UPDATE -- STRIP IT, the 10-days Youth Exchange, that was organised by Mreza Mozaik/Inicijativa SADA, Platform Spartak, Jacintos, Dinaraforum and Asta Sme, was a success! We found out about our own and other cultures and made an impressive series of wonderful comics.

More news will be published soon on this website, as well as some glimpses of comic-results.






NEWS:

The Strip-It book has been printed! Check out the video:



On sunday 1st of November we present Yugoslav (underground) comics with Aleksandar Zograf during the Balkan Snapshots Film Festival in Amsterdam. Be there at 17:00h | Free entrance

CHECK THE STRIP-IT PHOTOSTREAM FOR AN IMPRESSION, as well as early PARTICIPANTS' WORK

See the MATERIALS section for some press clippings!


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STRIP IT! The naked truth about xenophobia as drawn by comic artist

Comics are cultural and definitely intercultural. Picturing the other and yourself can be a perfect starting point for a story. Therefore the Youth in Action programme funded the project STRIP IT! that was designed by the Serbian NGO Mreza Mozaik, in cooperation with Inicijativa SADA from Serbia and Platform Spartak from the Netherlands.

Cultural and intercultural?

French comic hero Asterix meets lazy Corsicans, militaristic Germans and annoyingly strict Swiss who are cleaning all day long. How come Ex-Yugoslav comics full of black humor? And what do we know about Belgium except that they have great comics, from Gaston Lagaffe to Tintin? Will we all read graphic novels instead of books after 20 years? Is humor universal anyway?

During this exchange we draw and explore funny stereotypes about Europe and Europeans and get to know more about our own and each other (comic) culture.

Follow-up

The Youth Exchange STRIP IT! Is supposed to be the start of a larger programme, in which more comic writers from Europe will take part and new meetings will be held. A book will be published with all results of the Belgrade meeting and an internet community will be launched afterwards.

What? Where? Who?

25 young comic writers from Spain, the Netherlands, Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic (5 per country) kick off the first edition of STRIP IT, in which European superheroes and villains will be designed, who experience their outrageous adventures in intercultural clashes and mixes.

Between September 17-27th these youngsters meet in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. The programme consists of:

1. A lot of drawing, picturing and writing together
2. Exploring the thousand faces of Belgrade and the surroundings
3. Informal exercises on intercultural learning
4. Presentations of the results


Costs

No Participation Fee is required for this project. Accommodation and food costs will be covered by Mreza Mozaik, as well as 70% of the travel costs for each participant (while 30% of travel costs should be covered by the participants).

Wanna join?

If you are not older then 25 and you are blessed with explosive creativity, please send the application to Dragana Obric from Inicijativa Sada. The organizers will soon contact you about more details.

More info: Call Guido van Hengel (moderator) - +381 (0)65 4398950.