This May, in Nikšić, we gather to do something we have been working toward for two years: the founding of a international cooperative of visual artists, headquartered in Belgrade and built across the region. From 16 to 20 May 2026, the Shared Visions network travels to Montenegro for its founding assembly. Five days of working sessions on cooperativism, organising in culture, art market research, solidarity economies and digital tools to build more just and equitable art infrastructures.
Three sessions are specifically crafted for public:
→ 17 May, 10:00-12:00 at City Museum Nikšić — Mapping the Visual Arts Market. A presentation of comparative research across Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia, alongside reports from the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Ukraine.
→ 18 May, 20:00-21:30 at Black Metallurgy Institute Nikšić — Archiving the Ungovernable. A talk and convivium with Landscape Choreography and MACAO (Milan), drawing on more than a decade of self-organised cultural practice and fight for the commons.
→ 20 May, 14:00-17:00 at Black Metallurgy Institute Nikšić — Founding Assembly. The day we formally constitute the cooperative and celebrate! Come for one session, come for all of them. The questions we keep returning to, for whom are we producing art, whose is the art infrastructure, how do we sustain artistic work outside extractive logics — are not ones we can answer alone.
