RGB Balkan Arts Festival

“Balkan Portraits: Post-Modern Roots”

Art Museum, Palace of Culture, Iași (27-28/6)

The first edition of the itinerant exhibition RGB Balkan Arts Festival is presented in
2019 in Iași at the Art Museum, Palace of Culture in June, 27-28 and in Thessaloniki,
at the Folk Life & Ethnological Museum of Macedonia & Thrace, Thessaloniki in
September, 1- 15. The title of the exhibition is “Balkan Portraits : Post-Modern
Roots”.

Through the research for the preparation of the event, as through every work of art
that is part of the exhibition, we investigate the multiple facets of Balkans region that
have been captured by contemporary artists inspired by the field of traditional arts &
crafts.

In the Balkans, arts & crafts techniques are a common ground for different cultures.
The objects created by craftsmen are elements of tangible cultural heritage. They
provide clear information about the relationship of man with nature and materiality
and construct the cultural identity through the various symbolic meanings they carry.
Crafts are the bond between hand and mind, the link between everyday life and
culture, the mirror of identity and the result of social practice and politics.

In the times of mass-production, traditional handmade crafts and techniques have

limited their presence, becoming precious witnesses of our roots and raising questions
about our present and our future. The traditional arts and crafts in culture become the
starting point of the artists’ practice. By following new aspects and forms of
expression, by revealing identity issues, gender perception, contradictions in
ownership and authorship, the presented artists describe a cultural reality that belongs
to the geographical, spiritual, cultural, social and historical place of the Balkans.

If artists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo and
Metohija, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia or Turkey got interested in the
event cause of their personal belonging, artists from Canada, China, Denmark,
Georgia, Ireland, Finland, France, Hungary, Moldavia, Russia, Switzerland or United
Kingdom showed their interest for the festival this year too.

“Balkan Portraits: Post-Modern Roots” is a conceptual exhibition. The artists and

their works have been chosen in order to represent the diversity of the Balkanic space
and the way that a mixture of cultures becomes a source of inspiration for the creators.

The exhibition is structured in 3 sections: the Video Section, that includes films,
documentaries and video works, all presented in a common space; the Traditional-
Postmodern section, where the visitor can find objects, paintings, installations or
textile artworks and the Archive Section, represented as a study and research place,
where we offer as a part of the relevant body or information.

Artists deal with delicate, intimate themes, based either on the detection of direct,
aggressive, strident issues of the space that they are living and that becomes a source
of inspiration. Sometimes we notice the attraction through some crucial issues of the
Balkan society.

The artworks are not only inspired from the cultural space, they discover creative
perspectives of the relations with the political, social, religious environment, the
discourse between the postmodern society and the traditional one, the reference to the
craftsmanship and the mass production of the objects, the living history and the birth
of the contemporary stories. Different Balkan communities are brought to light by the
manner that their way of life has an impact on the contemporary artist.
Awareness of a common cultural space, friendship, religiosity, a sense of belonging to
a cultural space, discord, a desire to protect a certain intangible heritage are, perhaps,
feelings that the visitor can experience during the exhibition.

Beyond the ideas expressed by the cultural gesture remains the strong feeling of the
co-existence in a temporary and free space that has been given to us to live, live and
create together.

RGB Balkan Arts Festival is an international art festival that projects the mapping of
contemporary artistic topography of Balkan region. The aim of the Festival is to
create a network of artists and art institutions promoting creative dialogue and
extraversion, as well as to investigate and archive the emerging developments in
contemporary Balkan arts.
The main event of the festival is an annual exhibition taking part in different Balkan
locations. Nevertheless, the festival incorporates publications, workshops, network
meetings and continuous archiving activity.

Artists: Anna Antarti, Yiorgos Drosos, Zoita Delia Călinescu, Nancy Exarhou, EN
FLO artist collective (Antonakaki Sophia, Antoniou Depy, Vasileiou Vicky, Gaiti
Penelope, Kavouridis Vasilis, Kampouridou Anna, Karoulia Katerina, Kondosphyris
Harris, Koronaios Konstantinos, Kouzouni Mina, Manetta Evangelia, Mantziori
Agapi, Minas Konstantinos, Mpampanis Thanasis, Monachou Olga, Sentzas Vasilis,
Siaterli Dimitra, Tourtoura Katerina, Flegga Antonia, Christopoulou Magda. The
dancing group from the Atrapos village of Florina: Angelidou Eleftheria, Antoniou
Eleftheria, Antoniou Daphne, Stassini Christina, Stafanovits Vasia, Tsoutsouli
Anastasia, Filippou Katerina), Evgenia Faliaridou, Konstantinos Fotiou, Dionysis
Gardelis-Kaplanis, Miruna Hasegan, Vasilis Karkatselis, Harris Kondosfyris, Sofia
Kyriakaki, Thodoris Lalos, Niccolò Masini, Thanasis Raptis, Yiannis Monogios, Ada
Muntean, Apostolos Ntelakos, Maria Panagiotou, Pino Pandolfini, Konstantinos
Pardalis, Alexandra Petranaki, Nina Prousali, Wojtek Pustola, Filip Adrian Petcu,
Catalin Marius Petrișor, Thanasis Raptis, Dimitra Siaterli, Georgia Stamenov Vera
Siaterli, Yannis Stamenitis, Nikos Terzis, Anca Szönyi Thomas, Tajó, Elli Vuorinen,
Mairi Tsiroukidou.

Curators: Andreea Foanene (Ro) Georgia Kourkounaki (Gr) and Yorgos

Taxiarchopoulos (Gr).

This project is supported by the Goethe-Institut and the Project Fund of the
Cultural Management Academy in Sofia, Bucharest, Thessaloniki and Serajevo.

Parters: Palace of culture in Iași; Folk Art and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia
and Thrace in Thesaloniki; MY Museum Foundation, Sturdza Castle at Miclăușeni;
The Palace of Culture Târgu Mureș; European University in Tirana, Albania;
Photography Center of Thessaloniki; Jewish Museum in Bucharest; ArtStoria; Stefan
Jäger Museum in Jimbolia; GEYC, Avant Post; STUP; BCUT; Art Touching.