France is the guest of honour at the 66th International Book Fair in Belgrade
L’Institut français de Serbie and the Embassy of the Republic of France in Serbia are hosting the event called Confluences – France in Serbia from October 4 to December 15, 2023.
On the occasion of France being the guest of honour at the 66th International Book Fair in Belgrade, the French Institute and the French Embassy in Serbia invited their long-standing partners to highlight French culture and authors this autumn as part of their ongoing programmes. The event will include special guided tours of the permanent exhibition of the National Museum in Belgrade, theatre performances by French playwrights in Belgrade, guest appearances by French artists at the Belgrade Jazz Festival, a film and documentary programme that will be broadcast on RTS, a lecture and an exhibition at the National Library of Serbia, etc. This autumn, from October to December, the Belgrade audience will have the opportunity to enjoy French culture, with a versatile programme that will take place under the auspices of the Book Fair as the central event.
On Wednesday, October 4, a media conference was held at the French Embassy, at which H.E. Pierre Cochard, the French Ambassador to Serbia, Stanislas Pierret, Cultural Advisor of the French Embassy and Director of the French Institute in Serbia, Nataša Mihailović-Vacić, Culture Secretary in the Belgrade government, Svetislav Goncić, Director of the National Theatre in Belgrade and Bojana Borić-Brešković, Director of the National Museum in Belgrade, spoke.
H.E. Pierre Cochard, the French Ambassador, addressed the conference first: „Cultural exchange between our two peoples and our countries represents a less visible but very valuable framework for the friendship that binds us together. This autumn, France will be the guest of honour at the Belgrade Book Fair and its booth will be a meeting place with more than 20 authors and significant French cultural figures present. With this event, we want to further fortify the primordial and permanent ties that unite France and Serbia in culture. Confluences will offer more programmes that we will host with partner institutions related to literature, comics, film, science, fashion, sports… See you at the programmes and I’ll schedule our next meeting at the Book Fair”.
Stanislas Pierret, Director of the L’Institut français de Serbie, thanked all the institutions that will be part of this event, as well as partners, the Jan Michalski Foundation, Vinci Airports, the company MPC Properties, Telekom Srbija and the Belgrade Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade and added: “The Book Fair is a great opportunity for us to present creativity and everything published in literature, but also fashion, sports, science, science fiction… We will have a large delegation of writers from France and the audience will be able to meet them every day of the Fair. Serbian publishers are present in all our activities and have greatly helped our presentation at the Fair. French authors who will visit Belgrade include, among others, Pierre Assoulin, Susan Ayo, Félix Le Bars, Patrick Besson, Jean-Christophe Buisson, Pascale Delpech, Mathias Enard, Isabel Fiemeyer, Jean-Francois Galteau, Julia Cage, Catherine Cusset, Tullio Korda, Florence Noiville, Florence Aubry, Clementine Surdet, Eric-Emmanuel Schmit, Christelle Petticollen, Thomas Pikkety, David Rochefort, Tony Valente. The French booth will be inspired by the Cafe De Flore (frequented by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir) and La Closerie des Lilas, both symbols of Paris and literature. The middle of our booth will feature a column that will resemble the famous Morris tower.”
Nataša Mihailović-Vacić, Culture Secretary in the Belgrade government, said that she was pleased with the event taking place in Belgrade and pointed out: “This year’s cultural season was poetically named Ušće (The Confluence) by Stanislas Pierret. There is a lot of other symbolism in it and it is just an indicator of all the relationships we have built so far, but also all the bridges that we will additionally build and fortify in the future, especially when we talk about the cultural exchange between Serbia and France and Belgrade and Paris. The Book Fair is our most important and most visited cultural event and this year, with the added charm of the French literary world, it will be a true celebration of culture, art, books, and literature. I would like to invite the citizens of Belgrade to come and to point out that in addition to the Book Fair, we also have the honour of hosting several exceptional jazz artists at the Belgrade Jazz Festival this year (Leila Martial, Valentin Ceccaldi – “Fil” and Sylvain Rifflet). I would like to highlight another key aspect of our abundant cultural cooperation and that is cooperation in film. This year, our film cooperation achieved exceptional results. Our directors, actors and producers implemented important projects together with French partners, thus creating works of art that not only inspire us but also enrich us”.
Bojana Borić-Brešković, Director of the National Museum in Belgrade, presented the programme that will take place at the Museum and noted: “In October and November, the public will be able to see free of charge the works of French artists that we have in our collection. When it comes to the permanent exhibition at the National Museum, French art is abundantly represented. It consists of 76 works of art which are a part of the permanent exhibition, while our biggest collection consists of over 960 works of art by French artists created in the period between the 16th and 20th centuries. The first works of French artists arrived at the Museum at the end of the 19th century”.
Svetislav Goncić, Director of the National Theatre in Belgrade, thanked for the opportunity for the National Theatre to be a part of such a rich programme and added: “Cooperation with France is both a great honour and a great pleasure. The main message of this cooperation is that we share a large cultural space with France and our art has been greatly influenced by French culture in the past and today. The French culture left an impact on our culture from the times of Dositej Obradović to date which is why this is the logical sequence of our cooperation. French playwrights are very present in our theatre and I had the opportunity to act in their plays. Many plays by French playwrights will be staged in a number of theatres during October.”
One of the most important partners of the France in Serbia event is Radio Television of Serbia, which will broadcast a series of documentaries about French literature and art throughout October. In November, French-Serbian film meetings will take place as a part of the Author’s Film Festival.
You can find more about the programme on the French Institute in Serbia’s official website