SUMMARY

The Culture Lobby is a participatory and multi-format archive that will examine cultural memory in the process of EU integration in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) by documenting photographically what citizens think will change or disappear when their territory joins the EU, and marking the geographical location of each example with GPS technology. The project aims to initiate inter-regional dialogue about the process of cultural change (seen through the immediate lens of EU accession) and entrenched regional preconceptions by assigning artists to collect the subjective views of citizens in a participating country that is not their own. The photographs created during this phase will become the basis of an archive of future memories of a particular moment in this region’s history, crucially providing local citizens the opportunity to participate in the creation of an alternative cultural history as an artwork in itself. The results will be produced and publicly presented online as an archive, a book, an international exhibition and a downloadable GPS map with which people will be encouraged to navigate the artwork (and thus the region) physically, enabling them to see for themselves if the phenomenon or locale that someone deemed culturally relevant has, indeed, disappeared or changed.

The Culture Lobby aims to create a valuable archive for the future by capturing one historical moment in the region that can be revisited (virtually and physically) by future audiences. The results of the project will become part of the cultural legacy of the region and a unique contribution to contemporary art.

 

KIOSK TEAM

Milica Pekić Conev, lead coordinator
Ana Adamović, coordinator, participating artist
Cindy Blažević, co-author, participating artist
Pascal Paquette, co-author, participating artist

 

PARTNERS IN THE REGION

CROATIA
G-MK | Gallery Miroslav Kraljevic (Zagreb, Croatia)
Ivana Bago, Curator

Osijek City Galleries/Gradske Galerije Osijek
Ana-Marija Koljanin, Curator

BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

Youth Cultural Center Abrasevic (Mostar, Bosnia and Hercegovina)
Kristina Coric, Curator

KOSOVO

Laboratory for visual arts | LAB (Prishtina, Kosovo/UNMIK)
Dren Maliqi, co-founder and artist

 

THE EXPERTS WHO GUIDE US

Dr. Robert C. Austin, Professor of politics of Southeastern Europe, University of Toronto
Dr. Renato Filjar, The Royal Institute of Navigation, Croatian Branch
Rebecca Heald, former Curator of Visual Dialogues, Tate (UK), currently Curator of Exhibitions at Sadie Coles Gallery (UK)
Dr. Edith Klein, Professor and specialist on the former Yugoslavia, University of Toronto
Katie Sonnenborn is a Senior Associate at Dia Art Foundation (New York City) and a regular contributor to Frieze and other international art publications.