Kaleidoscope of Culture turns Novi Sad into a stage every September. The Kaleidoscope of Culture programmes open new spaces for culture, nurture a culture of togetherness and enable the public to create their own kaleidoscope of culture composed of everyday diverse events through five weeks of art, dedicated to architecture, literature, performing, visual and applied arts.
This year, the Kaleidoscope of Culture will present five iconic places for culture through five weeks of art and five highlight programmes. These are the Creative District in the Great Liman, where the grand opening and the week of architecture will be held, Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard which will be the centre of this year’s Korzo, Suburbium of the Petrovaradin Fortress, reserved for literature this year, the Gallery Square, as a unique location for new media and technologies in visual art and SPENS – centre for applied arts, which will bring together significant local, European and world names in this field.
The Creative District in the Great Liman is a space that is currently being transformed from a neglected industrial complex into a centre of Novi Sad’s artistic production and contemporary creativity, as part of preparations for the title of European Capital of Culture. Thanks to this renewal and merging art and culture with industrial heritage, the people of Novi Sad rediscover Great Liman and are acquainted with the turbulent history of this part of the city, which significantly influenced the urban identity of Novi Sad.
The traditional Korzo is one of the central events of the Kaleidoscope of Culture, which every year turns Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard into a spectacular stage for an open-air concert. The citizens of Novi Sad are addressed by supreme artists from the modern stage on the old Novi Sad promenade, so it will be the same in the week of performing arts of this year’s Kaleidoscope of Culture. Following the example of Paris, Vienna, London, Berlin and other metropolises, Novi Sad revives one of its iconic streets and stops the central city road to show that culture is accessible everywhere and to everyone.
In the midst of the renovation of the Suburbium, one of the most important infrastructural projects in the preparation of Novi Sad for the title of European Capital of Culture, the programme of the week of literature draws attention to the heritage of this place and raises awareness of its preservation. The streets below the Petrovaradin Fortress will be full of programmes dedicated to books and the art of words, and the audience will enjoy interacting with their favourite authors in the extraordinary atmosphere of a baroque pearl, such as this iconic place in Novi Sad.
The Gallery Square is the only place where three important cultural institutions that nurture visual art come together: the Gallery of Matica Srpska, the Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection and the Rajko Mamuzić Gift Collection. This year as well, the Gallery Square will become the epicentre of visual art, and through the ‘New Places’ call in cooperation with the Association of Architects of Novi Sad and the City Administration for Construction Land and Investments, it will gain completely new outlines.
Once the host of the World Table Tennis Championship, SPENS has become a place recognisable by applied art within the Kaleidoscope of Culture. The third edition of the Design Pavilion will be held at one of the most famous locations in Novi Sad, which builds a new tradition in the iconic place of our city, as the epicentre of applied art. European cultural institutions, civil society organisations, foreign and local artists will present design here as a tool for a new positioning of culture in society.
Photo: Jelena Ivanović, Vladimir Veličković