Košice – European Capital of Culture 2013


Place Marketing Workshop

October 2012


Zuzana Révészová


            “As a result of certain place marketing strategies of European Capital of Culture,
Košice as a city on the periphery of the country, periphery of the continent and the periphery of
the innovative world, we would like to move it to the place from which you wouldn't escape, and
maybe, maybe in the future, someone would even like to relocate there.” Mišo Hudák, Jelly Belly, at
the TedX Košice


Brief Background

            The city marketing of my city of birth has been always present. Usually, concerning on
the historical sites that resemble old times of Austro-Hungarian fame and medieval importance as a
crossroads on important roads. With the communist times, the bourgoisie of Košice has been deplaced
to the countryside and a huge fer factory has broad a large portion of the working class
inhabitants to the city, whose children have grown up and now create the majority of the
population.

            After Slovakia joined the EU, Košice gained an opportunity to become a candidate of
European Capital of Culture. In this contest, a group of creative people in the NGO Bona fide,
concentrated around some visual artist who studied and thought at the faculty of arts in the local
Technical University, started to work on progressive project. Even before, they have settled a
unique cultural site in an old Cultural House (traditional communist institution in every
community).


Culture-based Marketing

            As a capital of culture, the city has to bring some innovative projects that increase
city's level of visiblitity as well as cultural production and environment. Several reconstructions
are about to play Berlin-like transformation. Using old army residences, tobacco factory and almost
fallen swimming pool for cultural sites aims to support mainly the alternative culture, however,
there are still some new classical art festivals attracting visitors from the area to come and
enjoy the art.

            After the project has become successful the quarrels from the relation city-independent
culture-enganged actors became very serious and led towards dismissal of the headmaster of the
project (who, by the way, has always been seen as an interrupting element as herself coming from
the capital and not being connected with the city).


Actors

            As I mentioned before, the initiative started from the civic movment, however, it is
not possible not to cooperate with the municipality to win the title. The city itself was motivated
by the income of money offered by the award for the ECC. There has been a certain power struggle
and the politicians took over the decisive point from the independent actors and chose their
candidate to become a new director. He is more serious and like the classical culture much more
than the “pseudo postmodern”.


Aims of the marketing

            As this project has still many different actors who can apply for a grant for their own
implementation, it is hard to cover it in this short summery. However, I have noticed several
features of the city promotion during the campaign for the contest.

            Košice is a city with a broad multicultural tradition and promoting the always lasting
understanding (of course, nothing like that really exists), it has a lot of multiculturally
oriented programs. Even though, it is questionable, how this way of promoting social inclusion is
acceptable (because it mostly just underlines the differences on purpose), we can see some move on
change when talking about minorities – they become more visible and a part of the discourse in the
city (Festival Mazel tov, Soup festival...)

            Generally, city marketing is concerned on the promotion of the project as a capital of
culture. There is also one notion of the aim of making Košice people being proud of their city.
Very successful in this way is the Spots project – however, doesn't have much to do with the
marketing (it places connections points of suburban inhabitants to the formar transformation
electricity buildings). With this high expectiations from the project, the real impact on the
local-patriotism is much more the shame for the finance-tunneling so well known in every Central
European city operating with the EU money. Therefore, it is much more the disgust with corruption
and high-brow culture that is a result of the contemporary preparations and current realizations of
the project, that citizens perceive.


To conclude

            Promoting the culture as a center of the city's attracting point has to be very
sensitive with the local moods. In a much more industrial than intellectual city (however it is
heart-breaking for me to admit), it is not easy to educate the audiance bringing the Berliner-style
parties and contemporary art. It should be much more sensitive also for the specificities of the
region, the infrastructure and the possibilties of the surrounding. As it is much easier to get to
the mountains and Budapest than to Berlin, if promoting the city, regional specificities could be
more successful.