Pak-Polish Cultural Exchange Organization (PPCEO) is committed to “Art for Peace” initiative and is trying to bring the people of Poland and Pakistan closer through cultural collaboration. The organization is the brainchild of Mr. Sohail Sajid who conceived the idea during his interaction and collaboration with a team of Polish film producers that was visiting Pakistan in 2007 to record a documentary on Pakistani Music, Art and Culture.
The idea behind the creation PPCEO was to promote exchanges in the fields of art and culture between Pakistan and Poland while drawing on their rich traditions and splendid cultural heritage. The organization has also striven to project the image of Pakistan as a peace-loving, tolerant and forward looking society to counter the negative branding the country receives abroad.
Mr. Sohail Sajid, President of the organization, draws motivation from his personal conviction that art and music holds the answer to our time’s gravest problems like intolerance, extremism and bigotry. He believes that music has a powerful potential to bring people together by using its universal language of love, peace and humanism.
He has worked for the national television as a writer and producer and has numerous TV programmes to his credit focusing on literature, music, arts and culture. He has also made immense efforts in promoting Pakistan’s classical music by successfully organizing concerts and musical conferences. He possesses profound knowledge about the history of Pakistan’s classical music and has delivered lectures on the subject at various national and international fora. His contribution in this regard is widely acknowledged by the classical music community of Pakistan and is evidenced by his close personal friendship with all the leading practitioners of the genre.
Mr. Sajid has also arranged numerous exhibitions of Pakistani handicrafts, paintings and furniture.
In 2009, PPCEO organized the visit of a Pakistani delegation to Poland in collaboration with the Embassy of Pakistan at Warsaw. A number of highly successful cultural events were arranged during this visit including a seminar at the Warsaw University about Pakistani Music and Culture with the coordination of Professor Piotr Balcerowicz of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. The visiting delegation also participated in a live programme at Polskie Radio on music and culture hosted by Professor Balcerowicz.
Professor Balcerowicz at Warsaw University has nominated Pak-Polish Cultural Exchange Organization as their partner in Pakistan for Asia-Europe foundation (Cultural Partnerships between Asia and Europe) is a new initiative that aims to support collaborative artistic projects in the framework of the Asia-Europe dialogue for artists, cultural workers, arts organizations and arts networks of Asia and Europe). I am working with them to organize a concert of Pakistani Singers to perform with the Polish Singers (fusion) at Warsaw next year.
Currently, the organization is working on a mega documentary on Pakistani Music, Art and Culture in collaboration with a Polish team consisting of major professionals from film and media including Mr. Tomek Wysokinski, Mr. Armand Urbaniak and Kasia Wysokinska. Further it has been focused on our legendary singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s life and named as “Nusrat. The last prophet of music”. In June, “Nusrat” won the prestigious “Dragon Forum” Award for the most interesting documentary film project in Europe. In the competition participated a few hundred titles and Nusrat aroused the greatest interest in the festival audience and international jury.
Another important project that the Organization has undertaken in collaboration with the Polish Embassy in Islamabad is to organize exhibitions of various documentary films on Polish history and the cultural achievements of the great Polish nation.
PPCEO, in collaboration with Pakistan embassy in Warsaw, is also planning to organize a Trade and Cultural Festival in Warsaw next year.
Contact:
PPCEO
212, Second Floor, Shoukat Complex
F-6 Markaz, Super Market, Islamabad-Pakistan-44000
Tel: +92 51 2824593
Cell: +92 321 5004004
info@ppceo.org