Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 17 January 2012

The phenomenon of youth alternative pop culture in Belgrade during the late 1970s and early 1980s, that of the last generation that spent its youth in socialist Yugoslavia, is the focus of the exhibition entitled The Last Youth in Yugoslavia, the first exhibition of 2012 at the 25. Maj Museum in Belgrade.

Author: Merima Spahić
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 10 January 2012

Zdena Pisker is the only artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina who produces encaustic paintings, i.e. using an iron to produce her paintings. A few years ago, the sixty-year-old Zdena Pisker from Zenica read an article in a magazine claiming that using an iron to paint is a form of stress relief.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 14 December 2011

November 2011 was a good month for Arjela Banushaj, one of the newest Albanian designers, who held a modern fashion exhibition in Tirana quite different from the rest. Her modern collection of garments and accessories, based on traditional motifs, was inspired by the city of Gjirokastra in southern of Albania, also known as the City of Stone.

Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 13 December 2011

How do we generate a sense of responsibility? This was the central question of the 2011 October Salon. The 52nd edition of this major cultural event in southeast Europe was entitled “It's Time We Got to Know Each Other.” The exhibition was directed by two curators - Galit Eilat from Israel, whose projects are usually focused on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, and Alenka Gregorič, an art historian from Slovenia, who is examining the responsibility of institutions that deal with culture and art.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 24 November 2011

A little known fact for movie buffs is that the masks worn by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in their 1999 movie “Eyes Wide Shut” were created by the Albanian artist Edmond Angoni. They are particularly in demand in Venice because they are handmade masks, a tradition which is gradually disappearing in the Venetian mask market.

Author: Refki Alija
Place: Kosovo*
Date: 8 November 2011

The director of the ART Fest, Erhan Baymak, is convinced that this festival, which took place in the town of Prizren toward the end of September and in which 30 artists from the Balkans, Western Europe and several Asian countries took part, has achieved what it set out to do, which is to bring together East and West.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 24 October 2011

Roland Tasho, who has been a photographer for the past 30 years, became enamoured with the beauty of Përmet, a city of some 10,000 inhabitants in the southeast of Albania.Tasho’s camera has captured the breathtaking landscapes of this city, the old churches and bridges, as well as its traditions and customs.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 18 October 2011

Rudina Proda, a 32-year old Albanian autistic painter, has taken part in 125 exhibitions and won more than 30 prizes. She has opened exhibitions in the UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia and other countries.

In Croatia she presented a colourful collection of paintings in ballpoint pen in May 2011. Many visitors said they had never seen anything like it. When asked about the ballpoint pens, Ms. Proda’s father Dr. Veip Proda, who is also her agent, explained to Southeast Europe: People and Culture, “I bought them for a few cents from some street vendors. I thought they could be of use some day and I was right.”

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 13 September 2011

Luljeta Dano, an Albanian poet from Fier, bought an ornament and a scarf from the region of Zadrima in the northern citiy of Shkodra when she was a student toward the end of the 1980s. She liked to combine them with stylish modern clothes of her youth.

These two accessories seemingly multiplied through years until Dano had gathered a comprehensive ethnographic collection of rare Albanian traditional costumes from all the regions of the country. This collection comprises some 650 elements, including pieces of jewellery.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 7 September 2011

The audience was spellbound by the models on the catwalk. The women wore chic white shirts and skirts from the Albanian folk costume, xhubleta, which is customarily associated with women living in northern Albania. This unexpected combination sealed the triumph of the 32-year old designer, Joni Peçi, after his first ever presentation on an Albanian fashion TV channel.

Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 29 August 2011

Dedicated to promoting the artwork of Serbia's youth, Belgrade’s Art Week opened 3 July 2011 in downtown Belgrade's central square Trg Republike to the funk-soul tunes of the band Marakuja. The upbeat rhythms that launched the Serbian capital's newest summer festival seemed to linger throughout for the entire duration of the festival until 10 July as a series of workshops aimed to combine three great fields of art: theatre, visual arts, and film.

Author: Merima Spahić
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 08 August 2011

There is most likely not a single person living in Sarajevo who does not know where in the city the turbeh monument to the Seven Brothers is located. Turbeh (türbe) is the Turkish word for "tomb", and for the characteristic mausoleums of Ottoman royalty and notables. The Ottoman period in Bosnia and Herzegovina lasted for over 400 years (1463 – 1878), which is the reason why there are so many turbeh monuments scattered all around Bosnia and Herzegovina. The turbehs inspire people with awe and fear, curiosity and respect to this day. The Seven Brothers is a story dating back to 1815, which is still alive and passed on from one generation to the next. 

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 08 August 2011

The Museum of Caricature and Cartoons in Vianden, Luxembourg, presented an exhibition of more than 40 works of the Albanian-born cartoonist and painter, Agim Sulaj in summer 2011. He often tackles controversial issues such as environmental protection or international migration. Sulaj, who has won many international prizes, spoke with Southeast Europe: People and Culture while he was preparing for his next exhibition, this time at the Museum of Humour in Izmir, Turkey in September 2011. 

Author: Emrah Güler
Place: Turkey
Date: 29 July 2011

Ankara has been home to some of the most original and creative street art for over a year. One spring morning in 2010, Ankara residents awoke to find that one of the major road signs in the busiest junction of the city had been altered: the sign directing the traffic to Gazi Osman Paşa was replaced with Tosun Paşa, the cult leading character of a 1970s comedy film.

Author: Ivica Profaca
Place: Croatia
Date: 25 July 2011

It is here that mayors, ambassadors, prime ministers and presidents love to be seen, where traditionally five minutes after midnight on New Year's Eve the first annual cultural event of the year in Croatia takes place, and openings attract such a big crowd that Marechal Marmont Street in Split’s city centre is almost impossible to walk through. Welcome to Fotoklub Split, a small photography gallery and club space that celebrates its centennial anniversary this year. 

Author: Emrah Güler
Place: Turkey
Date: 19 July 2011

Public spaces and streets have not traditionally been places for artistic expression in Turkey. The thousands of sculptures adorning the city centres have mostly been reserved for figures of historical or ideological importance. That’s why it was a first when the international project My City, run by the British Council Turkey, invited artists from Europe to stay in five Turkish cities and create public artworks.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Date: 13 July 2011

In recent months, in some of Skopje’s more bohemian bars, one can spot young women wearing rather unique earrings. A particularly daring one is made of part of the plastic strip of a well known brand of anti-depressants. The pill, still in its slot in the strip, is part of the earring. "Just in a case of an emergency," the joke goes. The earrings are made by the creative hands of a young artist, Dafina Dzeparoska. Her jewellery, all handmade and unique, has lately become increasingly visible. For example, a national fashion weekly recently picked up on her work. She spoke to Southeast Europe: People and Culture about her passion for jewellery making.

Author: Merima Spahić
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 22 June 2011

"Fortune's help have I in this, bullets for me always miss” (Ja sam vojnik sreće, mene metak neće) is a line from the song Vojnik sreće (Soldier of Good Fortune) by the Sarajevo-based musician Dino Merlin, whose songs were hummed by people hiding in cellars during the siege of Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with no electricity, water or food.

Author: Emrah Güler
Place: Turkey
Date: 30 June 2011

Despite being home to some of the most prominent writers, musicians and artists in Turkey, the capital city of Ankara has never been seen as Turkey’s capital of culture. Traditionally, most artists have headed to Istanbul.

Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 06 June 2011

The leitmotif of Mikser, the largest regional festival of creativity, held in the last week of May, was the twentieth anniversary of the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This theme served as an inspiration for the possibility of parallel readings of history and establishing new relations in Southeast Europe.

Author: Aleksandar Sazdovski
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 11 April 2011

As a four year old, Dita Starova, an artist from Skopje, Macedonia, was growing up in Paris and, as she now recalls, was already learning the language of colours. Today, she teaches art in Skopje and "The Language of Colours" is the name of her latest exhibition of paintings.

Author: Andrija Igić
Place: Kosovo*
Date: 17 March 2011

Whether using oils on canvas, sculpture or multimedia performances, the one thing that unites the new wave of Kosovo artists is their freshness. Meet three artists who represent the future of Kosovo's art scene...

Author: Aleksandar Sazdovski
Place: Western Balkans
Date: 21 February 2011

Prishtina, Amsterdam, Sarajevo and Skopje are four very different cities but recently they established a link that connects them on a cultural level - the 4 Tuned Cities film and visual arts festival. Co-curated by Balkan Buro (The Netherlands), Lokomotiva (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Kriterion (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Dit’ e Nat’ (Kosovo*), the festival was held from September through November 2010 in each of the four cities. There were visual art exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and discussions as well as a side programme and music.

Author: Umut Egitimci
Place: Turkey
Date: 15 January 2011

While Turkey has traditionally been a centre for the production of clothes, leaving design to more established fashion capitals such as London, Paris and Milan, Istanbul is now developing an impressive reputation as the new design metropolis...

Author: Dejan Trajkoski
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 21 December 2010

Vuk Mitevski belongs to the youngest generation of artists from Macedonia and he is one of the few in the region who fuses work in film, animation, painting, sculpture etc. As a graduate of the American College Bentington he stayed in New York in 2005 and 2006 where he put up a solo exhibition called the Saints.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 20 December 2010

Professor Mitko Hadži-Pulja is the most renowned architect in Macedonia today. Together with his colleague Minas Bakalcev, he recently won the project for the new building of the National Theatre. A regular participant at the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale, he attended this year together with all of his students (over a hundred) from the 1st year at the faculty. He spoke to Southeast Europe: People and Culture in a Skopje café across the street from the Faculty of Architecture.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 01 November 2010

Only 33, he is one of the most promising fashion designers in his country. Since returning from his studies in Florence, Italy, in 2006, where he specialised in Fashion as Art, he has quickly become a household name in his industry. Jovan Petrovski talked to Southeast Europe: People and Culture from Bangkok where he has recently started lecturing, about his projects and his views on fashion and the challenges for fashion design in the region.

Title: Author: Refki Alija
Place: Kosovo*
Date: 19 October 2010

People still read comics despite enormous competition from the internet and other media technologies - this is the impression that was created after the International Festival of Comics and Cartoons, held between 8-15 October at Prizren's Hamam gallery.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 16 October 2010

A returnee from Italy and a man with a vision, Tefik Tefikoski, nicknamed “Tutto” has been working for several years on an exciting project in his native village of Jance, in the National Park Mavrovo. An expert in construction - he ran his own construction company in Italy for over 15 years – Tefik has launched a project of restoring old houses in Jance and elsewhere in the country.

Author: Vuk Perović
Place: Montenegro
Date: 03 October 2010

The 4th annual comic book festival in Herceg Novi, a coastal resort in Boka Kotorska Bay proved that in Southeast Europe there is still substantial interest in the ninth art, as it is called. The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of comics in the former Yugoslavia. The industry was in full bloom, with a number of widely-available and diverse publications including magazines, single editions, and albums, ranging from mainstream Marvel and DC Comics superhero editions to Italy's celebrated Max Bunker or Sergio Bonelli.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 29 September 2010

A selection of the most attractive items representing Gjirokastra’s unique cultural heritage will be shown in the new museum, which is to open soon within the fortress of the city. Gjirokastra, a city in southern Albania,  is also known as the ‘stone city’ or the ‘city of 1000 steps.’ Its old town is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 12 September 2010 

The 50th edition of one of Macedonia’s most renowned cultural events, the Ohrid Summer Festival, closed on 20 August. The young ensemble of the local Vojdan Černodrinski Theatre from Prilep had the honour of closing the event with their much acclaimed interpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia**
Date: 02 September 2010
  
If the ancient Kurshumli An in the Old Bazaar in Skopje could by some chance reassume its original function, that of being a hotel, it would no doubt be on par with the most lavish of those existing today. Then, one should only try to imagine it in the 16th century, because this is when it was built by Musein Odza, to give shelter to merchants coming to do business in Skopje’s Bazaar.  The Old Bazaar’s roles have changed over the centuries.  In the 19th it served as a prison, on account of its safe, impenetrable walls. Between the two world wars it was a warehouse. It is now a protected monument of culture, and probably the most magical concert venue in the city.

Author: Vuk Perović
Place: Montenegro
Date: 27 August 2010

Despite the financial crisis, the organisers of this year’s KotorArt festival managed to produce a remarkable programme. The Art directors of KotorArt, Croatian theatre director Paolo Magelli and producer Janko Ljumović, director of the Montenegrin National Theatre, ensured that quality was not compromised. The festival was sponsored by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.

Author: Vuk Perović
Place: Montenegro
Date: 15 August 2010

Young people with lots of experience in the creative industries have decided to go the distance and take an active part in establishing flourishing creative industries in Montenegro.

Place: Kosovo*
Date: 05 August 2010 

Welcome to Pristina, as seen through the lens of photographer Burim Myftiu

Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 03 August 2011

Meet artist and designer Nina Knežević and let her take you around her Sarajevo – the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Author: Monda Shima
Place: Albania 
Date: 5 July 2010

Within ten years Albanian artist Adrian Paci has managed to enter the star system of the international contemporary art world by participating twice at the Venice Biennale. In 2005 his works were shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and later on in Houston, Texas, Stockholm and in a number of Italian galleries. He took part in the Brussels Biennale and in the Tirana Biennale in 2009 with the movie Per Speculum, which was filmed in the green setting of a village in Northamptonshire, England.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania 
Date: 2 July 2010

For the first time since the political changes of 1991, Albania’s National Gallery of Arts has successfully managed to exhibit a collection of artworks describing the past 120 years of Albanian art. Shedding light on the development of Albanian art, the artworks shown span from 1883, the year when “Sister Tone” by Kol Idromeno was painted, to the beginning of the 21st century.

Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: the Western Balkans
Date: 4 June 2010

Armed with cameras, audio recorders and GPS readers, two artists from each of the different territories of the Western Balkans left last September for a journey to a neighbouring state. The question they asked from the people they met during their travel was the following: “What do you think will change or disappear in your everyday life when your country joins the European Union?”

Author: Tijana Jovanović Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 14 December 2009

The creations of Rena Rädle and Vladan Jeremić, partners in art and life, are rooted in a strong critique of social relations within the power system of Serbia's post-Socialist "transition" society, with all of its features and discontinuities.

Author: Slađana Majdak
Place: Serbia
Date: 23 November 2009

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an Alexander the Great-era city at Kale, southern Serbia, ten kilometres southeast of the town of Bujanovac.It dates back to the 4th century B.C.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: Croatia
Date: 10 March 2010

The new Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) set in Zagreb at the crossroads of Većeslav Holjevac and Dubrovnik Avenues is an architectonic achievement, which in the years to come will definitely become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. It took more than ten years since the decision to build the museum was made until it was opened in December 2009.

Author: Mediha Adrović
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 10 March 2010

For 26 years now, winter in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a time of international cultural exchange. Organised by the International Peace Centre, the first 'Sarajevo Winter' festival took place from Dec. 21, 1984 to April 6, 1985. The festival has brightened Sarajevo winters ever since, and has become a symbol of freedom, creativity, and worldwide cross-cultural dialogue.

Author: Valentina Bulatović
Place: Serbia
Date: 15 January 2009

An international exhibition of artwork from the country, the region, and the world, held every October in Belgrade, this year's Oktobarski Salon (October Salon) took place from Oct. 2 to 15 and marked 50 years of existence.

Author: Rudina Hoxha
Place: Albania
Date: 5 October 2009

A big, real-like tongue over a toilet, a striking installation by one of the country’s most unconventional contemporary artists, Ardian Isufi, stirred a lot of debate in Albania. his was a breakthrough work in the art portfolio of the 36-year old artist whose muse is the human being alongside his numerous psychological moments.

Author: Tijana Jovanović-Petrović
Place: Serbia
Date: 31 October 2009

In 2009, the Remont Independent Art Association celebrates its tenth anniversary. Founded in 1999, the organisation's goal is to promote contemporary art in Serbia and link the domestic art scene to international trends.

Author: Vuk Perović
Place: Montenegro
Date: 22 September 2009

The Renaissance Palace called Palazzo Zorzi in Venice is exhibiting Montenegrin painter Dado Djurić's works within the 53rd Venice Biennale of Art. In honour of the splendid palazzo, Djurić has named the works "Zorzi Elegies."

Place: United Kingdom / the Western Balkans
Author: Ruby Russell
Date: 21 September 2009

An exhibition put on by the Balkan art organisation Terminal/oo/in London this month brought together the work of five artists on the 'Obsession'.

Place: Kosovo*
Author: Gezim Baxhaku
Date: 30 September 2009

Right behind the picturesque building of the library of the university in Pristina lies the Galeria e Arteve e Kosoves art gallery, a building whose specific facade made from stone brought from the area of Pec, causes it to stand out.

Author: Milena Selimi
Place: Albania
Date: 17 September 2009

Genc Mulliqi's art can be described as an idea in motion that changes its form and appears through sculpture, painting or photography. Mulliqi is a professor at the Academy of Arts in Tirana and also chairs the Sculpture Department there. From 2006 to 2008 he served as the Director of the National Gallery in Tirana.

Author: Nazli Demiroz
Place: Turkey
Date: 28 August 2009

Turkey's megalopolis Istanbul recently hosted a significant event called the Istanbul Design Weekend 2009 (IDW), organized by the Dream Design Factory and Italian Design Partners.Experts, art professors, opinion leaders, and renowned designers from Turkey, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco and Israel gathered at this four-day event on June18-21. This year’s theme “Mediterranean Design between Present and Future” grabbed the attention of design enthusiasts with impressive exhibitions, installations and new products.

Author: Merima Spahić
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 20 August 2009

Poet Duško Trifunović once told him: "If you ever leave Bosnia and Herzegovina, leave the past behind, but take your memories with you." Mersad Berber, one of the greatest artists of today, did just that. The recipient of several prestigious awards, Berber has been exhibiting his works in the largest cities of the world for years, and has won critical acclaim from even the harshest critics as one of the greatest postclassical artists of the 20th century.

Author: Risto Karajkov
Place: Croatia
Date: 23 July 2009

Grand art museums are magnificent and overwhelming. Feasts for the senses that uplift and excite often to the verge of exhaustion. Yet sometimes the most delicious candies come in small boxes. Such is the Croatian Museum of Naive Art (CMNA). 

Author: Valentina Bulatović
Place: Serbia
Date: 13 July 2009

In the fall of 2009, Belgrade will host a large exhibition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Serbia's printmakers and graphic designers collective - the Grafićki Kolektiv - one of Southeastern Europe's most renowned and influential establishments in this field of visual arts. The Grafićki Kolektiv and its Belgrade gallery were founded in 1949...

Author:  Alida Cenaj
Place: Albania
Date: 17 March 2009

Albanian mosaic artist Saimir Strati has made it into the Guinness Book of World Record three times already. His last record dates back to September 2008, when he aimed to present the Mediterranean character of Albania through a large mosaic made up of 240 000 wine bottle corks on a building facade in Tirana. The artwork combines the sun, the sea, music, and the portrait of a boy with typical Mediterranean features. Strati installed the mosaic on an area of 100 square metres and worked on it for 27 days, 14 hours per day.

Author:  Gjylshahe Bequiraj
Place: Kosovo*
Date: 3 February 2009

Burim Myftiu, born in 1961, is an Albanian Fine Art Photographer from Kosovo. His passion for photography began when his father gave him his first camera, a “Certo 35”. As Myftiu’s desire for photography grew, so did his drive to comprehend every aspect of his new found career. With a solid grounding in the history of photography and a developing technical expertise he, with a group of friends, began to experiment with black and white film.

Author:  Asja Mandic
Place: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date: 23 January 2009

The first Contemporary Art Biennial of Sarajevo, called “ARK Underground”, will take place in Sarajevo in November 2009. The organising Association for Visual Art Promotion (KULT ZONA) has stated that Sarajevo itself will not be the main site of this art fair. In fact, the display of Sarajevo art will be extended to the small town of Konjic and its astonishing underground bunker “ARK”.