For an artist, where does the freedom of speech end, and the need to be politically conscious begin? Can we create art without being insensitive? Can we separate the art from the artist?

The Handke Project takes as its central theme the controversial decision to convey the honour of Nobel Laureate for Literature on Austrian writer Peter Handke, in spite of his well-documented support for Slobodan Milosevic – who died while on trial for war crimes at The Hague – a support which extended to speaking at Milosevic’s graveside. In The Handke Project, Qendra takes this controversy as a jumping off point to explore how art is appreciated and promoted when it crosses the boundaries of basic decency, humanism or ethics.

Handke Project is a theatrical performance about the writer who with his books and opinions has fabricated and overturned facts of the wars in former Yugoslavia; has incited and supported ‘the scorched earth’ ideology; as well as managed to sing praises to militant poets and filmmakers converted into ‘engineers of genocidal projects.’ During the funeral of the war criminal Milosevic, Handke said to the blood-thirsty mass of people that he “does not know the truth” and that is why he is, “there close to Milosevic, close to Serbia.” Handke compared the suffering of Serbs to the suffering of Jewish people during Nazism!