The first ALMOSTREAL getogether held in de Balie cultural centre in Amsterdam as a gathering of invited artists, cultural practitioners and creative thinkers to critically discuss the further development of the conceptual and practical structure of ALMOSTREAL and how ALMOSTREAL as a funding project could become a catalyst for generating a new space of discourse in-between the interests of artistic practices and the interests of the funder.
Participants were:
Asja Hafner: programme coordinator, PRO.BA multimedia production of the Center for Contemporary Art, Sarajevo
Therese Kaufmann: Project manager, communication and cultural policy issues, European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policy, Vienna
Erik Kluitenberg: Writer, organizer and theorist, currently works with the political/cultural centre De Balie, Amsterdam
Bettina Knaup: cultural producer, LAB manager, European Cultural Foundation
Stephan Kovats: Architect and media researcher, currently Programs Developer, V2, Rotterdam
Dejan Krsic: co-founder and editor in chief of the ARKZIN/BASTARD magazine, Zagreb Croatia
Maria Lind: Curator, director of International Artists Studio Programme in Stockholm (IASPIS), director Kunstverein Munich 2001-2004
Nat Muller: Free-lance curator, critic and organizer, Rotterdam
Kyong Park : Architect, founder and former director of Store Front gallery New York, as well as International Center for Urban Ecology Detroit, one of the initiators of a project on identity of the Balkan cities, based between New York / Berlin
Zoran Pantelic: chairman Kuda.org - organisation of artists, theorists, media activists and researchers based in Novi Sad, founder of art association Apsolutno
Marc de Putter: artistic director, alkantra (independent cultural organisation for the development of cultural projects, and international dance festival Lisbon
Sabina Sabolovic: curator, member of What, How & for Whom' (WHW) a non-profit organization for visual culture and curator's collective based in Zagreb, Croatia
Fareed Armaly: artist, curator, former director of kunstlerhaus, Stuttgart
Christine Thomé: Director, Ashkal Alwan Beruit
Jelena Vesic: editor of the PRELOM magazine, art historian and independent curator based in Belgrade
ECF: Igor Dobricic Arts programme officer
Wietske Maas Arts programme assistant
STEALTH: Marc Neelen, Ana Dzokic
Guest Appearances by: Charles Esche: director, vanAbbe museum Eindhoven Suzanne van de Veen: freelance curator, project advisor SKOR