Festival for Development of Creative Industries Skopje Kreativa 2019 is under the motto of “Green Skopje”
The eight edition of the Festival for Development of Creative Industries Skopje Kreativa 2019 is under the motto of “Green Skopje” which symbolically contains the idea of ecological awareness as a culture of living. Through the festival and its program, our goal is to engage the creative potential towards creating a better relationship between humans and the environment. To us, ecology is a dynamic category of mutually conditioned ecological, social and cultural processes in the day-to-day life. Therefore, terms such as public space, means of communication, nature preservation, rationalization of resources, recycling… are embedded in the idea and program concept of Skopje Kreativa 2019.
Environment and culture change through human creativity, which is also the central characteristic of the cultural and creative industries, and more recently of the content-based industries or copyright industries. Human creativity enables creation with an economic and social value. In this context, apart from the cultural and artistic creation, as a creation of high aesthetic value and expression of the original human spirit, we also take into account the other types of creation, such as the scientific or technological creation.
In relation to Skopje and its potential for development as a creative city, it would assume encouraging the creative and innovative capital of the citizens for the purpose of creating an oeuvre that would contribute to the societal and economic development of the city. One of the important characteristics that can often be neglected in the context of the creative industries is the societal component, which not only does imply the creation of economic value, but also a creation of a broader social value that would enable improvement of the citizens’ quality of life. Therefore, what we have set as a goal within the program of the “Skopje Kreativa 2019” Festival, is to boost the domestic creativity, which will be conceptualized, developed and effectuated by means of collaboration with domestic and international partners, through various activities that would be conducive to a better quality of life in the city for all its citizens.
The festival program was developed through an interdisciplinary approach where the creative capital and knowledge from the artistic and cultural sector intersects with the new media sector, the IT-industry, graphic and industrial design and fashion. At the same time, the program covers an educational, production and presentation format and content from the broad scope of the creative industries, attractive for the citizens of various ages and diverse cultural communities.
The main concept of the festival program was developed by Lokomotiva’s editorial team, while certain program lines were created in collaboration with guest-editors, professionals in the areas of design, architecture, music and cinema. The Design Program consists of the sections “Support and promotion of prototype products and services in the area of the creative industries”, “Branding a Green Skopje” and “Beautification of the City”. The Architecture Program is devoted to the “Ecologies of the City” and transformation of the public spaces. The Music Program promotes the concepts of recycling and “green” by releasing new music and promoting quality music authors and DJs with a selection of contemporary music and music from our more recent and more distant past. The Film Program through “Morning Cinema” and “Cinema under the Stars” will show us an interesting assortment of documentaries, advertisements and travelogues from the archives of Vardar Film. In addition, “Skopje Kreativa 2019” will offer creative workshops for children theater, “Remix the Cultural Reality” or an exhibition of redesigned posters of Macedonian films, music albums and book covers, “Redefine your Reality”, or presentations of innovations where creativity and technology, internet-technology and activisms intersect, and “Eco-Sphere” or a pop-up store for design, books and music releases by domestic authors and performers. The program also consists of cooperation with professionals from various creative sectors, including artists and cultural workers, civil associations, local and independent cultural institutions, formal and informal groups of citizens and initiatives, faculties, professors, students, the Fund for Innovations, representatives of the business-sector and independent entrepreneurs.
We’re expecting you at “Skopje Kreativa 2019”, so that we can jointly trace the way to a “Green Skopje”!
Violeta Kachakova, Festival Director and Program Editor and Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski, Festival Program Editor