24. December. 2014. | 04:18

Debate: What is the mainstream culture today?

At last week's panel discussion held at Aktiv Art Centre we debated the topic “what is the mainstream culture today?” It was agreed that the last 25 years have seen a cultural, moral and material decline in the Western Balkans. From Belgrade, writer, Vladimir Arsenijevic, musician, Oliver Nektarijevic and front man of Kanda Kodza and Nebojsa together with Ljubisa Bascarevic one of the organizers of Mitrovica Jazz/Blues Fest, debated the modification of culture today and how the mainstream culture affects social dynamics, and whether there exits a “high” or “low” culture?

For the last 25 years, culture in the Western Balkans was a battlefield of social groups from different ideological standpoints and values. The overall supremacy of the market and the success of neoliberal ideology has affected the cultural scene by lowering the quality of the cultural products. Consumers were unable to critically reflect on the existing social reality. Socio-economic transition, ethnic conflict and the rise of nationalism acted as obstacles. In this sort of political-economic setting, the only cultural forms that are able to flourish are those that play up to the masses.

Vlada Arsenijevic said that “one option is to put culture completely in the hands of market, where only cultural forms which have consumers survive. The other option is not much better, passive forms of culture, subsidized by the state and its institutions, which does not have much to do with the high quality culture.” The second cultural battlefield is one that is supported by the state through subsidies. In this part of the country the state has mostly supported cultural forms that reproduce the social values of the ruling political elite. In other words the state has supported artists who have not questioned the authority of the political elite. As Arsenijevic explained, this leads to pasivization of the population. The third cultural battlefield is the one of the alternative cultural workers coming from socio-political margins. Those who are unwilling to compromise their freedom and values and will not be manipulated by the discourse promoted by the market or state.

Nektarijevic said that “we are lucky and endowed with freedom because we are currently on the social margins. That is why I think that small countries have greater opportunities to sincerely develop alternative culture, which is not in the domain of the market, because this region is geographically not that large.” All three panelists have stipulated the importance of cultural activism and its power to act as a catalyst for social and political change. Oliver Nektarijevic and his band KKN were at the forefront of the democratic protests in the 90’s and the struggle to topple Milosevic. Oliver is not hesitant to speak about his disappointment with the changes that came after October 5. “We thought that when Milosevic goes, everything will be great in a year or two, and that the problems we have with mainstream culture will be solved. We believed in the people of the opposition. From this perspective we were stupid and naïve, but we remained the same and we worked with the same enthusiasm as we did the 90’s. The social activism is still present in our lyrics and music”.

Ljubisa Bascarevic said that it was hard not to fall back and sell the values in which he believed. “In the 90’s the positive culture was gone. Old Yugoslavia, as authoritarian as it was, had some positives when it came to culture. With the cultural and moral decline of the 90’s, culturally positive values and ideas, especially in popular music were gone, and gave rise to the mass media and music sidelined anything that wasn't mainstream. Fighting against the new mainstream culture in the 90’s was the most we could do.” AKTIV’s project envisages as a series of debates which will be held twice a month from November through till March and it is funded by the U.S. Embassy.