Serbian culture minister visits Albania, attends conference

Serbian culture minister visits Albania, attends conference

The gathering was held February 21-22 in Tirana, Albania, in order to promote cultural cooperation in the region, with special emphasis on the implementation of the Ohrid regional strategy for cultural cooperation in Southeastern Europe.

The meeting was attended by ministers of culture and senior representatives from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro while representatives of UNESCO, the European Commission, Council of Europe, Italy and the ambassador of the Organization for Black Sea Economic Cooperation took part as observers.

Addressing the plenary session, Vukosavljevic said that conference participants must do everything to prevent, through preventive and efficient activities and an unambiguous policy of cooperation and development, the devastation of cultural monuments, theft of art objects and the systematic destruction of the other, different cultures, starting from arranging the state of affairs in their own countries, continuous work on the preservation of cultural heritage, and by supporting nominations of cultural monuments for placement on the UNESCO list.

"Cultural heritage is not only about depositing objects in museums and art itself is not only an exhibition of works of art in galleries. Investments in culture contribute to the economic development of the whole society. Promotion of culture at all levels through innovation and creating new partnerships should stimulate job creation. The introduction of new methodologies and technologies, the mobility of artists, artworks, cultural goods and services and joint projects are just some of the cultural policy measures on which we should insist," said the minister.

He suggested that beside the regular ministerial conferences, the practice of holding regular meetings of member states at the highest level every six months should also be established, with the goal of exchanging ideas and considerations on the topic of co-financing, as well as exchaging opinions from the creative and cultural sector in the region, in order to strengthen cultural markets and improve cultural cooperation. During the first official visit to Albania of a Serbian minister of culture since 2006, i.e., since Serbia has been an independent state, Vukosavljevic signed a program of cultural cooperation between the two ministries with Minister of Culture of Albania Mirela Kumbaro-Furxhi, covering the period 2017-2021.

The aim of the program is to develop and support cultural cooperation between different institutions and organizations of the two countries, as well as encourage regular exchange of programs and projects between national cultural institutions, which will be regulated by special protocols between the institutions that have the same or similar activity. In addition to the signing of the program of cooperation, the two ministers discussed the issues of minorities and the right to study in their mother tongue.

"History teaches us that antagonisms create noise, while culture creates music. Our cooperation should result us listen to more music," Vukosavljevic said in conversation with his Albanian counterpart, who said that "everyone sees us as the Balkans, while we ourselves are creating our mutual differences."

On the sidelines of the conference Vukosavljevic had bilateral meetings with the Minister of Culture of Montenegro Janko Ljumovic and Croatia Nina Obuljen Korzinek. Ministers Vukosavljevic and Ljumovic agreed joint projects in the field of creativity, as well as joint celebration of 120 years since the birth of Milo Milunovic and the 110th anniversary of the birth of Petar Lubarda.

The Serbian minister's meeting with his Croatian counterpart discussed the continuation of the work of the Mixed Serbian-Croatian intergovernmental commission for the return of cultural property, with the remark that the Croatian side should invest more in the restoration of those cultural monuments to which cultural goods are being returned.