Blog post written by Yasmine Bouagga, traveling around the Balkans and attending the Bienniale.

There is so much to see in Skopje : here are some art work I enjoyed among the many great works exhibited in the city's museums.

• Searching for the connections of the divided city by Maria Costi Castrillo, from Cyprus. From the experience of the divided city (Nicosia, partly Greek, partly Turkish) the artist starts a search for "stitches" to reconnect parts of the urban space. This work exhibited in Skopje Museum echoes Maria Christofides' video in the Stanica gallery: a boy jumping across the city, "mapping gateway anew". Both artists work on border, and how to cross them - a major theme for this bienniale about intercultural dialogue.
• the photo series Riverintoriver for the same reason: its attempt at connecting rivers, blurring borders, through collage of maps and photographies (Contemporary Art Museum, Elisabetta Alazraki)
• Olk Folks by Fedra Santos, a Portuguese photographer who presents a photo narrative of a magic land of happy elderly people living in the woods.
• Manuel for reading the word voda by the Serbian artist Darija Medic, for its humor and interactive dimension, transforming the word (voda, "water" in serbian) into a magic phrase you repeat over and over, like some kind of yogic incantation.
• also the series Mephisto-me (in Stanica Museum), a quest through art, literature and photography that produced an impressive book of lithographies.

I also enjoyed the exhibition venues, especially Cifte Amam, an old Turkish bath hosting large-size paintings for the Biennale.