Some Call Us Balkans - SCUB

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Some Call Us Balkans - SCUB

Creative Europe Cultural Cooperation project - Western Balkans 2021-2023.

𝒮𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒞𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓊𝓈 𝐵𝒶𝓁𝓀𝒶𝓃𝓈 (𝒮𝒞𝒰𝐵) 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓈𝒹𝒾𝓈𝒸𝒾𝓅𝓁𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒾𝓃𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝓁𝑜𝓇es 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝑜𝒷𝒾𝓁𝒾𝓏𝑒s 𝓂𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓂𝓊𝓁𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑜𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐵𝒶𝓁𝓀𝒶𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝑔𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝓎𝑜𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝑜𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓂𝓈.

17/04/2023

‘The more I stay, the more territorial I become’, outdoor sound installation-performance, Diona Kusari

'Psychotherapeutic' sessions, whereby the inner conversations are made visible and public, are broadcasted through a moving van (kamionçinë) which goes en route to the center and peripheral parts of Prishtina. In trying to amend the dissonance between the artist's personal truth and society's vestiges of shame and honor bonds - the ego, superego and collective consciousness speak through her.

A slight reappropriation of a familiar scenario in cities all over Kosovo - men going around town driving a van shouting "hekura, hekura" into a speaker attached on top of it, as a way of informing households that they will purchase their unused home devices to collect steel and iron parts. Such sounds are so omnipresent that our bodies have learned this cue. Immediately as one hears this muffled sound one can identify it, just as how we are taught to shut down our bodies and senses to the cacophony in public space.

Photo credits: The more I stay, the more territorial I become - Diona Kusari, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .berlin .co .skopje .berlin

14/04/2023

vol. III - 'Oda e sirenave', mermaid cabaret, Αle Sandra

Alia*, for Ale Sandra is an ephemeral laboratory. It is rooted in the Mediterranean, where it tries to observe matriarchal elements inside a patriarchal structure and combine them according to the different contexts where it appears.

What she calls ‘our research’ is an adventure: ‘by sea, I with my sisters spread all over are trying to sew memories of a mediterranean cult, echoing a lost matriarchal society. Whether real or fictional, this philologic game pursues the elements of a mediterranean, feminine sense of the fluid connection between bodies; a magical tool to evoke and lull the unofficial memories of those inhabiting margins of power.'

Lunar-light steps through ecologic alliances; offers to the elements and dreams of other forms of life, embodied as sacred in order to survive in a dead world.

Ale enacts a hybrid form of ritual listening and caring for memory: manifesting at times as occasion to share stories, games, meals; at times combining sound, spoken language, movement, organic and inorganic objects and fluids as celebrating the genealogy resewed - empowering us. A sort of feminist Atlantis.

*Alia: It has multiple meanings:
1. ‘Other things’
2. The name my syrian flatmates gave me in Athens. It’s the feminine name for the ether.
3. It is a genus of sea snails.

Photo credits: Oda e sirenave - Αle Sandra, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .co .skopje .berlin

13/04/2023

‘W-here is Ballkan?’, video art, Lori Lako

Due to lack of proper playgrounds, as kids we would often appropriate public space. The video of Lori Lako stages a usual neighborhood football scene, where the interaction of the subjects with the location can result indifferent at first sight, though we are all conscious of the influence that the environment, our buildings and our ruins have on us in direct or rather indirect ways.

In the depicted scene, the switch is given by the subjects of the game, which in this case are mixed gender. Shifting in this way the dynamics of the game which is often perceived as a hyper-masculine one. Another shift is given by the ball which is not the usual soccer one. There can be seen printed on its surface the Balkan geographical map, within its borders that are subject of continuous ever and ongoing conflicts. While terms like Balkan or Balkanization are most of the time associated with pejorative meanings full of misconceptions. The players, with every kick of the ball, move it away from themselves, as it is always the other to be the Balkan.

Photo credits: W-here is Ballkan? - Lori Lako, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .co .berlin .skopje

12/04/2023

‘Goblen (The unpaid labor of woman)’, performance-installation, Sezer Salihi

Goblen has often used a housewife’s handwork as their piece of art. Throughout history, it was seen as necessary to suit the wall of the Balkan houses. Today they are moving out from the walls of the houses and are hidden in the basement.
Goblen is used as a metaphor to focus on Balkan women’s housewives whose labor was not seen, not paid and it is not valued by the same Balkan society. The purpose of putting into a part of the wall is to reveal again the piece as a living organism. In Balkan history, the Wall has the meaning of putting borders, especially to the desires, the freedom of the people.

As a way of protesting, Senahat Mustafa Salihi performs the process of the Goblen. This time she will leave the handwork unfinished as a demonstration of revolt and protest against the patriarchy.

Concept:Sezer Salihi
Performer: Senahat Mustafa Salihi

Photo credits: Goblen (The unpaid labor of woman) - Sezer Salihi, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .berlin .skopje .co

11/04/2023

‘To my friends (…)’, installation, Jelena (Jelly) Luise

The installation 'To my friends...' is an open-ended, shifting body of works, displayed as a framed Hahnemühle print behind museum glass sitting across an oil on canvas. Dealing with sentiments like nationalism, kitsch, and the western gaze onto the Balkans, the works don't seek to disentangle, but are rather open to complicating matters, inspired by the framework of the psychoanalytic practice of free association.

The work argues that redemptive conclusions are counter-productive when thinking about repeated fragmentation, and instead offers a more fluid, disrupted trajectory, as it appears in this dream, a non-linear description and (dis)integration of the Balkanic identity, or feeling.

Photo credits: To my friends... - Jelena (Jelly) Luise, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .co .berlin .skopje

10/04/2023

'Good night, honest Iago!', video-installation, Lea Blau

The video-installation is a poignant exploration of the experiences of displacement, longing, and the search for identity.

At its heart is a collection of striking plaster lions, traditionally used to symbolize wealth and prosperity in Balkan homes. However, their presence here is melancholic, serving as a reminder of the emptiness and longing felt by those who have left their homes behind. The cheap material of the lions only further emphasizes the futility of such desires.

In the accompanying video work, the artist wears a carnival mask of a lion while navigating the streets of a foreign land, highlighting their own sense of otherness and the struggle to find a place within an adopted but never fully embraced environment.

Photo credits: Good night, honest Iago! - Lea Blau, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

.biennaleofwesternbalkans .berlin .co .skopje

07/04/2023

‘Home is there’, installation, Jelena Gajinovic

The installation 'Home is there' is an appropriation of a quote by Sister Amata Anđelić, ASC.
The attempt to define 'Home' in its abstract but also physical framework in the Balkans is present in various context. The visually deconstructed text indicates the fluidity of the term 'Home' and the importance of an open text that enables its interpretation.

_Bosnian-Croatian
Dom je tamo,
gdje je ljubav,
gdje je praštanje,
gdje je zajedništvo,
gdje možemo biti
ono što jesmo

_English
The home is there,
where is love,
where is forgiveness,
where is the fellowship,
where we can be
what we are

Photo credits: Home is there - Jelena Gajinovic, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

Termokiss Biennale Of Western Balkans ICSE & co. ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik SOCIOPATCH Tulla - Culture Center

06/04/2023

‘Embodying Identities’, audiovisual installation, Mary Marinopoulou

What is the physical manifestation of trauma? How is the body of one united, divided, different than and the same as the body of the other? And where do these two meet? Two bodies emerge, explore their limits and one another only to discover along. The installation transcends the premise of a time-based media installation and transforms the physical space into an invisible screen; it creates a new space, a “possible” space in which two single bodies coexist and interact.

Credits
Idea: Mary Marinopoulou
Performer: Anna Vekiari
Choreography: Anna Vekiari, Mary Marinopoulou
Studio: ISON Dance Theater
Music: Choreography inspired by the song Penny for your Thoughts by we.own.the.sky

Photo credits: Embodying Identities - Mary Marinopoulou, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

Termokiss Biennale Of Western Balkans ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik Unsa Geto ICSE & co. Tulla - Culture Center The Ground Tour Project SOCIOPATCH

05/04/2023

The SCUB community has reached the final destination of its journey in Pristina, Kosovo, presenting its reflections of this 3-year-long programme through the SCUB exhibition. The show is taking place in two venues:

1.Termokiss - a community-run social center with the mission to create a space for urban and civil exchange reflection and change making.
Ale Rilletti [Italy]
Diona Kusari [Kosovo]

2. Rilindja
Mary Marinopoulou [Greece]
Sezer Salihi [North Macedonia]
Jelena Gajinović [Serbia]
Lori Lako [Albania]
Lea Blau [BiH]
Jelena (Jelly) Luise [Germany]

Both venues are open everyday from 10h until 20.30h

Τhe exhibition invite you to explore the myths and misconceptions of the Balkans, envision new ecologies, modes of inhabiting and coming together on a common ground.

Termokiss Biennale Of Western Balkans ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik ICSE & co. SOCIOPATCH Tulla - Culture Center The Ground Tour Project Unsa Geto

03/04/2023

‘Some Call Us Balkans’ exhibition is now open until 14 of April.

We would like to thank everyone who joined us during the openings events.

We look forward for all visitors to join us and discover our group exhibition presenting the works of Ale Rilletti, Diona Kusari, Mary Marinopoulou, Sezer Salihi, Jelena Gajinović, Lori Lako, Lea Blau, Jelena (Jelly) Luis.

Termokiss Biennale Of Western Balkans ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik ICSE & co. Tulla Culture SOCIOPATCH Tačka komunikacije Unsa Geto

30/03/2023

📍 SCUB sets off for the final stage of its 3-year-long Balkan journey. Follow us along the event from 1 to 14 April in the city of Pristina, Kosovo, to co-explore the Balkans through the artworks of eight contemporary emerging artists, whose artworks reclaim the Balkan space beyond stereotypes, envisioning new ecologies, modes of inhabiting and coming together on a common ground.

ICSE & co. Biennale Of Western Balkans ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik Termokiss SOCIOPATCH Tulla - Culture Center Unsa Geto The Ground Tour Project Tačka komunikacije

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Skopje

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http://somecallusbalkans.org/

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