20.07.2026
OnCurating Issue 65: if walls could tell - East-Central European Perspectives on Participation
Issue 65 / July 2026 eds. Zoran Erić, Mischa Kuball, Dorothee Richter and Simone Voigt
available online for free or Print on Demand Magazine (see below)
Issue 65 of OnCurating if walls could tell – East-Central European Perspectives on Participation is now available. The issue can be read online free of charge and is also available as a printed edition via Amazon.
The issue focuses on the transnational project if walls could tell by artist Mischa Kuball, which examined the relationship between art institutions, public space, and broader social participation.
The project questions the permeability of museums and galleries to the communities around them and explores how artistic practices can create spaces for exchange, dialogue, and collective expression beyond institutional boundaries. Across various cities in Southeastern and East-Central Europe, blank white walls were installed in public spaces as symbolic references to the “white cube” of the museum or gallery.
Removed from their usual institutional context, these walls became open platforms for public participation. Like filters, they collected traces of cultural, social, and urban expressions emerging from everyday life — allowing citizens to leave their marks, reflections, and comments on issues that concern their communities. Once transformed by their surroundings and the people who interacted with them, the walls returned to the institutional context, preserving these collective traces and opening them up for further reflection and inscription.
The authors in this issue explore the role of cultural institutions at the semi-periphery of Europe, the possibilities and limitations of participatory art, and the potential of shared public space to build, repair, and reimagine social connections in societies shaped by fragility, contestation, and ongoing civic unrest.
The project unfolded across seven cities — Sarajevo, Bucharest, Skopje, Chișinău, Ljubljana, Kraljevica, and Čačak — bringing together different perspectives on participation, collective authorship, and the role of art in public life.
The project was realized in collaboration with:
- Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art, Sarajevo
- The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
- Center for Contemporary Culture KRAK, Bihać
- RIZOM [ K ] – Frankopan Castle, Kraljevica
- Art Gallery “Nadežda Petrović”, Čačak
- Center for Contemporary Art [KSA:K] with Galeria Plai, Chișinău
- MGML – Match Gallery, Ljubljana
- WELTKUNSTZIMMER, Düsseldorf
Issue 65 is available to read online for free. The printed edition can be ordered via Amazon.
read online
buy as print
The project is organized in cooperation with the Goethe Institute network in all respective partner countries.
