As part of its 25th Anniversary Celebrations, ARTMargins Online hosts a series of short dialogues between critics and curators from Eastern Europe and one or several artists. With this series of conversations, we want to shed light on the challenging political and economic conditions under which artists and other producers of culture in the region operate today, yet we also aim to highlight the amazing vibrancy, resilience, and resourcefulness of its art scenes.
This conversation between art historian and curator Jon Blackwood, and artists Elena Chemerska and Ivana Mirchevska, focuses firstly on the conditions for making contemporary art in contemporary North Macedonia, on diaspora, and on the themes explored by both Elena and Ivana. In the second part, the participants explore their recent work exhibited in Ljubljana and Skopje, Host or Parasite: Boiling Body, a collaborative multi-media installation completed in 2023. The work was shown as part of the group show Here, But Somewhere Else curated by Jana Stardelova for ŠKUC in Ljubljana (December 2023) and at mala stanica, Skopje, North Macedonia (October 2024).
Jon Blackwood
Jon Blackwood is an educator and writer who is currently Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He has been working in the former Yugoslav space for twenty years with a particular focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Publications include Critical Art in Contemporary Macedonia (mala galerija, 2016) and Contemporary Art from the former Yugoslav Space : Case Studies in Hauntology (co-edited with Jasmina Tumbas, Routledge, 2025, forthcoming). He has also curated exhibitions internationally, and his writing has appeared in a-n, Art Monthly and kunst.ee. He is based between Aberdeen, Sarajevo, and Skopje.
Elena Chemerska
Elena Chemerska is a visual artist based between Skopje and Berlin. Trained at Skopje and s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, her artistic practice is embedded in exploring the relationships between aesthetics, materiality, and politics. Elena’s practice is multi-media and multi-disciplinary, expressed through painting, video, performance, sound, installation, and social engagement. Elena won the DENES award for young visual artists in Macedonia in 2021 and has exhibited internationally in various locations including New York, Sofia, Dresden, and all across the former Yugoslav space.
Ivana Mirchevska
Ivana Mirchevska lives and works in Skopje, having completed a BA in Painting in Skopje and an MFA in Brera, Italy. She is a visual artist and researcher working across moving images, text, sound, and installation. Ivana’s research is drawn to topics that come from the intersection between the technologies of vision, the spatial configuration of the gaze, and the body. Ivana’s practice and research often feeds on collaborative and learning processes with people from a variety of disciplines, practices, and contexts. Ivana was the winner of the DENES award in 2022 and has exhibited in New York, Denver, Piacenza, Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Skopje.
