Cesta - Cultural Exchange Station In Tabor

Project Philosophy

CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station in Tábor) is an international not-for-profit center established to foster cultural understanding and tolerance through the arts. Since 1993, CESTA has concentrated its efforts on international arts festivals, community projects, group exchanges, residencies, and the development of an informational global network for artists in all fields of artistic expression and cultural production.

The concept of cultivating cultural understanding and awareness through the arts is based on the recognition that traditional dialogue has its limits and prejudices. Through an open and flexible environment, CESTA strives to challenge these limits in a contained context and present alternatives for use in a larger context.

Our location in the Czech Republic provides us with a keen perspective on a transitional society, both ideologically and economically. In effect, CESTA is a laboratory where committed cultural work takes place alongside community-building projects. We do not see CESTA as so unique that our activities will not translate across cultural lines or societal values. Rather, we pursue a course of one amongst many projects -- the many including the known and the unknown.

Art, to us, is not limited to the abstract, the ethereal, but includes social awareness. Thus, the sociopolitical aspect of cultural work is inherent in all of our productions and processes, from our events to our administration to our facility design.