THIS year they shared THEIR hopes and dreams in Loznica and TRsIc, Serbia

they discovered new lands, created new friendships, 

and achieved even more: togetherness.

TRSIC - SERBIA

HIke Uphill

Shared by Sasa

MINI TCFT

This mini TCFT in Loznica/Trshic, the town where I was born, was really special for me from different aspects.

First is that I was organiser and team leader for the first time. With full responsibility for everything, I'd give my best to everyone  to enjoy  and work in creative,positive atmosphere, to be supported and understood and to feel belonging, love and togetherness.

Second is that I had to bring people ( artist,participants from U.K., Italy, Romania, Bosnia...etc.) in Loznica and to give a chance  to local people/youth to be a part of something very important for them,for all of us. And we did it!

So grateful and thankful to whole TCFT members, to youth, to everyone who was there. We saw that all this was worth it and we will keep going,doing and growing TOGETHER!

Shared by Anja

lila lo festival

For the first time in Loznica Lila Lo festivalis is organized as a musical-scenic festival. The theme-highlight of the
festival is Lilanje.
Lilanje ( Serbian Cyrillic - лилање) is a south Slavic custom practiced by Roman Catholic mostly but also orthodox and Muslim , with commonly the young burning a dry birch or cherry cortex placed on the wooden stick (named lila, olalija, oratnik or oratnica) the night before St John's Eve, Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Feast of the Ascension and Feast of St. Elijah, while it is most connected to Petrovdan, the feast day ( Slava ) of St. Peter (thus known as petrovdansko lilanje). The custom is of pagan origin, based in the belief that during nights fire scares demons and witches and protects people, animals and fields.
This festival based on folk custom wanted to bring something new on creative way, as mix of art and culture and to give a chance to youth to enjoy in very interesting program with full of workshops, performances, music program etc. and to preserve this authenticity for this
part of Serbia and to become a traditional. In beautiful environment of Loznica on few different locations ( Trshic, Banaja Koviljaca, Gucevo, Lesnica…) people had opportunity to be a part of something new and important for our city.
It was organized by Tourism organization of Loznica with support of Ministry for commerce, tourism and telecommunications; The center of culture “Vuk Karadzic” and Youth center.

LILA LO team: Director of Tourism organization Snezana Peric/ Director of Youth center Bojan Lucic/ Artist/ballerina and team leader of TCFT Anja Nikolic/ Ivana Anicic graphic designer/ Milica Ivanovic guitar teacher/ Tijana Vasic stage director

Shared by Anja

NEW EXPERIENCE

The Complete Freedom of Truth showed me that thing that matters isn't place where you are but people you're surrounded with.

Talking with all of those people was such a pleasure, because every single person of them has his/her own story and you can truly learn a lot from them.

One thing that I also found lovely is freedom of speaking about anything you want, freedom about being yourself. There is always someone who will listen to you, who will help you build your confidence.

It taught me how to overcome stereotype that showing your feelings is a shame, 'cause it's not! Keeping all feelings inside is so gravely for us. You just need to find the way to express them, and this is where TCFT helped me a lot.

Meeting all of those people, friendship, feeling of belonging, sharing creativity, laughing, being part of art- Definitly one of thr most significant experiences of my life. We are all like a big family here.

Through this project I really moved my limits. I don't need them at all!

This gave me strength to move forward, to belive, to run the challenges, to make my future the way I want it to be. I am so inspired. My point of view has changed, and I am not the same person as before. This project opened my eyes and made me look up at the stars.

Shared by Nina

Kroz Teleskop

Gospođa iz Loznice je upitala mog prijatelja
"Šta crnci rade ovde?"

Došla sam ovde na umetnički festival i ponela sam teleskop sa sobom jer sam čula da je ovde mnogo manja zagađenost svelosti nego odakle ja dolazim.

"Odakle si?" upitao me je neko.
Dolazim iz mesta gde je svetlost mnogo više zagađena.

"Mislio sam da si sa Jamajke, kao on!" nastavila je ta osoba.

"On? On nije sa Jamajke, šta te navelo da pomisliš to?"
I zašto si pokušao da pogađaš odakle sam a nisam ni progovorila?

Je li zbog moje kose? Mojih očiju? Moje kože?
Tamnoća koju smatraš intrigantnom jer tako malo znaš on njoj,
ali nekako dovoljno da smatraš da znaš odakle sam.

I ja smatram da je tamnoća intrigantna, ali ona koju moraš da čekaš da bi gledao kroz teleskop.

Kada zam pogledala gore, bilo je previše rano da se vidi mesec pa sam umesto meseca gledala u zvezde.

Jedna je bila previše svetla da bi bila zvezda.
"Mora da je planeta" pomislila sam.

Na mojim jezicima mi ih zovemo Župiter ili Hupiter.
A meni je rečeno da je Jupiter, slično zar ne?

Sa balkona mog prijatelja, blizu mesta odakle dolazim, mogla sam da vidim četiri njegova meseca.
Odavde vidim samo tri, zašto? Nije li isto nebo?

Možda je četvrti mesec bio iza Jupitera kada sam iz Tršića pogledala prema gore,
ili je možda pozicija na zemlji,
ili je možda zato što sada nije pre,
možda mu se ne sviđaš.
Ja ne znam, previše je daleko da bih ga pitala,
i nisam sigurna da planete mogu pričati.

Ja mogu pričati i možeš me pitati bilo šta, ali se nemoj iznenaditi odgovorima.
Jer pored svega što vidiš, ništa ne znaš o meni osim što znaš da sam došla na umetnički festival iz mesta sa velikom zagađenošću svetla i da sam donela teleskop.

Rage Against the Mašina: A snapshot of the arts in Serbia, from The Breaker.

Artists in Serbia are struggling against folk culture to bring the country’s arts into the 21st century, despite little funding and fear of government censorship.

To find Tršić, we drove 93 miles through the night from the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, to a rural border village, just twenty minutes from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The village is known as the home of Vuk Karadžić, who recorded and reformed the Serbian language and authored the first Serbian dictionary.

History and culture is weaved throughout the region, and is celebrated and memorialised. Tršić is almost a walk-in museum, commemorating Karadžić. His former home now holds exhibits about his life and work with the Serbian language.

No more than 50 feet away stands a basketball court. A child, maybe ten-years-old, dunks a ball perfectly into the net; he dabs in celebration.

For a country which is often painted as stuck in the past, young people are keen to pull Serbia into the future. Internet culture leaks into the country, introducing its people to ideas from around the world, and through the arts, Serbia is trying to keep up.

READ MORE

 - By Jordan Wildon

Eyecontact

Small photographic project on workshops of TCFT in Loznica 2018. The main reason why I did this is ability of human eye to talk. Through eyes you can see spirit and feelings of human. Mentor of this project was Robert Golden. I'm thankful to Irina Maria Ganescu, Marko Stanković, Jordan Wildon, Lorenzo Pipparelli and Robert Golden.

- Shared by Djordje

- photographs by Irina