The French Cultural Center

The French Cultural Center

While maintaining its focus on cultural cooperation in a traditional sense with art exhibitions, films, and theatre performance, the center, host to the “Service de cooperation et d’action culturelle” of the French Embassy, has also extended its activities into new fields including European Integration, science, and medicine.

History

The first French cultural association was founded in Belgrade in 1920 as The Society of Friends of France. At the end of the First World War, French troops fought alongside Serbs to liberate Belgrade, leaving France and French culture in particularly good standing with the city residents at the time. A monument to French troops was even erected in Kalemegdan in recognition of French assistance, and the Serbian Orthodox Church gave France the land on which it built its embassy in honor of the French-Serbian friendship.

After closing during World War II, the center reopened a reading room in 1945 and its facility still in use today just six years later.

The center was again closed in 1999 during the NATO campaign. During this period, a Belgrade professor of French language and literature along with a group of students personally relocated a large portion of the collection, fearing the vandalism that had damaged other similar establishments in town. Director of the Center Corina Coman described the action as a demonstration of “real solidarity and real human friendship.”

The center was reopened and inaugurated by President Chirac in July 2001.

Today

Today the French Cultural Center offers the public a range of services, events and resources.

The center’s facility itself revolves around its media center and its collection of books, magazines, films, CDs, and rotating exhibitions. Materials can be used at the media centre free of charge and can be checked out for a yearly membership fee of 800 or 1600 dinars depending on the level of membership. In addition to the media center’s rotating exhibitions, the French cultural center also sponsors regular events including dance performances, concerts and public discussions. According to Ms. Coman, “There is a real interest in French culture here in Serbia and there is a real demand for traditional culture – literature, theater, and dance - but also for modern forms of artistic creation. And it is our role to promote the most representative aspects of the cultural scene that we can.”

The centre has also strengthened its contribution to deepening EU/Serbian relationships. “We’re holding quite an important series of presentations about Europe,” said Ms. Coman said, explaining the project entitled “European Wednesdays.” “It is something we were doing previously, but we want to make the topic more available for a larger public, a younger public, and we try to do so in cooperation with main actors of both the European side and those here in Serbia such as the Serbian Office for European Integration or the Delegation of the European Commission in Serbia. In these debates, local representatives sit alongside side our French guests.”

Educational Opportunities in France

While the center is primarily concerned with bringing French culture to Belgrade, it also provides assistance for Serbian citizens to study in France. Programs range from short exchanges intended for French language students and teachers to scholarships given to students in different fields. In 2007, 35 scholarships were granted to university students in a range of academic fields, almost 100 scholarships were granted to interns and professionals, and another 34 scholarships were given to young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to “discover France.” According to Ms. Coman, it is these kinds of exchanges that have led to real friendships between individuals from Serbia and France and the French Culture Center.

The Director:

Corina Coman has been Director of the French Cultural Center and Adviser for cooperation and cultural action at the French Embassy in Belgrade for a year now and has very much enjoyed her time in Belgrade. “I had only been in Belgrade once before almost twenty years ago,” she said. “Belgrade is a very nice city. They are very friendly and very open and relationships with them are so complete. They are very natural, and once you have a connection with someone it is as complete as possible.”

Prior to this directorship, Ms. Coman spent over three years in Romania working on European Integration, also for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.