Now Closed
SKART artists talk and launch event for New Embroideries project

Belgrade-based artists Skart are on a Reunion residency in February in London. They will be continuing their New Embroideries project with women and children living in Hackney. The workshops subvert traditional Balkan embroideries by creating contemporary rhymes and images that relate to the makers' own experiences. The final pieces will be displayed in local public places in Hackney. Past New Embroideries makers include the Single Mothers Association in Belgrade, women's refugee groups, and village embroidery groups in Serbia, Austria and Germany.

Dragan Protic & Djordje Balmazovic started working as Skart in 1990. They distribute poetry, music and making as a mode of communication. In the early 1990's as Yugoslavia started to break up, Skart sent poems to residents of Belgrade, read statements on the radio and gave 'lost and found' booklets of poems out to people on the streets as part of their project, Sadness. In 2000, they initiated the choir Horkeskart, inviting Serbian arrangers, composers, and performers to take part in performances of Yugoslavian socialist songs and hardcore punk. The choir continues to grow and perform.

Skart’s residency in London is part of Reunion, an art / research project by Sophie Hope and is made possible thanks to support from SPACE and funding from Visiting Arts and the Austrian Cultural Forum, London. Many thanks also go to Lucy Parker and Nada Prlja for helping with the Reunion programme.

The launch event is free and refreshments will be served