Days of Belgrade 2007 - Look, Belgrade!
Welcome to the celebration of the Days of Belgrade!.
The theme of this year's celebration is "Belgrade, City of the Future", inspired by Belgrade's positioning as a city of the future of Southeastern Europe, based on the competition "Cities and Regions of the Future" organized by the "Financial Times" in the course of last year.
That is why the celebration this year is devoted to the achievements of the Belgraders, the world's impressions of us, creativity and spirit of the inhabitants of our city, when we'll stop for a minute and experience the hopes, aspirations and desires of those that had built it and are also building it today.
They say that every city embodies certain ideas or feelings. For Belgrade they say it is the energy, vitality, spontaneity and the heart. That's why the slogan of the manifestation "LOOK, BELGRADE!" indicates a surprise, something exciting, powerful and beautiful, the care for our city, but also hints at a fast development.
Belgrade was rightfully proclaimed the city of the future, but only because of the Belgraders.
Radmila Hrustanovic
Deputy Mayor of Belgrade
and Chairwoman of the Board for Celebration of the Days of Belgrade
The Days of Belgrade are a manifestation held for the fifth time this year, from April 16 to 19, on the occasion of important dates in the history of Belgrade. The historians tell us that the Slavic name of Belgrade appeared for the first time on April 16, 878 in a written document - a letter from Pope John VIII to the Bulgarian Prince Boris, whereas on April 19, one hundred and forty years ago, the keys to the city were handed over by the Turkish commander Riza-Pasha into the hands of Prince Mihailo making Belgrade again symbolically and actually the Serbian capital.
The Assembly of the City of Belgrade, the founder and the sponsor of the Day of Belgrade, announced a competition for a creative solution of the celebration on the subject "Belgrade City of the Future". The first prize was won by the project "DANI" by Slavisa Savic, the second by A. Knezevic, I. Malek and A. Raonic for the proposal "Light Architectonics of the City of Belgrade - Intersection" and the third by the project by B. Gavric, L. Sanader and N. Kovacic "Belgrade: 75 years of transformation" which was proposed by the organization "The Night of the Museum". Anica Tucakov was chosen for the creative director of the celebration.
Four letters, four grandiose gates (D: Dozivljaj (Adventure), A: Art, N: Nauka (Science) and I: Istorija (History), will stand this April in the heart of the city, in Knez-Mihailova street, and will direct the Belgraders and their guests to various, thematically specified programs.
 On the first day of the celebration, based on the precious collection of photographs of Jeremija Stanojevic, panels will be put up to show the appearance of Belgrade between two World Wars and will make a comparison to the present day appearance of the same representative locations.
The promotion of the i-mpression point, website www.belgradeblog.com and the "Book of Impressions", in cooperation with the Tourist Organization of Belgrade will take place in Knez-Mihailova street near the "Ruski car". The opening of the exhibition of photographs of foreign tourists will also take place on the same spot.
 On the second day of celebration we will attend the exterior exhibition of "Work in Progress – Technotise", and cartoon scenography of Belgrade in the future, according to Aleksa Gajic, the author of the first Serbian futuristic animated feature film. The central media event implies the participation of the project author, demonstration of cartoon drawing, discussion with the spectators and the journalists. At the end will be organized a party with electronic music from the movie "Technotise".
 The third day is devoted to science as an unavoidable factor when talking about the future. An exhibition of old and new patents will be opened at 1 p.m. in the exhibition area of the Belgrade Heritage House in Knez-Mihailova street No. 46. On this occasion we will see the patents of our famous scientists and inventors from the past, but also awarded inventions of our contemporaries. On the same day the Theater Mimart and Station, inspired by the future achievements of science will execute the performance "Belgraders, Citizens of the Future".
 The program begins on the fourth day at noon at the Belgrade City Hall, where the Award of the City of Belgrade for 2006 will be presented along with the official program. The officials of the City of Belgrade, winners of the awards and Belgraders will start on a procession through all four letters - gates. When they come to the letter I, the participants will see the demonstration of old crafts. They will be able to take pictures and have their pictures made in the old-fashioned style. There will be newsvendors, representative of archaic advertising - sandwich people. Everything will be spiced with the interesting Orations of Rasa Popov and award of the calligraphies of Aleksandar Dodig.
At 7:30 p.m. special musical tramways will start from the Belgrade City Library, and will take the representatives of various musical trends, everything executed by our oldest Musical School "Stankovic", to all parts of Belgrade. People will be able to hear on the "two" line the string quartet "Kornelije" in one direction and opera singers and bassoonists in the opposite direction. The passengers on the "ten" line will enjoy the performance of the music by percussionists and jazz ensemble. A renowned group "Kal" will perform on the "thirteen" line, as well as DJ Filip on the "five" line.
The program of the Days of Belgrade this year will end on the Toplicin Venac, near the monument of Voivode Vuk, where the last laser installation will be set up. This project, which implies linking of the four elements, four sides of the world and four seasons of the year, and all from four important monuments in Belgrade, will achieve its supreme visual transformation in the last evening of the Days of Belgrade. The lasers that had been mounted during the four days will intersect in the sky in one point, their geometrical center, above the festive Knez-Mihailova street.
Executive producer and chief organizer of the Days of Belgrade, BELEF Center reserves the right to make changes and additions to the program.
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