The cultural identity of the Balkan Peninsula is specified by mixture, entanglement, and integration. Diverse regional histories, conflicts, and social experiments have propelled generations of artists to challenge and enrich the aesthetic and political understanding, not only of the area but also of Europe and the rest of the world. Now, more than ever, the artistic practices that emerged in this complex, yet thriving cultural context, need to be safeguarded and nourished: Balkan…Projects provides an infrastructure for the support of contemporary art production operating in the conceptual and geographical framework of the Balkans.

Initiated in 2016 and directed by Marija Karan, Balkan…Projects is sustained by the artists’ wisdom and celebrates the Balkans as an idea, a springboard, and a vital space for artistic research, art making, and exhibiting. Through a variety of physical and online activities – exhibitions, events, performances, educational programs, and mutual exchanges and collaborations between local and international artists, curators, critics, and collectors – this initiative seeks to create opportunities for dialogue and to actively engage with the greater arts community.

Thus, the key aim of Balkan…Projects is to constitute a platform for the promotion of Balkan art, which remains underrepresented in the larger international context, while contributing to the appreciation and visibility of artists and artworks that discuss the specificity of Balkan identity and cultural history. Inspired by movements of non-alignment, Yugoslav ciné-clubs, and acts of self-management, Balkan…Projects understands art as a medium that reveals the region’s potential for healing and imagining future alternatives. Similarly to the rest of the world, the Balkans call for new ways of discovering the process of learning how to live together.

Marija Karan is a prominent Serbian-born and internationally acclaimed theater and film actress, based between Los Angeles, USA, and Belgrade, Serbia. Karan’s profession powers her interest in performative systems shared and shaped by the fields of contemporary art, cinema, and theater. The mission of Balkan…Projects is supported by an international female advisory board comprising four renowned visual artists and one art historian, which was inaugurated in 2021. Its goal is to identify and implement innovative ideas and successful practices, allowing for future artistic excellence.