6th-13th September 2020
Strellc-Decan-Peja
UNDER THE PLOW OF TIME 20
THE SHOOT – AN ORIENTAL ODYSSEY
The third edition of the international art festival UNDER THE PLOW OF TIME takes place from the 6th to the 13th of September 2020, again in Kosovo. After dealing with the myths of genesis and destruction in 2018, the fate of Medea 2019, in 2020 we deal with the novel THE SHOOT – AN ORIENTAL ODYSSEY, by the bestseller German author Karl May.
During the Yugoslavian era, numerous residents of this region played as children or adolescents in the film adaptation of this book. To this day they remember where the “robber” SHOOT and his gang's hideout is located. They also know: The SHOOT is not dead. He still spreads fear and terror. Nobody knows the real identity of this agitator. When he sets off again, devastating a village and wiping out the unruly population - he will, as a sign of his un-recognizability, nail a cut ear to the front door.
The topic of the cut ear, which is a sign that someone is hearing too much or, on the other hand, too little, is the second focus of our festival, which deals with the myth of Beethoven. Born 250 years ago, Beethoven, even though being deaf for the last 30 years of his life, composed unique musical works throughout this period. We want these to be heard in the Dukagjini area in a new and different way, for instance through special concerts in Kullas and at other unusual locations, or through land art projects, where we build for example an oversized, huge concert grand in a field near Strellc / Decan, on which selected pieces of Beethoven’s music will be played 5 times a day throughout the whole festival week.
The third focal point of our festival is the work of German experimental director Christoph Schlingensief, who visited and filmed the Kosovar refugee camp Bllaca in North Macedonia in 1999 and afterwards staged a performative installation at the Volksbühne in Berlin, entitled Deutschland-Suche (Germany - Quest), where they built a tent camp on the rear stage.
Since we are interested in overcoming stereotypes and colonial prejudices in a playful manner, we would like to set up an experimental SHOOT-tent-town in the fields of Strellc, in which our own and other people's clichés of identity can be verified and transformed in a fun way.
For SHOOT, the collaboration with several universities from Central/ Eastern Europe and the Balkans will be continued and expanded. On top of the commitments already made by Austrian universities that are travelling to Kosovo with around 30 students, the Kosovan University UBT in Prishtina is making its network of universities in the Balkans available to the festival after last year's successful collaboration. Total 60 international students and 60 international artists from about 20 different nations are invited to the festival. In addition to the faculties for art design and architecture, performers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers and scientists will be involved in Decan, Peja, Strellc and the surrounding area. For this purpose, discussions are held in advance with residents of Kosovo in order to use their impressions and experiences during filming THE SHOOT for the festival. We are not interested in a remake of the SHOOT, but in a contemporary questioning and overcoming of the political and artistic stereotypes and clichés.
General data:
Event period: 6th-13th September 2020.
Presentation: September 12, 2020, 6 p.m. - midnight.
Venue: Strellc, Decan Region, Kosovo.
Organiser: The kosovan art association stralli in collaboration with austrian art association transit
Persons in charge: Alban Beqiraj (XK), Rajmonda Ahmetaj (XK), Katarina Csanyiova (SK),
Andreas Pronegg (AUT)
Involved institutions: Experimental architecture Innsbruck, studio3; UBT University of Prishtina; Music University Gjakova; Faculty of Art - University of Prishtina/ Acting Class, Film-Class, Music-Studies; Faculty of Philology – University of Prishtina/ German Studies; TU-Vienna, schools; social and charitable institutions; technology companies.
Participants: approx. 60 students from Central, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and approx. 60 artists, scientists, teachers and theoreticians.
More information, videos, photos and registrations at:
VIDEO-DOCUMENTATION UNDER THE PLOW OF TIME 19:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ijoiZGFGuQ&feature=youtu.be
For the associations stralli and transit:
Andreas Pronegg
24th January 2020
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE OF THE FESTIVAL WEEK:
Saturday, 5/9/2020:
4 p.m.: Bus trip from Vienna (HBF) to Peja to Hotel Camp Karagaq.
Sunday, 6/9/2020:
day of arrival; Check-in Hotel Camp Karagaq, Peja. Free time until 7 p.m.
7 p.m.: kick-off and first project meetings; then opening party.
Monday, 7/9/2020:
10 a.m.: drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc (15 km): visit to Kulla and the countryside.
2 p.m.: drive from Strellc to the Gryka restaurant (approx. 10 km, lunch).
4 p.m.: drive or walk from the Gryka restaurant to the Decan monastery and the hotel ruins (approx. 2 km); visit to the two facilities.
6.30 p.m.: drive from Decan monastery to Camp Karagaq (16km).
8 pm: meeting and party
Tuesday, 8/9/2020:
10 a.m.: Drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc, start of construction and catering (approx. 1 p.m.).
2 p.m.: drive from Strellc to Prizren (65 km), individual city tour.
7 p.m.: drive from Prizren to Camp Karagaq (75km)
9 p.m.: optional: meeting and party
Wednesday, 9/9/2020:
Morning until 2 p.m.: purchasing material individually or in groups in Peja.
2 p.m.: drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc, there construction and catering (around 5 p.m.).
7 p.m.: drive from Strellc to Camp Karagaq.
9 p.m.: optional: get together and party
Thursday, 10/9/2020:
Morning until 12 p.m.: purchasing materials, meetings, etc.
12:00 p.m.: drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc, set-up and catering (approx. 2 p.m.)
5 p.m.: drive from Strellc to Gjakova (27km), visit - ethnographic museum and old town bazaar.
9 p.m.: drive from Gjakova to Camp Karagaq (35km).
Friday, 11/9/2020:
Morning until 2 p.m.: purchase of materials, meetings, etc.
2 p.m.: drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc, set up, catering (approx. 5 p.m.) and light tests.
10 p.m.: drive from Strellc to Camp Karagaq.
Saturday, 12/9/2020:
Morning until 2 p.m.: purchase of materials, meetings, etc.
2 p.m.: Drive from Camp Karagaq to Strellc.
6 p.m.: Start of the presentation. Catering is integrated into the performances. Closing party in Strellc.
1 a.m.: Drive from Strellc to Camp Karagaq.
Sunday, 13/9/2020:
11 a.m.: Check-out Camp Karagaq (luggage can be stored there).
4 p.m.: trip from Camp Karagaq to Vienna (HBF).
COSTS FOR PARTICIPANTS FROM VIENNA:
Single room: 250 euros.
Two- to four-bed rooms: 200 euros.
The price includes: Organised bus trip on 4/7/2020 at 4 p.m. from Vienna Central Station to Hotel Camp Karagaq in Peja (Kosovo) and back on 12/7/2020 at 4 p.m. from Hotel Camp Karagaq to Vienna. Seven nights at Hotel Camp Karagaq (single room at Hotel Shala, 5 minutes' walk from Hotel Camp Karagaq). Catering (5 times) in Strellc. Organised bus trips daily from the hotel to the rehearsal site and back and in addition to the Decan monastery, Gjakova and Prizren.
For a one-way trip (i.e. only outward or return journey by bus from or to Vienna):
Cost for a single room: 220 euros.
Cost for two to four bed rooms: 170 euros
For independent arrival and departure to and from Hotel Camp Karagaq:
Single room costs: 170 euros.
Cost for two to four bed rooms: 120 euros.
Transfer to the following account:
transit – interdisziplinäre kunst und kultur
IBAN: AT48 3600 0000 0074 6198
Purpose: THE SHOOT + first and last name
Additional information
1.
The depiction of the Balkan in the novel and film:
Karl May's sketches of people from the Balkans and his picture of the Albanians are superficial, sketchy (full of gaps) and pervaded by stereotypes. In his Balkan novels he gives the "Skipetaren" neither an Albanian language nor an Albanian name. He uses, among other things, unscientific transcriptions from Cyrillic or Ottoman-Arabic. Kara Ben Nemsi, Karl May's alter ego, is an European coloniser. He has to carry out an enormous civilising cleanup "in the wild Balkans", similar to the task of Heracles in cleaning up the Augias stables. The German superhuman must constantly carry out a tremendous translation work on his hunt for the unknown shoot: he must enforce the values of his civilised homeland on this "hostile, exotic natural area" in order to help his understanding of law and order to be just and to deliver "deserved" punishment to the Shoot.
The film adaptation from 1964 picks up on the imperial narratives of Karl May's oriental novel and, shortly after the Second World War and the German campaign to conquer the Balkans, combines them with cinematic clichés of “near-natural” people that are completely alien to Central European values. Due to the binary coding of the narratives, these troublemakers have to be eliminated in duel scenes - although there is no doubt from the start who will ultimately prevail in this fight.
2.
Our method of working:
In the playful examination of the Karl May novel and its film adaptation, we work with selected artistic and theoretical texts in Albanian, German, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and English. We understand the different Balkan and European discourses as an opportunity to become more aware of one's own point of view in order to be able to check which prejudices and stereotypes are associated with one's own thinking. We primarily use interdisciplinary and intercultural artistic positions for reflection, which are able to thwart conventional ways of thinking and e.g. exchange or dissolve the line of sight from inside and outside, language power and powerlessness, image power and shapelessness.
We would like to examine historical concepts of space and language as well as visual images in an interdisciplinary manner in order to change the perception of the traditional ideas of space and foreignness. Just as the students and artists from Central, Eastern Europe and the Balkans hike to meet together in a small village called Strellc and from there to other villages and travel through Kosovo, so should the thinking and the concepts (also among each other). We understand the common learning process as an uncontrollable movement and the learning subject as constantly in motion and change. Theories, terminology and language images are also to be subjected to change. The aim is to further develop one's own disciplinary and interdisciplinary thinking and judgment. The worldview and actions of the learners should be felt and made visible to oneself and to others. This enables new cultural, political and artistic contexts to be created that were not previously known and therefore could not be called up. Sometimes a jump allows you to cross the Death Canyon, not a step.
3.
UNDER THE PLOW OF TIME is a platform that brings together young people from the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe. It distrusts the prevailing political and economic rules, ideologies and perceptions. It opens up to the arts, sciences, technologies and languages that are to be discovered radically.
UNDER THE PLOW OF TIME cooperates with universities, schools, technology companies/firms, artists, social and charitable institutions from 20 countries. Our capital maximises with the experiences that we gain through transnational, intercultural and interdisciplinary exchange.
Our game is unpredictable. And our game is serious. We understand THE SHOOT - AN ORIENTAL ODYSSEY as an international artistic workshop that enables transfer, exchange, reconstruction and the dissolution of colonialistic models and stereotypes.