How can art create space for topics that societies often push to the margins? How can we speak about the legacy of conflict, inequality, and the experiences of those whose voices are too often unheard?
These questions were at the heart of Between Neighbours: Crossing Voices, Crossing Borders, a BEYOND event held in Istanbul in early May. As a member of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts, Hartefakt joined artists, cultural practitioners, and organisations committed to fostering social change through culture and the arts.
As part of the programme, Milana Vojnović presented Heartefact’s approach to socially engaged art, which has been at the heart of the organisation’s work since its founding more than 15 years ago. Through theatre productions, artist support programmes, and various formats of public dialogue, Heartefact creates space for conversations around issues that often provoke discomfort or remain outside dominant narratives — from the wars of the 1990s and dealing with the past to the position of marginalised groups and the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Heartefact’s experience of working in times of crisis and social polarisation, together with its ongoing search for creative ways to approach complex and sensitive issues through art, sparked a wider exchange with organisations facing similar challenges in their own contexts. The conversation soon moved beyond artistic practice itself, focusing on how to encourage dialogue and exchange between communities shaped by histories of conflict, how to create opportunities for meaningful connections across borders, and how to bring together people from different backgrounds — artists, cultural workers, journalists, researchers, and others eager to connect with communities across the region. Participants also explored how to support new voices and emerging generations at a time when the space for independent culture, critical thinking, and open exchange continues to shrink, and how stronger intergenerational collaboration can help sustain these efforts for the future.
An important part of the programme was dedicated to visits to cultural spaces in Türkiye that develop similar practices. Participants had the opportunity to explore Postane, DEPO, a cultural space run by Anadolu Kültür, as well as the 23,5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory, operated by the Hrant Dink Foundation. Each of these spaces connects culture, memory, participation, and social engagement in its own way, demonstrating how art can become a place for encounter and dialogue, even in complex social and political contexts.
For Heartefact, participating in the Istanbul gathering was an opportunity to share experiences shaped within a local context while learning from practices that demonstrate how the need for socially engaged art extends far beyond national borders.
The Istanbul gathering was one of six regional BEYOND Satellite events taking place across Europe in 2026 as part of the work of Culture Action Europe. From 13–16 May, Hartefakt will host the South-East Satellite event in Skopje, bringing together the Culture Action Europe initiative with the Forum of the Culture for Development programme, implemented by Hartefakt’s office in North Macedonia. In this way, the space for exchanging ideas, experiences, and collectively reflecting on the role of culture in society continues to grow across Southeast Europe.
