How do we speak of the Balkans? Exhibition
ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik Open Haus 25/11/2021
Curated by Enrico Tomassini, Milly Reid, Miodrag Kuc
In a living and interactive format, we shared some of the outcomes of the conducted Practice Based Artistic Research “Myths and Misconceptions” by inviting the audience to bring about new nuances, impressions and understandings while pondering and acquiring new words to reflect on how and why we speak of the “Balkans”.
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A set of large and small format prints were designed and produced in order to create a new spatial dimension and use of the staircase and mezzanine in their disposal. The exhibition format was thought to inform the audience, and be a space of exchange for collecting and sharing knowledge.
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The space of the staircase as a transitional space seemed for us the perfect setting to let visitors experience our key questions and share with them some of the definitions we have been and are collecting for OpenScubGlossary. OpenSCUBglossary is a growing vocabulary that aims to resituate our understanding of the region. The words we use in our everyday culture shape the ways we think and talk about the Balkans. Rooted in the words and expressions uncovered during the project’s research phase, Myths and Misconceptions, the glossary invites us to imagine and speak of the ‘Balkans’ otherwise: to recognise it through its language, turns of phrases, and visual meaning.
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The audience as they walked up the stairs could collect pages of the glossary and on a final station on the first floor could assemble their own collection that by the design of the pages themselves would come together always differently, always unique. The first definition the audience would find was the term to balkan which is for us to think and act in a continuous pursuit of reclaiming the term Balkan, of becoming capable of celebrating, respecting and owning the Balkan experience, collective creations and ways of being. Once above the stairs, the audience would find themselves in a cozy welcoming living room like space setting, inviting them to sit and watch some of our video outcomes. The pages of the glossary imagined to form altogether on a wall a new cartography of the “Balkans”, through the variety of colors and shapes, represented the diversity and richness of the region, beyond its stereotypical representation.
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Ex. I’m tired of doubting everything Balkan and seeing it as less, I want to start balkaning.”
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The research revolves around an overarching objective of reclaiming the term Balkan, and its ingrained beauty while contesting social structures that produce divides in between people and other people, people and their environment, people and other species. Evolving around three main research streams The Commons and right to the city, Cultural Heritage and Cultural practices, Migration and Labour, the conducted researches envision new ecologies, modes of inhabiting the Balkans and come together on a common ground.
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Pictures of the Open-Glossary created by the audience
