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Pionirski dom Centre for Youth Culture invites you to the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "Voices of the Future: The Importance of Poetry in Modern Education", which will take place on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, in the Festivalna dvorana of the Centre (Vilharjeva cesta 11, Ljubljana).

The event aims to explore the role of poetry in the educational process and present best practices and methodologies for integrating poetry into school curricula.

Representatives from ten UNESCO Cities of Literature will also attend the conference.

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Conference Program:

08:30 - 09:00 Arrival and coffee
09:10 - 10:00 Keynote speech – Anja Zag Golob
10:00 - 11:00 Panel discussion: The role of poetry in modern education

Panellists include representatives from partner countries involved in the "Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow" project:
Urša Strehar Benčina (Slovenia)
Weronika Murek (Poland)
Andrej Nosov (Serbia)
Anna Atonen (Finland)
Marton Simon (Hungary)

11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 13:15 Presentations of best practices – international representatives from UNESCO Cities of Literature:
Marija Mažulienė (Vilnius, UNESCO City of Literature): "Understanding the Complexity of Poetry Through Translation"
Waldemar Mazur (Kraków, UNESCO City of Literature): "Poetry Doesn’t Bite and Can Be Cool Too – Less Theory, More Practice"
Edoardo Zuccato (Milan City of Literature): "A Network for Contemporary Poetry"
Hawwa Alam (Manchester): "The Manchester Multilingual City Poets"
Maija Laugale (Riga): "Keeping Poetry Relevant: Engaging Students with Local Contemporary Poets"
Hannah Trevarthen (Nottingham City of Literature): "Our City, Our Stories"

13:30 - 15:30 Lunch break
15:30 - 17:00 Real-life stories about the project experience – panel discussion
The "Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow" project focuses on collaboration between poets, teachers, and students. This panel will feature teachers, poets, and a dramaturge who participated in the project, sharing their experiences and perspectives on how poetry can enrich the educational process and encourage young people to reflect and think critically.
Veronika Dintinjana (project poet)
Lidija Dimkovska (project poet)
Mojca Osvald (teacher, Bežigrad Gymnasium)
Natalija Isak (teacher, Ravne na Koroškem Gymnasium)
Staša Prah (dramaturge and artistic coach of the project)

19:00 Gala closing – poetry performance
Poetry performance by international poets from the project:
Anja Zag Golob (Slovenia)
Harri Hertell (Finland)
Radmila Petrović (Serbia)
Małgorzata Lebda (Poland)
Márton Simon (Hungary)

In addition to the poets, their poetry will also be interpreted by students involved in the Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow project.

Participation in the conference is free of charge. Please register via the online form: https://forms.gle/oVoFUJac8TCqTxcK6

Please confirm your attendance by November 22, 2024.

In November 2024, Valeska Torres, a Brazilian poet from Rio de Janeiro, is the current writer-in-residence of the Writer in the Park program in Ljubljana, succeeding the Indonesian writer Herlina Tien Suhesti, known as Herlinatiens.

“My body is always alert because it anticipates violence,” Valeska Torres said in a conversation hosted by Mojca Medvedšek for her students of Portuguese at the Faculty of Arts on Friday, November 8, 2024. Valeska Torres recounted that violence on the streets of Rio de Janeiro—particularly in the non-tourist areas outside the center—is something one grows up with: for example, witnessing clashes between rival gangs on streets, lined with barricades made of trash to block police access. Fear and tension settle into one’s body. They become second nature. Although Ljubljana feels different, Valeska Torres still hasn’t adjusted to the peace—violence is her heritage, she says, and Europe is, after all, the continent of her colonizers.

Hers is a city that, just a hundred years ago, systematically displaced former slaves, people of color, and the poor, remaining torn between beauty and violence, love and hate—a theme Valeska Torres also explores in her poetry. Places where samba is danced today may once have been the setting for imprisonment and torture of the not-so-distant, yet unknown ancestors. In Rio, history lies literally beneath the residents’ feet: in 2006, it was discovered that a cemetery had once occupied the place Valeska Torres grew up. “Perhaps one way to bury ancestors is to unknowingly walk over them,” she said.

Life in Rio is marked by spatial and cultural marginalization, as living near the sea or the arts is still a privilege, Valeska Torres said. It wasn’t until she was eighteen and attended writing workshops in the favelas that literature for her came to include more than just deceased male authors from less deprived backgrounds. This experience was pivotal for her, as she finally began reading contemporary authors, some of whom she would later meet personally, herself now one of them.

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Valeska Torres will continue presenting her poetry across Europe, including in Berlin, Madrid, and Lisbon. Upon returning to Brazil, she plans to incorporate her experiences of living and creating in Europe into her lectures and writing workshops. A selection of her poetry, translated by Katja Zakrajšek, will be published in Slovene in the Literatura magazine.

photo: Pauline Gouablin

In 2024, the UNESCO Cities of Literature Ljubljana and Angoulême, the latter widely recognized as an international comics capital, partnered with the French Institute to present a new residency program (“La fabrique des résidences”) aimed at supporting Slovenian and French creativity in comics. The first call for applications for the October 2024 one-month residency in Ljubljana was an immense success. We are grateful to have received 20 applications in the first year of this program, all of which demonstrated truly remarkable quality!

We appreciate this confirmation of the project’s relevance, considering it indicative of a productive future exchange. We value the efforts of all applicants and acknowledge that they significantly enhance the overall appeal of this international program.

The first resident, selected by the Slovene and French juries, will be the French artist André Derainne. Born in 1994, André Derainne is a comic book author, illustrator, and graphic designer living in Strasbourg. He has exhibited his illustrations and paintings in numerous galleries and group exhibitions, produced posters for various festivals, contributed illustrations to various magazines and newspapers, published several zines, and created watercolor sets for the animated film Les Belles Cicatrices by Raphaël Jouzeau, presented in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

In André Derainne’s words, “Telling stories through text and images is what I love to do above all else, and what I hope to continue doing in the coming years.” Having already published two comic books (Des fourmis dans les jambes, Fidèle Éditions, 2023; Un orage par jour, Keribus Éditions, 2021), Derainne will spend his time in Ljubljana working on a new book. After all, residency programs are, in his strong opinion, a vital factor in providing a supportive, stimulating environment for an artist to experiment freely and develop their work. A case in point was the time Derainne spent at Villa Saigon in Vietnam in 2019, which enabled him to lay out the foundations for his first comic book.

André Derainne’s portfolio, focusing mostly on works made with ink on paper and gouache on wood, shows an imaginative aesthetic defined by a thoughtful use of color, meticulous attention to detail, and compelling narratives. Creating dynamic and evocative dialectics, his images juxtapose a sense of tranquility where emptiness alludes to some invisible plenitude, with almost surreal scenographies of beautifully imaginative yet strangely uncanny worlds.

We are honored to host André Derainne as the first artist-in-residence of this new program. Stay tuned for details about his appearances and interactions with the local community.

APPLY HERE: 
https://forms.gle/TMUhhxvfz6PxysWAA


General information
Ljubljana and Angoulême, both UNESCO Cities of Literature, the French Institute Slovenia, and the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (Angoulême, France) have joined forces to support Slovenian and French creativity in comics by developing a three-year residency program from 2024 to 2026.

The 2024 edition will support two artists, one French and one Slovenian, to foster artistic creation, increase their visibility and create opportunities for encounters with local artistic communities, other artists and new audiences.

One French artist will be hosted in Ljubljana from October 1, 2024, to October 31, 2024 (dates are non-negotiable). They will be given the opportunity to explore the cultural scene, particularly the comic book scene in Ljubljana, and participate at the international Tinta Comic Book Festival, which will take place from October 9 to 13, 2024.
This residency is part of the Institut Français’ “La Fabrique des Résidences” program.

Requirements for applicants
This call for applications is aimed at French artists (either of French nationality or those who have resided in France for more than five years). 

• They must be active in the field of comic books.
• They have published at least one comic book with a publishing house (collective works will also be considered).
• They should be able, and willing, to converse and fill out this form in English.

• Accommodation and workspace
• A stipend in the sum of €1200 (including taxes, paid as a lump sum upon arrival by the French Institute Slovenia).
• Roundtrip travel expenses from France to Slovenia (up to approx. €600, paid by the French Institute Slovenia).
• Possibility to participate at the international Tinta Festival as well as optionally present an exhibition and conduct a workshop.