Expanding Internationalism - A Conference on ... - Mary Jane Jacob

"What is International"
by
Vladimir Vajda
General Manager
Festival Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
We have always thought that for an event to be international, it must
comprise work from many countries and, especially for us in Europe,
collaboration with some non-European countries.
Thus, the definition has been more geographical than not. Actually, it
is only quite lately with the changes in Eastern Europe, people on this side
of the globe have started to think "internationally" in the philosophical
sense of the word.
political meaning.
<strong>Internationalism</strong> had in past decades a great deal of
(Do not forget Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, and
others -- Biafra, Angola, Vietnam.)
'Ihis type of international "help"
superseded the friendlier sense one might have of the meaning of
internationalism.
We know that money has been always the basis of governing the world.
It has also been an important factor in determining how countries, peoples,
and cultures come to know one another.
Some individual curators have made
significant efforts to widen the spectrum.
But even these efforts have often,
been one-sided.
Biennials have always been of great importance to the environment they
are placed in and to their organizers. There has been, however, a problem of
selection and of presentation. The principle of literal geographical
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