Meetings at the highest level between representatives of the cities of Košice and Marseille and between the European Capital of Culture teams from both cities are laying out the lines of cooperation between both cities awarded the title of European Capital of Culture for 2013. After meetings between Mayor Richard Raši and Deputy Mayor Renáta Lenártová with their colleagues in France, the Director of Košice 2013 Ján Sudzina and Art Director Vladimír Beskid met with the Marseille/Provence team at the end of last week.

This historic first meeting at the city leadership level and subsequently at the project management level is a sign of intensive cooperation in the near future between both European Capitals of Culture for 2013. Despite their geographic differences and the different priorities between European Capital of Culture projects, three lines of cooperation have been defined:
• Cities on the border: both cities are located on the Schengen border
• Second cities: they are also the second-largest cities in their countries
• Residencies: residency stays for artists from both cities

"We are very pleased that the highest leadership of Marseille has responsibly approached its cooperation with Košice as a partner city for 2013. The mayor of Marseille during our visit clearly declared his full support for Košice 2013 and interest in cooperating on common projects," stated the Mayor of Košice, Richard Raši.
The multi-day long marathon of meetings at various levels covering politics, art and investment were deemed a success by the Deputy Mayor, Renáta Lenártová: "I have the feeling that we were able to get a number of interesting projects off the ground that, I hope, will bear fruit for Košice in the near future."

The subsequent visit from the Košice 2013 management team took the form of solutions to specific projects from individual European Capital of Culture teams.
Vladimír Beskid, Art Director of the European Capital of Culture, considers the ability for local cultural entities to participate in the 2013 programme as one of the key legacies of the visit:
"We agreed on cooperation in a photographer Antoine d'Agata's project focused on the issue of migration and crossings of the Schengen border. The exhibition of his photographs and videos will be in Marseille and in Košice in 2013.
We also confirmed our interest in continuing the Insita network, we met with the Director of the MAC Museum, the Director of the Modern Art Fund, FRAC Provence, the Director of the MonteVideo cultural centre and the Director of the Sextant et Plus organization, with whom we would like to cooperate in the field of exchange residency stays for artists and other cooperation projects. The Director of the Toursky Theatre, Richard Martin, even presented us with an offer to set up a Slovak Culture Week at their premises."