GULSEN, B.A.L., 2014.

Reader: BALKAN(S) NOW

Subsequent to "BALKAN(S) NOW: A status seminar/workshop" that took place in Vienna, Ljubljana and Belgrade from October to December 2013, it became obvious that it might be worthwhile to generate ideas reflecting particular Balkan as well as post-Yugoslavian conditions, especially through the re-formulation of complex and unpredictable situations relevant to both their historical significance and contemporary displacement. With a special focus on the current Eastern European artistic reality in relation to new forms of creative engagement currently at work at the Balkan and the former Yugoslav countries, one of the burning questions in this search is if art is a means to speak out on politics, and which formats might be suitable in this context? However, there is a new generation of artists whose backdrop is not the (post)war or national 'prefix' situation anymore - rather those current social challenges that can be found all across Europe. Then more interestingly, the next question is how can we read the historical roots in exploring the changes in the consequently globalising capitalism? Is self-organisation a key to artistic and creative independence? How to position oneself in the fields of international artistic production by means of local interventions at the countenance of neighbouring European countries - Germany, Austria in relation to the aforementioned?

The reader focuses on new kinds of creative connections as well as on all paths of production, in which the possible is engendered through which a mirror reflection of a world "yet-to-come" would become visible in meaning what Deleuze and Guattari often made a point for: "the State is built on what escapes it."