GOAT MILK

www.goatmilk-fest.com

Second memories festival

The GOATMILK festival is an event that tries to put the question about personal memories and collective memory (a "high voltage" question of our society) in a new perspective and environment - offering at one hand the relaxed ambiance of one authentic Bulgarian Balkan village with its hospitality,goat milk and walnut trees and, on the other hand, the most innovative and new approaches from the European debates and new media world in the field of memories, identity and digital culture. The real aim is to meet people and worlds that usually don't mix at all and to provoke new insights and questions in us about our own memories and their connection with our present. And - maybe the most important thing! - To discover the real pleasure that all this brings to us! Some key questions Is modernity the opposite of nostalgia? How do we remember as individuals and forget as societies? What is changing in the way we remember in the Internet-era? Do we need memories today? Is there a joy in remembering? Goals:
Attracting younger generations to the question of personal and collective memory
Promoting new ways of talking about the past
Giving life to the old traditional sabor -celebration in the Bela Rechka village
Mixing traditional and new media formats
Mixing people from various social backgrounds - poor and rich, village and city residents, province and capital, East and West
Encouraging intercultural meetings and debates
Encouraging debates and self-reflection on core elements of Bulgarian culture (socialist past and background, Balkan and South environment, Eastern approaches, periphery, small culture)
Promoting new ways of "branding" Bulgaria through regions

Target groups:
Creative people from different fields in Europe (art, journalism, psychotherapy, social science, new media and web designers) Young people - students from the region and Bulgaria Local people from the North West Region
Main activities:
Workshops:
DANCING VILLAGES workshop -discover Bela Rechka by using your senses -- Tomas Zizka & mamapapa/Czech Republic/ -www.mamapapa.cz One of the leading personalities in Czech theatre will try to combine the tools of art, performance and people's biographies to create a unique dynamic portrait of Bela Rechka village. More about Zizka's methods read here...(see attachment)
NEW! Tomas Zizka is also looking for 20 people for his workshop - artists, actors, stage designers. Working language is English. Knowledge of Russian, Czech or Slovak could be a possibility also. Please sign-up in advance for the workshop by sending an e-mail to novakultura@hotmail.com
INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING - new possibilities for the old story? - a workshop by - Stanislav Miler(Czech Republic) and Massimo Catalfo (Italy)
BLABLAS workshop for kids - www.blablas.org - create and put your story on-line - Mariana Assenova(BG)
Presentations, lectures, discussions and case studies:

"The World Is Nonlinear - Storytelling With The Computer" - lecture and presentation by Florian Thalhofer( Germany), creator of "Korsakow "( www.korsakow.org) - one of the most innovative and easy available tool for storytelling in Europe
l'histoire c'est moi - Thomas Schaerer(Switzerland) presents the multimedia oral history project about personal Swiss memories from the Second world war Czechs and memories about socialism - can we understand the past through the oral stories? - oral history projects in the Czech Republic - Center for Oral History in Prague www.coh.usd.cas.cz
Why Oral history is so important for understanding our totalitarian past - Miroslav Vanek, director of the Oral History Center
Family stories of the Dissidents and Communist functionaries - Petra Trypesova
Personal stories from socialism - normalizing or demonizing the past? - the Internet-based project -www.spomeniteni.org - Bulgaria
The ethics of authenticity - the work of memory and the narrative identity - lecture and discussion - Bojan Znepolski, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, "St. Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia
Exhibitions:
Bela Rechka people - opening of permanent exhibition/ New Culture Foundation/ White shirts (Beli rizi from Bela Rechka) project - exhibition by Galina Ivanova/ Bulgaria/ (Soros Center for Cultural Policies) Open-air screenings:
Best multimedia projects in Europe( the subject of memory/memories) - Stanislav Miler/Czech Republik/ Life music:
Local music with the local orchestra -Varshetz
Balkan rhytms with Adem Murat(Turkey)
Bossa Nova with Miroslava Kazarova (Bulgaria)

Program in Sofia 26-28 May 2005
Czech Center Goethe Institute

26 May 2005 Czech Center
White shirts project - presentation of Galina Ivanova
Big hall - Czechs and memories about socialism - can we understand the past through the oral stories? - oral history projects in the Czech Republic - Center for Oral History in Prague www.coh.usd.cas.cz- 13.00 - 18.00 часа
Why Oral history is so important for understanding our totalitarian past - Miroslav Vanek, director of the Oral History Center
Family stories of the Dissidents and Communist functionaries - Petra Trypesova
Prague-Bratislava-Wroclaw - between nostalgia and melancholia - different nations - different feelings about socialism? Diana Ivanova
Library - 11.00 - 18.00 Workshop - memories and internet
26 May 19.00 Goethe Institute
Stories from the Big Buildings - opening of installation of Florian Thalhofer /Germany/
27 May 2005 Czech Center
Library - 11.00 - 18.00 Workshop - memories and internet Big hall The interactive story and the memory - presentation of Stanislav Miler 13.00 - 15.00 Dancing villages - Bela Rechka - Mnichovo hradiste - Cerni Dul - Sonov...- presentation by Tomas Zizka 16.00 - 18.00

Partners:
Goethe Institut
Swiss Department of Foreign affairs
Czech Cultural Center
Municipality of Varshetz
Soros Center for Cultural Policies
E80
Trimedia-Prague
Dnevnik
Capital
Mediapool
Radio Nova Evropa
Literaturen vestnik
Programata