We’re off to a second day at IHU Thessaloniki with Martina Baleva’s keynote on “Future’s in the Balkans. The Visual Invention of a Region.”
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The visual discovery of the Balkans by the ‘West’ can be traced back as early as the 17th century when some of the first depictions of the region appeared like in the richly illustrated travel account by Salomon Schweigger (1608). But the actual process of the visual invention of the Balkans intensified in the early 19th century simultaneously with the political, scientific, and economic penetration into the region. And it seems that this process has been lasting till today or at least until the celebrated exhibition “Blood & Honey. Future’s in the Balkans” (2003). The lecture tries to trace the ways in which the Balkans was invented through art and visual media and to shed light on the big names and main aspects in this process.
KEAC-BSR 