::MANIFESTO:: by Elizabeta Lindner (Excerpts)
But here we are, ordinary people who have learned NOTHING. What do we need history for when it serves us only for the creation of new weapons, new businessmen, new markets, new political party errand boys and new wars? Both Nazism and Fascism are repeating themselves in Europe, we are all on the road to the abyss, and we want to talk about art and literature. Which? Where? On television? On the cell phone? On Instagram? On Twitter? Where truth is? And where is it? At academic meetings? In megalomaniac projects? In journalists? In freelancers? Workers? The homeless? Or in the endless superficiality with which we are flooded?
And where are we in all this? We are (again) on the road to ruin … And if we do not want to continue on this road, we need to turn to good and high-quality information, constructive (and not superficial, malicious or subtle) criticism and high quality and bold modern poetry and art.
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Apart from the high-quality works, we pay special attention to translations: while the mass prints of „frivolous“ textual products fly to all sides, spread like fake news, without the talent that is necessary – both for writing and for translating. Or, unfortunately, many talented translators are pushed in the role of translating trashy books, what is pity for the culture. With our translations of extraordinary contemporary authors, we want the term quality to leave a cultural mark in European contemporary culture. This is of particular importance for small and endangered languages such as Macedonian.
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We are defying history, defying bureaucracy, defying nationalism and fascism, defying an inhuman European policy in which we are all guinea pigs. Awareness exists in order to be raised! Do not stay on the level of a guinea pig, search and expect more from art, literature, culture, politics and society – in the twenty-first century it is the least that can be expected of a European citizen. Europeanization in the Balkans has not made any progress in the political sense so far, and the culture of the Balkan countries is merely represented in the West – perhaps it is time to balkanize Europe. The Balkans is the notion of „wildness,“ emotion, sincerity, cordiality, a notion of a struggle for life, something that Europe has long forgotten. The Balkans are NOT FAKE :: The Balkans are FACT :: which always becomes part of some big European lie :: NO! The Balkans are NOT THE POWDER KEG of Europe! The Balkans are its true and real space, and not its backyard, a void, neither here nor there, the Dirty Balkans, disconnected and unworthy of equality.