The Perceptions project has been developed through establishing dialogues between works of prominent British women artists from the British Council Collection and works of artists chosen by curators in five partnering museum institutions hosting the exhibitions:
- National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje
- Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad
- Museum of Contemporary Art of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka
- Kosova National Art Gallery in Priština
- Contemporary Art Museum of Macedonia in Skopje
The five exhibitions that confront different artistic approaches to re-examination of the role, (self)representation and status of women through modern art history and contemporary art practices have been designed as commentaries along the trajectory of complex social and historical situations in the space of former Yugoslavia, opening a significant chapter not only in terms of the renewed actualization of the women's question within the local artistic systems, but also in the context of the re-established cooperation between the afore mentioned art and museum centres. The circumstances in which the art is discussed in social contexts of Britain and each of the Western Balkans countries certainly differ in many respects, but it is worth remembering that these differences are surpassed by the common aspiration for images, attitudes, and stereotypes about women to be critically thought over, and debated as universal and indispensable issues greater than any local specificities – although often conditioned precisely by these very specificities.
