Transdisciplinary inquiry and community that explores and mobilizes moments of collective production of knowledge, imagination, research and multivocal representations of the Balkans beyond borders and nationalisms

2021 - 2023

The cultural cooperation project Some Call Us Balkans (SCUB), co-funded by Creative Europe, is a transdisciplinary inquiry and community that explores and mobilizes moments of collective production of knowledge, imagination, research and multivocal representations of the Balkans beyond borders and nationalisms. SCUBCommunity artistic and cultural practices falls under the umbrella of socially engaged art through which it aims to challenge Myths and Misconceptions of the Balkan as a ‘European Other’ and bring social change beyond western epistemologies, canons and expectations.

Within the frame of the complex dynamics of cultural diplomacy and cooperation SCUBCommunity fosters intercultural dialogue, cross-border cooperation and mobility for artists, cultural operators and their works, by favoring innovative forms of audience engagement. Starting from the conducted researches in 6 different localities in the Balkans along three main research streams: The Commons and Right to the City, Migration and Labour, Cultural Heritage and Cultural practice; and Ground Tour open-scripted travelling practice and journey, SCUB foresees the selection of 8 socially engaged artist travellers, the co-creation of a Mobile Forum and a travel itinerary. The Mobile Forum is conceived as a mobile public art installation and participatory format: a catalyst, a permeable open exhibition space for cultural democracy and participation. In between the travellers and the participating local entities, through the co-creation of the Mobile Forum and Ground Tour journey, there will be the narrative base to connect various civil society claims, social discourses, communities, locations, artists and cultural actors.

The Mobile Forum participatory format where multivocal narration and representation of the Balkans, can be created, contested, debated, listened, performed, imagined will be an ephemeral collective space where differences can collide and produce alternative narration of reality. This will contribute to the deconstruction of the so-called myth of the 'Balkans' as it is often mistakenly understood.