Wednesday, 03.11.2021.
Drumming in Belgrade during the Art Weekend
19 October 2021
With orange caps on their heads and drums in their hands, Good News Drummers from Vranje and Bujanovac walked their funny, cheerful, rebellious news around Belgrade. The first rehearsal of the drumming took place on Kosančićev venac, on the plateau in front of Mika Alas’ house. The tour continued along the Sava promenade to the next rehearsal site at the foot of Kalemegdan. Along the way, the drummers were encouraged to hand out badges with news headlines to passers-by. With the leadership of Prota from Škart, at the end of a long test march through the hills of Dorćol, the drummers made a surprise performance on the steps of the “Black Sheep” ice cream parlour. The performance for the opening of the Art Weekend at the Belgrade Hotel is ready.
20 October 2021
The day started with watching the documentary-animated film “Scenes from the life of a mongrel”, which shows the struggles of the life of stray dogs and the attitude of society towards them. The film scene outside the film itself was the setting of a fire alarm and a brief interruption of the screening. The alarm was false, but the relaxed reaction of Good News Drummers was a self-inspiration for joking and making up new (exciting) news in the following days.
During the afternoon, Good News Drummers premiered at the opening of the Art Weekend at the Belgrade Hotel, where they performed together with more than 60 artists. The drumming room, at the end of the hallway on the fourth floor, was plastered with slogans, news, and pictures from the previous drumming. The performance was not carried out in the room, but the good news was read throughout the hotel. Starting from the fifth floor, the news resonated in three different languages throughout the abandoned, but for this occasion particularly revived, the Belgrade Hotel. The performance spilt over into the surrounding streets around Savski trg, so the slogan “We are fixing bad things – Good News Drummers” not only remained within the festival, but also revived the surrounding streets.
21 October 2021
This day was intended for joint activities of Good News Drummers together with children from the Sixth Belgrade High School. A workshop was held in the Magacin Cultural Centre where the participants got to know each other through designing short news in verse. The news talked about phenomena from everyday life, about the school of dreams, or presented advertisements related to vaccines. This was followed by a visit to the Museum of Yugoslavia. Under the guidance of the curators, the students had the opportunity to go through the newly opened exhibition “Prometheans of the New Century”, as well as the permanent exhibition of the museum. As festival guests, everyone was invited to later socialise with the artists of the festival in the Belgrade Hotel.
22 October 2021
In the morning, Good News Drummers visited the Museum of Applied Art, as well as their fellow citizen from Vranje – the owner of a boutique. After that, together with their new friends, they had a workshop with Paul Murray at the Children’s Cultural Centre. There they had fun through different games, learning how a set of words can be turned into a story, and then how the story can be told through acting. It took a long time for the new friends to part, they made visiting arrangements for the future, and we will do our best to gather them all for some new activity.
