The Cultural Centre of Belgrade and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade (IFDT), invite artists to submit video works for an exhibition dedicated to medical deserts in Serbia. The exhibition is part of the research project WARM (Women’s Access to Reproductive Care in Medically Underserved Areas) and will be presented at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade’s Podroom Gallery from 22 October to 22 November 2026..
Preference will be given to video works that can enter into dialogue with experiences of living and receiving healthcare in medical deserts. Works may engage with some of the issues arising from unequal and limited access to healthcare, including waiting, the cost of “free” healthcare, dignity in the doctor’s office, paperwork and practice, women’s experiences, and multiple forms of exclusion.
What Are Medical Deserts?
Medical deserts are areas in which residents do not have adequate access to healthcare. Their existence is shaped by a range of infrastructural, institutional, and economic barriers: limited opening hours of local health clinics, a lack of pharmacies, long distances to healthcare facilities, inadequate public transport, shortages of doctors and medical staff, long waiting times, and high travel costs.
About the Exhibition
The research team, who are also the authors of the exhibition, spoke with women from the North Banat and Zaječar districts about what it means to access healthcare when it is far away, difficult to reach, or organised in ways that require considerable time, money, and resourcefulness. The women spoke about visits to gynaecologists, pregnancy care and childbirth, experiences of infertility and illness, as well as the costs, waiting, travel, and their own experiences of healthcare institutions.
The exhibition incorporates documentation from these conversations and brings the research findings into the gallery space, with the aim of making everyday experiences of healthcare inequality visible and tangible. Conceived as an encounter between ethnographic research and socially engaged artistic practice, the exhibition seeks to bring phenomena such as medical deserts closer to a wider public and to open up a conversation about what accessible healthcare actually means.
How to Apply
The call is open for existing works until 5 October. The selection will be made by the exhibition team, comprising representatives of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, and the Cultural Centre of Belgrade.
Applications should include a link to the video work, a description of the work and its concept (up to 200 words), a short biography, and technical specifications.
Applications should be submitted by email to: podroom@kcb.rs
The exhibition is organised jointly by the Cultural Centre of Belgrade and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.