Vahe Budumyan, Vilmos Koter, Tanja Radež, Giorgi Khasaia: Caucasus-Balkans: MARIBOR

The street collective Kavkaz Balkan sprang from the project Kavkaz Balkan Express, a platform for inspiration, contemplation and participation within the cultural sector of South Caucasus and the Balkans. Both these regions face challenges conditioned by a particular cultural-historic framework and their transition from old school socialism into hybrid democracy and market economy. The latter is cause for constant confusion and disappointment in the social context, and a breeding grounds for ethical conflicts.

The project unites four visual artists: Vahe Budumyan from Armenia, Vilmos Koter from Romania, Tanja Radež from Slovenia and Giorgi Khasaia from Georgia. Together, they’ve already stayed in residence in Georgia, Armenia, Romania and also Ljubljana; Maribor is now their current artistic HQ. The group have developed various techniques of urban intervention, based on their shared experience of co-existing and their individual artistic expressions. Thus, having spent their time in Maribor, they will prepare a series of spatial interventions specific to the issues they identify.