March 26 - May 16, 2021
Photos by Oleh Samoilenko and Arsen Dzodzaiev.
House of Europe Pop-up Hub
Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture hosted a temporary hub of the EU program House of Europe from March 26 to May 16, 2021, offering residents of the city and region the chance to find out more about European opportunities, participate in discussions, and attend movie screenings and the creative industries festival, House of Europe Festival.
A key component of the pop-up hub — informational weeks during which the House of Europe and other program managers presented various opportunities: scholarships, training sessions and camps. This was the place to find project funding, get expert advice, learn how to write grant applications, read new arrivals from Ukrainian book publishers in the lounge zone, attend concerts or workshops and meet local changemakers.
The pop-up hub culminated on May 15 and 16 with the House of Europe Festival — a festival of creativity, innovations and entrepreneurship. The two-day event combined lectures by experts from the EU and Ukraine, creative startups’ stories of the highs and lows, personal consultations from experienced entrepreneurs, open air concerts and movie viewings.
The festival theme was How do Creative Industries Change Post-Industrial Cities. House of Europe Festival introduced Dnipro’s residents to today’s creators of the future: leading professional practitioners were happy to talk about the opportunities to use the potential of creative industries in a post-industrial setting.
Personal experiences were be shared by experts from Ukraine and the EU, including:
Osamu Okamura (Czech Republic) — architect, director of reSITE international festival and conference, professor at ARCHIP / Architectural Institute in Prague;
Daan Roosegaarde (Netherlands) — artist, founder of Studio Roosegaarde, a social design laboratory;
Kuba Snopek (Poland) — urbanist, professor of architecture, architect of the public space Scene in Dnipro;
Nadia Parfan (Ukraine) — movie director, curator, founder of Takflix online platform;
Irena Boljunčić Gracin (Croatia) — president of the network of independent European cultural centers Trans Europe Halles (TEH);
Volodymyr Vorobey (Ukraine) — CEO of PPV Knowledge Networks, facilitator for Creative Enterprise Programme. Co-founder of lislis toys, Business Hub and YoK;
Guido Möbius (Germany) — musician, music publisher and promoter;
Cathie Boyd (United Kingdom) — founder and art director of Cryptic, an international art platform.
The festival combined several formats. The main stage offered lectures on architecture, urbanism, cinema, advertisement and cultural initiatives. In the workshop zone, participants had the opportunity to dive into the biohacking world, creating their own synthesizer, learning the basics of code writing or working on animation techniques. And information boards introduced the House of Europe Festival guests to successful startups and their founders.
Entrepreneurs and those seeking to start a project had access to short consultations with owners of creative businesses. On the second day of the House of Europe Festival representatives of creative startups and businesses had a chance to participate in the Creative Business Cup Ukraine 2021 competition and pitch their own projects. The House of Europe Festival program was rounded off with viewings of contemporary Ukrainian movies, a performance by VGNVZh band and DJ sets by local musicians.
