If you ask an average Romanian student about the capital of Macedonia, very probably, he/she will not be able to give you an answer. If, by chance, you are having coffee in a street cafe in Banja Luka and you ask a Serbian waiter to name a Romanian city - except Bucharest or Timişoara - you will most likely get no answer… Despite the fact that they belong to a similar cultural space, these countries are separated by visible and invisible barriers. From a Western perspective, the Balkan region is unstable, chaotic, corrupted, insecure, disorganized… It has to be stabilized for its own safety. With the exception of the Catholic countries in the North-West, which are more "westernised", the others belong to a different world, which didn't have the historical accumulations of the West: Renaissance, Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. The consolidation of nation states is very complicated, especially in the former Yugoslav countries. The construction of the self is different, and so is social life, the territory is differently (dis)organized, respect for the norms, organizational culture and civic spirit are different. According to Weber's work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, human institutions were not shaped by inevitable materialism, as Marx had argued, but by religious ideals and ideas which could not be reduced to material causation.

After the fall of communism, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the horrific wars in Yugoslavia, there is "a single way" for "healing the wounds": the neo-liberal order in the era of globalization. The entire region experienced in the last two decades the process of primitive accumulation of capital during a painful transition from communist totalitarian regimes to "democracy" and "free market economy". Despite lacking cultural infrastructure, the artistic production reflects all the contradictions present in these societies during their process of integration into the Western world.

The artistic project Bad Times / Good Times proposes a theme of reflection on the ways in which artists from the Eastern and the Western Balkans are developing critical discourses regarding the transformation processes in their societies. This interest is driven by the conviction that in this region there is a powerful artistic production, fresh and direct, which is not promoted enough due to the inefficient promotion of the local cultural institutions. There is a significant number of artists who are developing radical or subversive tactics and strategies regarding the socio-political and economical reality. From physics we know that in every transition process, all parameters have higher amplitudes. By analysing the new economy, the new political order in relation to the traditional mentalities in South-East European countries (Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia), the project is structured around antagonist contradictions:

Religion vs. Individualism
Archaic vs. Modern
Rural vs. Urban
Nationalism vs. Internationalism

One of the most visible artists from the region, Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi once said that in the early '90s he was considered to be an Eastern European artist, in the late '90s a South-East European artist, and in the early 2000s an Eastern Balkan artist. It seems that the region was constantly "labelled" from the outside, according to the rapid changes and conjunctural interests.

Bad Times / Good Times will consist of an exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA in Prague, and a publication with contributions from Matei Bejenaru (artist, curator - RO), Igor Caşu (historian - MD), Constantin Vică (philosopher and media theorist - RO), Luchezar Boyadjiev (artist - BG). The publication will be launched at the opening of the show.

The year-round exhibition plan of FUTURA is supported by: the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Hall

Principal media partners:
Radio Wave, Umělec, Flash Art

Media partners:
Radio 1, Artyčok.tv, Atelier, Pragueout

Thanks to:
Imarmitaliani, Viaprint, Romanian Cultural Institute Prague, Bulgarian Cultural Institute Prague, Republic of Serbia - Ministry of Culture