Some call us Balkans includes a series of activities resulting in the co-creation of a mobile forum traveling across the Balkans, opening spaces of encounter and imagination that transgress borders and nationalisms.
Some call us Balkans includes a series of activities resulting in the co-creation of a mobile forum traveling across the Balkans, opening spaces of encounter and imagination that transgress borders and nationalisms.
SCUB
Concepts
SCUB is based on 4 central concepts
Participatory Art Based Research
Situated at the intersection of art, research and society, PABR is a research practice that uses the arts as resources for fostering interaction between research and the public. It is applied within SCUB for rendering inclusive and accessible research practices in and for society.
Open Travelling Practice
We envision travelling as an open-scripted itinerary, traversing different notions of the Balkan as a tangible and intangible territory. SCUB promotes the open travelling practice negotiating the meaning and roles of the host and the guest as co-creators of a journey.
Socially Engaged Art
Socially engaged art can include any artform which involves people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction. The use of socially engaged art within SCUB aims to foster cultural democracy and diversity.
Mythography
Myths are an essential instrument of worldmaking and continuously shape our understanding of a territory and a culture. Myths are found often in our ways in which we speak of a territory and the result of competing narratives and views of the world. The research conducted within SCUB seeks to uncover and debunk contemporary myths and misconceptions of the Balkans.
Activities
SCUB is implemented through 6 main activities that take place between 2021-2023
1. ‘Balkan’ Myths and Misconceptions
Activity: Participatory art-based research
Date: 03-07/2021
Places: 6 Balkan-based sites
Partner in charge: SocioPatch
“Balkan Myths and Misconceptions” initiated the research methodology for working with communities, by which people from The Balkans are both the ones doing the research, and the subject of their own research. This resulted in 6 research projects that aim to reclaim the term Balkan, while contesting sociocultural structures that produce divides between people and other people, people and their environment, people and other species. See the completed research projects
2. Foundation of a Traveling Imagination
Activity: Kick-off meeting
Date: 22-24/07/2021
Place: Florence
Partner in charge: ICSE&Co.
The Foundation of a Traveling Imagination is the launching event for the partnership, taking place in Villa Romana. A group of local artists, cultural operators and activists with a bond to the Balkans co-created the artistic performance “Morphing Realities – A performative walk of Balkans through Florence”, while all SCUB researchers presented their work to the public. See full article and outcomes
3. BL(K)N RES(T)
Activity: Partners’ residency
Date: 04-29/10/2021
Place: Berlin
Partner in charge: ZK/U
Hosting partner ZK/U – Zentrum fur Kunst und Urbanistik organises BL(K)N RES(T), an educational, excursion-intensive and peer-to-peer capacity building residency, which marks the second gathering for all partners. The programme includes visits to creative urban spaces and invited speakers, resulting to collective forms of knowledge production. See full article and outcomes
4. Collective Terms of Action
Activity: Open call for Artist-Travelers
Date: 22/01/2022
Place: All partners locations
Partners in charge: All
The open call “Collective Terms of Action” aims at selecting 8 emerging artists-travelers, with the intent to form an artists’ collective working jointly and transdisciplinary across borders in a three-step process: a month-long artists’ residency in Banja Luka, a month-long collective journey across the Balkans and a final exhibition in Pristina. Link to the Open Call
5. Assembling BL(KN)
Activity: Artists’ residency
Date: 02-29/05/2022
Place: Banja Luka
Partner in charge: UNSA Geto
Assembling BL(KN) hosted by DKC Incel brings together the whole SCUB Community in one ‘Balkan’ site, with the aim to cooperate in a co-creation process, through socially engaged art, laying the foundation for the open travelling practice. The residency results in an exhibition on-site. See full article and documentation
6. BLKN Mobile Forum
Activity: Ground Tour journey
Date: 19/09/2022-16/10/2022
Places: Banja Luka, Beograd, Pristina, Skopje, Tirana, Ioannina
Partners in charge: Tačka komunikacije
The BLKN Mobile Forum is SCUB’s final outcome, implemented in several locations across the Balkans during the Ground Tour journey. It is conceived as a mobile public art installation and open assembly space that will travel across geographies and peoples, enabling cross-border dialogue, connecting local cultural practitioners, communities of practice and artists. Coming soon
Glossary
The words we use in our everyday culture shape the ways we think and talk about the Balkans. OpenSCUBglossary is a living vocabulary that includes terms of interest for the cohabitating communities, aiming to resituate our understanding of the territory.
Code of Conduct
SCUB strives to create open and reusable resources within an “ethics in action” framework. The Code of Conduct is a living document co-edited and enriched along the SCUB activities, with the vision to be also a relevant document for other Balkan arts and cultural projects.
Partners
