Die Horen [The Horae]
According to the Grimm dictionary, buccaneers are "those who seize foreign property by force on the sea in order to enrich themselves, without having authority for this seizure from any state". Pirates, corsairs and, to a certain extent, privateers are other synonymous phrases, all of which mark a counter-world, a world of freedom, audacity, adventurousness. They have been sailing through children's rooms with all their dreams for centuries, filling libraries and cinema halls. The sea becomes a space free of society into which the buccaneer Jenny fantasises just as much as later all those who see themselves subjected to "extreme standardisation" by the "consumer society", as P.P. Pasolini does in his buccaneer writings. Piraterie-horen seeks out all those critical, romantic, heterotopic ship planks and island beaches of self-empowerment in today's world and gathers them into one great seduction: "I wish I was back where`s forward [...] Where we are is always Libertatia" (Ja, Panik).
The issue of Beton International No. 2 has been published in book form in Serbia. With this issue, we have managed to gather authors from different parts of Europe and ask them to formulate their views on the last seventy years as well as on the present of our continent. While we are committed to our continent growing together and to the borders of nation states becoming more permeable, on these issues it seemed appropriate to acknowledge reality and to start from differences between East and West. The consequences of the Second World War have divided the continent for too long for us to deny the different traditions today.
The history of this first issue of BETON INTERNATIONAL is simple: against all the unfavourable real-political, ideological and economic circumstances in which the countries of South-Eastern Europe find themselves, there are countless initiatives and projects among writers, philosophers, sociologists, feminists, social activists and many other citizens that are geared towards encounters and subvert the narrow national frameworks by constantly crossing borders - in the hope of better and fairer societies. Of course, this permeability does not only refer to the borders of these countries among themselves, but also to the borders between them and other European countries. BETON INTERNATIONAL is the product of such an initiative.
The anthology with contributions by Albanian, Bosnian, German, Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian authors offers well-founded historical-political, international-legal and sociological analyses of the shards left behind by Yugoslavia and points out perspectives for the Yugoslav heirs.
A literary travel guide, a map of autobiographical memories and contemporary thoughts in prose, essays, poetry, composed of the voices of Marica Bodrožić, Dragan Velikić, Josef Haslinger, Tony White, Erica Fischer, György Dalos, Mirko Kovač, Ivana Sajko, Nelida Milani, Milan Rakovac, Renato Baretić, Abd Allataef Blfllah, Aljosa Pužar, Daša Drndić, Irena Lukšić, Vlatko Ivandić, Boris Domagoj Biletić, Božica Jelušić, Magdalena Platzova, Drago Orlić, Claudio Ugussi and Alida Bremer.
"The authors of this issue are as committed to a close look at the Mediterranean as a hybrid and contradictory space as they are to the project of a cultural community of Mediterranean countries that is not built on power politics but on solidarity. In their texts, a new reading of Mare nostrum emerges - one that can be left without question marks." (Christine Lötscher in the editorial)
FABULA RASA ODER: ZAGREB LIEGT AM MEER / Croatian literature of the last 25 years. Compiled by Alida Bremer / With photos by Feđa Klarić, Andriana Škunca & Danko Vučinović / With drawings by Igor Hofbauer & light objects by Goran Petercol. Editor: Johann P. Tammen
»You cannot change your century, but you can stand against it and prepare fortunate impacts.«
With this issue of Beton International, we have managed to gather authors from different parts of Europe and ask them to express their views on the last seventy years as well as on the present of our continent. While we are committed to our continent growing together and to the borders of nation states becoming more permeable, on these issues it seemed appropriate to acknowledge reality and to start from differences between East and West. The consequences of the Second World War have divided the continent for too long for us to deny the different traditions today.
Theatre and television dramaturge Davor Korić writes 22 letters from Sarajevo to his wife Dragana and their children, who have fled to Germany, between July 1992 and May 1993. Korić gives a detailed account of everyday life and death during the siege of his home town. He reflects on the end of Yugoslavia, describes the political catastrophe of the multicultural city and the consequences for mixed-national families like his own. His letters have a literary character in addition to being private and documentary, as he manages to give universal meaning to his personal feelings in an unexpected, absurd and brutal life situation.
Laura Marchig is one of the most important Italian-writing authors in Croatia. She belongs to a generation that grew up under socialism, with rock 'n' roll as bread for the soul, and at the same time with the language of Dante. This generation, tired and spent after the war, a war for democracy, is skilled at living within another, Slavic culture, and it has learned to love this culture, which it knows at least as well as its own.
"Jugosphere"? What about a common regional consciousness across the borders of the successor states in the intellectual and artistic sphere? Two decades after the disintegration of the SFR Yugoslavia, the authors of the current focus examine what Yugoslavia was and what of Yugoslavia lives on today.
For numerous authors from Germany, Croatia, the land of a thousand islands, is a place of inspiration. Ingo Schulze, Juli Zeh, Veit Heinichen, Erica Fischer, Wladimir Kaminer, Richard Wagner and many others have approached "their" Croatia humorously, thoughtfully, critically and hymnally.And they are accompanied by Croatian authors living in Germany, such as Marica Bodrožić and Nicol Ljubić. Editors: Alida Bremer, Silvija Hinzmann and Dagmar Schruf.