Albanian & Serbian Cultural Links

(By Andrea Saula)

The wars in The Balkans over the past decade have not only created huge divisions between its different communities, but also between artists and some cultures have managed to isolate themselves completly from others.

The wounds inflicted during the years have made it very difficult for people to talk to each other and artists are not excluded from this silence. The role of artists and the meaning of art have been changing through the centuries and today art it is not considered to be as engaged with religious, political or social values as in the past; today that social context could be found in the capacity that artists have to communicate with others through their universal language.

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Almost all cultural links between Albanians and Serbs have been broken. Today it’s taboo to talk about those common roots; where the past communist regime, insisted on links and common roots were a part of the state ideology. But despite the present and past ideology some cultural links and cooperation still exists.

We spoke with some Albanian and Serbian prominent intellectuals about the cultural links between these two nations.

Borka Pavicevic is a dramaturge and head of Belgrade’s “Center for cultural decontamination”; during her career she’s worked with several artists from the ex-Yugoslav republics.

Borka Pavicevic: If people really want to know something about each other they will find out. People from the cultural seen always stay in touch. I always meet Alice Maliqi while attending different seminars around the world and for me that contact exists. I think that the contact is possible and it doesn’t have anything to do with territorial confines or states. It is in all of us to think about what kind of states we have and how many more of them we’ll have. I think that no matter what the geo-strategic and political question is, the cultural links still exist.

Veran Matic is the manager and editor in chief of Belgrade’s based b92 Radio; he’s has been very active in re-establishing the links between two nations that used to share the same cultural space. Veran believes that the real problem Albanians and Serbs have in accepting their cultural links comes from their inability to know each other.

Veran Matic: Overall not knowing each other contributed in having such brutal clashes and wars. It is a very serious problem. First we should have the will to find out something about each other; then we should have in principle the curiosity and the need to find out, for example how does that Albanian theatre directed by an Albanian actor that used to be very famous in Serbia work? It’s important to have serious long term projects, to include in our cultural life. But not to satisfy with them the illusions of the international community. That is that a

Multi-cultural society could be established in just a couple of months through those projects.

That famous Albanian actor is Enver Petrovci; he’s been living in Pristina since the mid 1990’s and currently he has an art academy; Enver explains that consistent cultural links between both ethnicities existed in the past

Enver Petrovci: People were coming to each other. There was an audience so it means that links didn’t exist only thanks to the politics. People accepted those links and they had showed that attending theatres and not only theatres. They were going to cinemas and had been watching movies in both languages.

The past communist regime in The Former Yugoslavia insisted on holding tight cultural links, as they used to say, between all nations and nationalities. Today, the majority thinks that the cultural policy was based on a communist ideology concerning brotherhood and unity; but anyway, as Veran says, that policy helped people learn more about each other.

Veran Matic: The other problem is the total isolation of both cultures between each other during history. Before contacts between each other existed but as an ideological form of brotherhood and unity. I’ve read books by Ibrahim Rugova and I think that some of his books have even been published in Belgrade in Cyrillic. It was something like that edition called “Nonaligned” which meant that you had authors from each Nonaligned Movement country, just like you had books from authors from all other republics and provinces from the Former Yugoslavia. Despite all, it was a way of finding out a lot of things.

And it was like that till the evils of wars took over the scene. And some artists, like Petrovci, had to leave the stage

Enver Petrovci: I didn’t want to participate in that and that’s why I withdrew. I was a citizen not only of Belgrade but a citizen of the whole former Yugoslavia. When the first gunshot in Sarajevo I withdrew I had a dilemma, how to survive but anyway I withdrew. Then I asked my self an “artistic question” if there was any sense in working against my will (strength of mind). At that time I was the actor that used to work all over former Yugoslavia. If the first gunshot had been somewhere else I would have reacted in the same way. I couldn’t work because I was so preoccupied by that. I wasn’t able to learn the script. I didn’t feel comfortable on the scene. I couldn’t laugh.

There are also some other very delicate questions concerning the relation between arts and politics or arts and reality. Questions like, should artists take active participation in the currant political events; are they in a position to interfere with this reality in order to stop the negative trends in the society or to warn about the possible bad consequences that arise. Did they try? Petrovci

Enver Petrovci: There were some individual attempts. Was the fear the reason for that or did they agree with the politics, I don’t know but I think it was more about fear. Of course there were artists that agreed with the politics. Most probably those people are ashamed today. I’m happy because I was not a part of that game. Not a single gesture, not a single sentence, not a single word of mine. didn’t help those bad times. It’s a true that as an artist I live very bad right now but as a man I’m happy because I didn’t discredited my self. Today I can look at all my friends, my ex and currant friends into the eyes. Is it enough I don’t know but there was no other way. I couldn’t do more, not really

Although some seem to deny it, some cultural contacts and links do exist between Pristina and Belgrade. Some new Belgrade music could be heard in some radio stations in Prishtina and most people don’t even know that it comes from Belgrade. Radio’s like URBAN FM in Pristina have a weekly presentations in Belgrade and Radio b92 and Koha News Paper are working together on a couple of projects. Nobody can deny the political context created very bad conditions for establishing or pursuing contacts, says Veran Matic

Veran Matic: Nothing has been done in order to find some basic rules for solving the situation in Kosovo. I don’t see any improvements in the communication between the political and social elite in Kosovo and in Serbia. On one hand in Kosovo there is no other option besides independent Kosovo. There is no one who maybe dares to say something different. On the other hand there is fear to communicate; not to mention establishing cultural relations. On the other hand in Serbia there is no serious understanding that Kosovo is not a part of Serbia anymore. Kosovo is something extraordinary at this moment. Serbia should seriously reconsider its politics towards Kosovo, Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians and international community.

Enver agrees that fear exists on both sides but he emphasizes the role that artists are supposed to play in real life.

Enver Petrovci: The worst thing is the people’s belief that they don’t have any right to do something before the politicians agree on something because politicians could accuse people of being collaborationists or spies. At the end it’s the task of the artists to cerate love and not hate. I’m an individual. I’m religious I believe in God and I’m afraid that I’ll make a mistake towards God and not towards politicians.

And we leave you with that thought, thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.