VIVISECTfest – idea and concept

The Festival on Human Rights – VIVISECTfest the idea behind was to draw public's attention to the attacks on human dignity which were getting more and more frequent.

In 2004, the non-governmental organization Vojvodjanka – Regional Women's Initiative launched the Festival on Human Rights – VIVISECTfest in Novi Sad with the intention to develop an all-year-round educational and artistic platform for presentations and discussions on the issue of human rights.

The aim of the activities and programmes within the Festival on Human Rights - VIVISECTfest is the following: 

To develop and implement new methods of work in the process of making the individual citizens face the threatening actions from the recent past and present.

To cherish respect of diversity through a dialogue and joint activities by people originating from different ethnic and religious communities.

To develop international co-operation, organise film screenings and exhibitions of documentary photographs and to present publications, and artistic and educational programmes dealing with human rights, in the country and abroad.

The Festival programme has been envisaged like a unity of actions dealing with the current violation of human rights on the local/regional and global/international level through documentary films, photographs and engaged posters.

An inside/outside view is our basic mode of accessing the issue of human rights violation, and therefore, we may present, at one single place, different attitudes to the issue by the authors who work on a local/regional and global/international level.

The first edition of VIVISECTfest (2004) was dedicated to the topic War in the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside

The second edition of VIVISECTfest (2006) was dedicated to the topic My Enemies: Nationalism and Xenophobia

The third edition of VIVISECTfest (2007/2008) was dedicated to the topic Terrorism, No Thank You!

The fourth edition of VIVISECTfest (2008/2009) was dedicated to the topic of  Totalitarian Regimes - View from Inside and Outside

The fifth edition of the VIVISECTfest (2009) was dedicated to the topic of  Third World Countries – People from the Margin

The project activities are being implemented through an annual programme that includes preparation and organisation of each new edition of the festival in Novi Sad dedicated to a pressing issue, and organisation of a travelling festival in the country and abroad. The travelling festivals are organised according to the following principle: each year new towns and cities join in, and the ones that have already been visited by the VIVISECTfest travelling festival automatically become members of our permanent partner network.

The first edition of the VIVISECTfest - War in the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside was organised in Novi Sad on December 13th-19th, 2004.

In 2005, the programme of the travelling VIVISECTfest, with the topic War in the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside was implemented in co-operation with local partners in Inđija, Belgrade, Kikinda, Sombor, Bačka Palanka, Novi Bečej and Novi Pazar (Serbia); Tuzla (B&H), and Berlin (Germany).
In 2006, the programme was also implemented in Ruma and Stara Pazova (Serbia); Sarajevo and Mostar (B&H); and Skopje (FYR Macedonia).

In 2006, the Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest was also presented in Strasbourg (France) and Maastricht (The Netherlands).

The second edition of the VIVISECTfest - My Enemies: Nationalism and Xenophobia was organised in Novi Sad on September 21st-27th, 2006.

In 2006 and 2007, in co-operation with the local partners, we organised the travelling VIVISECTfest with the topic My Enemies: Nationalism and Xenophobia in Belgrade, Kikinda, Novi Pazar, Ruma, Kula and Novi Bečej (Serbia); Mostar and Tuzla (B&H); and Berlin (Germany).

In 2007, the Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest was also presented in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The third edition of the VIVISECTfest - Terrorism, No, Thank You  was organised in Novi Sad on March 24st-29th, 2008.

In 2008, in co-operation with the local partners, we organised the travelling VIVISECTfest with the topic Terrorism, No, Thank You  in Novi Bečej and Kikinda (Serbia).

Since 2004, the organiser of the Human Rights Festival - VIVISECTfest has established a network of travelling festivals including 15 towns and cities and co-operation with 20 festivals on human rights in the country and abroad.

Also, we have established co-operation with the university centres in the country and abroad: the Arts Academy, the Faculty of Humanities, and Women’s Studies in Novi Sad (Serbia); the Faculty of Political Sciences and the Centre for Peace Studies in Zagreb, and IUC - International University Centre in Dubrovnik (Croatia); the Centre for Peace Studies in Sarajevo (B&H); and Bologna (Italy); CEU - Central-European University in Budapest (Hungary); Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (The Netherlands); George Washington University in Washington D.C. (USA); and the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University (UK).

The programmes of the Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest which make the people directly face the reality in which we all live, without making it less painful and ugly, may have a significant contribution to the further development of free and open societies which respect human rights and the rule of law. 

The Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest is our modest contribution to the educational processes with the final goal to establish peace and reach peaceful solutions for crisis and conflicts.