Some call us Balkans

Reimagining the Balkans beyond borders and nationalisms

Myths and misconceptions of the ‘Balkans’ produce biases which shape the way we talk, feel and think about it both on the inside and the outside of the region.

Some Call Us Balkans aims to traverse, contest, investigate and create different notions of the Balkan as a tangible and intangible territory beyond stereotypical representations and narratives, envisioning new ecologies, modes of inhabiting and coming together on a common ground.

Some Call Us Balkans (SCUB) is a cultural cooperation project co-funded by the European Union, forming a transdisciplinary research and community that aims to co-create knowledge and reimagine the Balkans beyond borders and nationalisms.

Concepts

Participatory Art-Based Research

We use art as resource for interacting with the public, examining social issues through creative and cooperative research.

Open Traveling Practice

We travel as an open-scripted action, negotiating the meaning and roles of the host and the guest as co-creators of the journey.

Socially Engaged Art

We create art involving people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction, to foster cultural democracy and diversity.

Mythography

Myths form narratives and views of the world. We seek to uncover and debunk contemporary myths and misconceptions of the Balkans.

Activities

Art-based research

Balkan Myths and Misconceptions

Six research projects contesting sociocultural structures that produce divides between people and other people, their environment, and other species.

Performance Art

Foundation of a Traveling Imagination

A group of local artists, cultural operators and activists with a bond to the Balkans co-create a performative walk of Balkans through Florence.

Cultural residency

BL(K)N RES(T)

An educational, excursion-intensive and peer-to-peer capacity building residency in Berlin, resulting in collective forms of knowledge production.

Artists residency

Assembling BL(KN)

Eight contemporary young artists cooperate in a month-long co-creation process through socially engaged art, resulting in an on-site exhibition in Banja Luka.

Cross-Balkan journey

BLKN Mobile Forum

A mobile assembly space that travels across Balkan cities, enabling cross-border dialogue, connecting local cultural practitioners, communities of practice and artists.

Contemporary art exhibition

Some Call Us Balkans

Showcase of new commissioned contemporary art in two industrial sites in Pristina, exploring alternative forms and ecologies of representing and living in the Balkans.

Events

A series of participatory actions that foster mutual learning, awareness and investigate the urban, social and traveling ‘Balkan’ cultural context.

“Giving voice to Maps”
Collective drawing

“What is our perception of the Balkans?” A collective online drawing activity during COVID-19 lockdown, with vocal artist, performer and art director Francesca Pirami.

“Collective Terms of Action”
Open call

Selection of 8 emerging artists-travelers, with the aim to form an artists’ collective working transdisciplinarily across borders in the Balkans.

“Arts on the move”
Online café & podcast

Invited lightning talks on the topic of walking, mapping and traveling as aesthetic and artistic practices, in collaboration with the “walk · listen · create” (WLC) organisation.

“Melting Imagination”
Socially engaged art exhibition

Contemporary art exploring the Balkans through camp aesthetics, rituals, lullabies, audiowalk, public space performances, video installations and urban interventions.

“How do we speak of the Balkans”
Participatory exhibition

Exhibiting the SCUB Glossary, a vocabulary aiming to resituate our understanding of the Balkan area. The audience was able to collect the printed pages, creating their own catalogue.

“Manitarofiloi”
Community mountain expedition

Mountain forest exploration guided by the Epirus Mushroom Society, identifying, collecting, tasting and exhibiting local grown mushroom species.

“Bioblitz by the lake”
Citizen science activity

Participation in fieldwork scientific research led by biologist Dimitris Papageorgiou, documenting local species of the lake Pamvotida in a citizen science platform.

“Atomic Hangout”
Public intervention & screening

The residents of the Sime Solaje street in Banja Luka enliven and co-create together with artists the Gradja, a space where a children’s playground is improvised in the center of the city.

Ethics-in-Action Framework

Open and reusable resources, aimed to raise critical awareness and form an accessible and inclusive space within the project and beyond, published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 open license.

Open Glossary

Read and reuse the open glossary created as part of the SCUB research

The words we use everyday shape the ways we think and talk. Open Glossary is a living vocabulary with terms of interest for the cohabitating communities, aiming to resituate our territorial understanding.

Code of Conduct

Read and reuse the CoC created within the SCUB research

The Code of Conduct is a living document co-edited and enriched throughout the project, with the vision to support ethical research and foster a safe environment for this and other Balkan arts and cultural projects.

Digital Library

Read and share the group library, published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 open license

The Digital Group Library gathers literature resources relevant to the Balkans, sociocultural issues and artistic practices in Southeastern Europe, supporting open-access digital scholarship.

Partners

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