goran Vejvoda, will be presented for the first time in the District. Along with the pioneer of electronic music, the pioneer of electronic music in Austria, the composer Elisabeth Schimana, will come to the Svilara Cultural Station on 22 November, and the performing arts programme will be enriched by the premiere of the musical ‘My Voice Travels’ scheduled for 7 November at the Barka Cultural Station, as well as other plays and performances.
The Other Side of Art
Visual art in November prioritises an unusual approach and the avant-garde, which is why the exhibition, which is a collaboration between two European Capitals of Culture – Novi Sad and Portugal’s Braga, a city that is a candidate for the European Capital of Culture for 2027, stands out at the very beginning. ‘The Invisible Braga’ exhibition, which will be opened on 5 November in the Katolička Porta, will provide a completely different view of a city, within the oldest International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts.
The exhibition ‘The Other Side of Image’ by contemporary artists Zoran Tairović (Serbia), Sead Kazanxhiu (Albania), Nihad Nino Pušija (Germany / Bosnia and Herzegovina) and artist Delaine La Bas (Great Britain) will be opened at the Svilara Cultural Station and Serbian National Theatre on 10 November. It aims to present what happens ‘behind the image’ to the audience, that is, the space that is created before the artist’s work appears, and often remains hidden.
The crown jewel of the Other? Europe programme arch will be a large international exhibition of contemporary visual art ‘Milky Way’ that connects artistic, educational, scientific, technical and performative contents, imbued with avant-garde and contemporary art theories and practices in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina.
The Other? Europe programme arch presents the grand finale of the European Capital of Culture, and from 7 October to 27 November, with numerous programmes, it raises issues of dominant values in European culture and art and leads to the discovery of different, alternative, marginalised, minority and rebellious expressions.
Photo: Almin Zrno, Divulgacao, Michael Zeppetello, Fabio Cunha, Nihad Nino Pušija, Promo
