Sommersemester 2023, BA/MA Visuelle Kommunikation VK_Startseite

ℳ · European Other

The Western Balkans is a politically constructed term that subsumes the five successor states of the former Yugoslavia and Albania to a single entity.

It is an enclave within Europe, enclosed by the EU's external border and the Schengen regime.

The Balkans have historically functioned as a counter-image, a projection screen, crucial for the construction and consolidation of a European identity, just as the so-called Orient. Often rhetorically displaced from Europe, it serves as the internal Other from which the West seeks to distinguish itself.

Even today, narratives about the Balkans remain defined by external projections.

The term 'balkanisation' has come to denote not only the fragmentation of large and viable political entities. It has also become synonymous with a regression to the tribal, the backward, the primitive and the barbarian.

 

'European Other' attempts to approach the Europe-Balkan dichotomy in a multi-dimensional installation.

The work consists of a 2 by 2.30 m woven installation and three video works.

Project category Project subjects BA/MA Visuelle Kommunikation