Digital Debates
Balkan Trafik! Festival and the European Commission- DG REGIO established a partnership aimed at linking projects within the interreg cooperation (cooperation policy across Europe and beyond) with culture and art. This will add value to cooperation in general and allow a better understanding and knowledge of a region like the Balkans.
Despite the 3.000 distance kilometers that separate Balkan countries from Brussels, European Commission’s activities, via DG REGIO, foster cooperation in the Balkans. Many projects and activities have been implemented, improving connectivity, environmental quality, innovation networks and much more across borders.
Using the most advanced technologies, Palace will become a virtual square connecting Brussels with the Balkans and allowing people to discuss without borders and exchange opinions about critical issues that connect Brussels with the Balkans. In this context, some of our partners from the Balkans will present their experience and the added value of Interreg cooperation in the region.
25.04, 10.30 – 15.45
Palace
Giant Horo
Horo is a traditional dance accompanied by music that is common across Balkan and Middle Eastern countries. The spontaneity of its movements is designed to celebrate the joy of being together, united through dance. Troupes from different Balkan countries and southeastern European diaspora communities will come together for a huge party to celebrate the Brussels’ diversity at the Grand Place.
26.04, 13.00 – 18.00
Grand-Place
Urban Graph
The BALKAN TRAFIK Festival invites graffiti artists to express themselves on Brussels walls.
The new street generation from the Balkans is currently experiencing a social, cultural and aesthetic boom, giving birth to many new identities and collective representations.
2018 – BOZKO
On the occasion of the BALKAN TRAFIK Festival! 2018, BOZKO, a Bulgarian street artist, painted a fresco in Brussels! Bozhidar Simenov, aka BOZKO, is a Bulgarian street artist that lives and works in Sofia.
BOZKO studied at the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts. His aim is to mask the sad ugliness of his city neighbourhoods’ by painting strange-looking but adorable characters.
With the support of the City of Brussels
Quai au bois,
1000 Brussels
2019 – RIKARDO
As part of BALKAN TRAFIK Festival! 2019: RIKARDO, a Bosnian street artist, painted a fresco in Brussels, a couple of steps away from Brussels Grand-Place.
Quoting “The Little Prince” from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”, the artist invites passersby to look at each other through a child’s eyes: without any judgement and with an open heart. Indeed, through its abstraction, colors and shapes, this fresco is meant to be universal. Anyone, depending on their background, age and genre, may have a different interpretation.
This fresco was painted in the framework of Brussel City’s “Parcours Urbain” (“Urban Circuit”). With the support of the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Rue du Marché aux Peaux,
1000 Brussels
2020 – IRLO
Inauguration April 21st
IRLO studied arts in high school, in Arad and at Timişoara College of Architecture (RO). He started spraying walls as a kid in ‘97 in his hometown, Bistriţa. In Arad, he initiated the AKAcrew (one of the first graffiti crews in Romania) andDeja22 – a street art group.
He currently lives in Bucharest where he works as a painter and mural artist. He is the founder and a member of the NOM crew (Novus OrdoMuralis). IRLO’s style is related to low brow movement, comics and graffiti, but also to naive suprarealism and fantasy.
2020 – Jana Danilović
Inauguration April 21st
Jana Danilović is a Belgrade-based street artist and muralist, Doctor of Arts degree holder, street-art theorist and co-founder of Rekonstrukcija, Belgrade biggest festival of arts on the street.
Actively working on her artistic production in public space as well as her studio work, her murals can be seen on streets of Serbia, Croatia, France, Germany, Montenegro, Bosnia and Greece, her studio work has been displayed on thirteen solo shows and over fifty group exhibitions all over the world.
Her work explores the role of an individual in various contexts, using different metaphors to illustrate ideas of freedom, solidarity and emancipation.
Urban Chapter
The new urban generation of the Balkans is an intellectual, social, cultural and aesthetic melting pot, giving birth to myriad identities and collective representations. The Urban Chapter brings together some twenty urban artists from the Balkans and Belgium, with varied styles and experiences, for a unique creation that is the culmination of an artistic residency.
The Urban Chapter, mixing rhythms, lyrics, slam, beatbox and rap, will unveil the boundless talents of these representatives of a generation in flux.
24.04, 19.00 – 00.45
VK
