Neighbour, What’s Up? – A discussion on After Yugoslavia: Places of Encounter
Neighbour, What’s Up? – A discussion on After Yugoslavia: Places of Encounter, edited by Dragan Popović
November 12, 2026, at 7 PM
Museum of the Nineties (Kneza Miloša 3, Belgrade)
Thirty-five years ago, the breakup of Yugoslavia began. Wars, new borders, and ethnic divisions profoundly transformed relations among the peoples of the former common state. Cooperation across the newly established borders seemed almost impossible, particularly in the field of culture, which nationalist wartime projects sought to “purge” of everything that did not conform to their ideologies.
Yet culture, education, and science became important spaces of resistance to these divisions. Even during the wars, individuals and movements who refused to accept nationalist restrictions began building connections. New organizations and networks of cooperation emerged, grounded in trust and enabling continued collaboration after the wars ended. Over the following decades, these connections gave rise to festivals, book fairs, public discussions, and various institutions that became new places of encounter.
In the book After Yugoslavia: Places of Encounter, edited by Dragan Popović, the individuals who initiated these forms of cooperation share their ideas and experiences. Their accounts raise questions about how connections are built across new borders, and why, decades after the breakup of the common state, we still feel the need to cooperate, engage in dialogue, read one another’s work, and seek solutions together.
These are the questions we will explore at the discussion “Neighbour, What’s Up?”, bringing together people who have created spaces for connection across the former Yugoslavia through publishing, literature, and cultural initiatives.
Participants:
- Damir Uzunović — founder of Baybook bookstore and publishing house and the Bookstan festival, Sarajevo
- Dragan Markovina — initiator of the Korčula after party festival, Korčula
- Vladimir Arsenijević — founder of the Krokodil festival, Belgrade
- Dragan Popović — editor of After Yugoslavia: Places of Encounter
- Dubravka Stojanović — Museum of the Nineties, Belgrade
This programme is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Renovabis solidarity initiative.