After a European tour through Brașov, Tirana, Brussels, Leskovac, and Veles, the exhibition “CAN for Balkans” arrives in Bucharest, in a suitable setting – in the Atrium of the National Library of Romania. Here, the initiators’ approach was completed with a representative selection of comic books dedicated to the subject, hold in the collections of our library.

The main exhibition presents the history of historical comics from and about the Balkans, in the main section ,,Balkans in History”, as well as  a section dedicated to the first international competition ,,CAN for Balkans”.

The exhibition is based on an intercultural “dialogue” about the history of the Balkans. Through information taken from a research project run by historians from Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Belgium and Romania, the exhibition presents, in images and texts, cultural and social clichés and stereotypes about and from the Balkan world, and how historical comics were used as propaganda tools for totalitarian regimes in Albania, Yugoslavia and Romania.

First presented in Brașov, as part of the International Historical Comics Festival 2022, and touring the National Museum of History of Albania, Comics Art Museum Brussels, Leskovac Cultural Centre and the Art Hall of the Veles City Museum, the exhibition ,,CAN for Balkans” has already been seen by over 100,000 visitors and has been appreciated by specialists, artists and the press in each of the countries where it has been presented.

“CAN for Balkans” exhibition was realized by a consortium of partners from Romania, Belgium Nort Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, lead by the Brașov County Museum of History Brașov, in the framework of the project ,,CAN for Balkans – Comics Alliance Networking”, co-funded by the European Commission, through the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in Brussels, in the framework of the Creative Europe funding programme, call Strengthening cultural cooperation with and the competitiveness of cultural and creative industries in the Western Balkans (EACEA 39/2019).

The exhibition presented in Bucharest adds a new perspective on the subject, that resulting from the books in the collections of the National Library of Romania, thus offering those interested a more comprehensive picture of the subject.