EMCA

EMCA – Empowering Migrants through Cultural Activities

The project EMCA is focused on the creation of a cultural event of the [fjúžn] festival in Bratislava and other Slovak cities, as well as various new formats and activities. The activities are dealing with topics of migration, freedom of speech, or the life and activities of foreigners in Slovakia. Through such activities, the project strengthens the voice of foreigners and their communities and brings these issues closer to the general public. The project also enables the registration of the city of Bratislava in the international ICORN network. The network brings together cities that provide refuge to authors, artists, and journalists who are persecuted for their work. The ambition of the project is that the city will welcome its first resident, who will be able to create here safely and freely.

• Project: EMCA – Support for migrants through cultural activities
• Program: Culture
• Region of project implementation: Bratislava
• Project implementation district: Bratislava I
• Planned termination of the project: 30.04.2023
• Recipient: Milan Šimečka Foundation
• Project’s budget: € 182,130
• Contract: https://www.crz.gov.sk/zmluva/5388906/

“Empowering Migrants through Cultural Activities” (EMCA) is a project we have been working on since 2020 thanks to the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 and the state budget of the Slovak Republic.

Project Outcome

For several years now, we have been inviting guests from the ICORN network to the [fjúžn] festival in cooperation with literárnyklub.sk. These are persecuted artists or journalists who have been given refuge in one of the participating cities. In the past, journalist Nazeeha Saeed, writer Mohammad Habeeb and cartoonist Khalid Albaih have visited Bratislava and introduced their work.

Together with partners from literárnyklub.sk and the Norwegian organization ICORN, we decided to follow up on this regular and pleasant cooperation with the EMCA project – Empowering migrants through cultural activities. The project will allow us to include Bratislava to this international network of cities and welcome the first person who will be able to create freely and safely here.

In addition, the project will allow us to organize two years of the [fjúžn] festival in Bratislava and other Slovak cities and other interesting events.