Project description: The lack of a culture of recycling and giving new life to discarded materials remains a significant challenge that the Multivox Association seeks to bring into the public spotlight through media outreach, public debates, digital platforms, workshops, artistic programmes, and public interventions. The CircleArt Festival was conceived following the example of the Reciklart Festival in Ljubljana, which has been successfully organized for nine years by two women artists and activists. The second edition of the CircleArt Festival of Recycling and Circular Art, titled Is Green Change Feminine?, explored the intersection of gender, ecology, and the green transformation of art and culture.
The three-day festival took place at the SMART City Media Shelter club and courtyard in Niš. The programme was designed with a strong focus on gender perspectives and the presentation of research findings, while the majority of participants were women activists and artists. The festival’s central debate, bearing the same title as the festival, addressed the relationship between gender equality and environmental sustainability. A partnership was also established with Slovenia’s Reciklart Festival of Recycling Art and DIY Culture, whose representatives visited Niš to present their programme and share their experience. The festival programme included artistic workshops, site-specific interventions, concerts, public debates, film screenings, performances, and theatre productions. Throughout the festival, a photography exhibition featuring works selected through a public competition was on display, alongside a two-day clothing swap and a bicycle repair service promoting sustainable consumption and mobility. Following the festival, selected programme activities were presented in the cities of Kruševac and Vranje in cooperation with AKC Gnezdo and the association Generator, extending the project’s reach beyond Niš.
The festival contributed to the promotion of DIY culture and socially engaged art while increasing the visibility of women activists, experts, and artists working in the field of environmental and sustainable artistic practices. It also supported the further decentralization and dissemination of innovative cultural programming across southeastern Serbia.
Grant amount: 1,400,000.00 RSD
