Sound / Extraction / Memory

About the project

✦·TEREN_SЛОЈЕVИ⁰⁰¹·Δ26: Sound / Extraction / Memory is the first edition of a multi-year programme at Zvjezdane Staze in Mijakovići, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which interrogates the political economy of the present and its historical accumulations through sound as material and method.

Mijakovići, a remote mountain village in Bosnia and Herzegovina, lies opposite the ruins of Bobovac, the medieval royal seat of Bosnia, and is the working ground of the residency. A vernacular knowledge predates the residency and continues alongside it; the work takes place within this longer continuity. The municipality of Vareš, of which Mijakovići is part, is itself layered ground: the early Slavic presence, the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Yugoslav periods, the industrial accumulation and its destruction in the 1990s, and the interregnum administered in policy discourse as “transition” overlap there. The most recent layer is an extractive corporate operation drawing silver, lead, and zinc from the ground thirty kilometres away, in the same watershed that feeds tens of thousands of households downstream.

Three registers organise the edition: Sound as material and method, Extraction as the political economy that shapes the present, Memory as the long history still acting on it. The work moves within the traditions of sonic ecology and deep listening without committing to a single method, holding the human, the non-human, and the technological on equal ground.

The resulting works are presented across the 2026/2027 season in Vareš, Vienna, and Sarajevo, in connection with Zvučne Staze, a sound walk near Bobovac launching in June 2026.

Who can apply

The call is open to artists working with sound: composers, sound artists, musicians, performers, artistic researchers, visual artists. Transdisciplinary practices that engage site-responsive sonic work, or extended modes of sonic inquiry, are welcome.

Eligibility

• 18 years or older
• Legal residence in a Creative Europe country other than Bosnia and Herzegovina, regardless of nationality
• Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina with legal residence abroad in a Creative Europe country are eligible

Creative Europe countries: the 27 EU Member States, plus Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Ukraine. OCTs and ORs of the EU are also eligible. Full list at culture.ec.europa.eu/culture-moves-europe.

Residency

Funding

• Subsistence allowance
  1,860 €
• Travel allowance Under 5,000 km / 5,000 km or more
  400 € / 800 €
• Accommodation on site
  Included
• Green mobility top-up 600 km or more
  400 €
• Family top-up Per child under 18 · accompaniment possible
  200 €
• Visa top-up
  120 €

Detailed funding conditions at culture.ec.europa.eu/culture-moves-europe/call-for-residency-hosts.

Working conditions

• Private room with desk, lamp, wardrobe, and bookshelf
• Two music studios with full recording chain, two pianos (Petrof acoustic, Yamaha Clavinova digital), storage for residents' own instruments
• Working spaces, multilingual library, garden of 1,400 m²
• Field recording equipment, video and light setup
• Public platforms: Open Talks with invited guests, ZS Concert Series

Practice

Zvjezdane Staze takes a professional and attentive practice as its premise. The format is built on shared living and working with two other artists in a small village; the work finds its form there.

Application

Applications are submitted through the form at zvjezdanestaze.ba/apply/form. The following documents are required:

1. CV / short biography · maximum 1 page
2. Portfolio · links or PDF of representative work (scores, audio, video, documentation, project pages)
3. Letter of motivation · maximum 800 words, on why Zvjezdane Staze and what you intend to bring
4. Project proposal · maximum 1,500 words, on concept, working methodology, and expected outcomes within the framework of Sound / Extraction / Memory

All documents in English, German, or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.

Selection

Applications are reviewed by Zvjezdane Staze. Selection criteria are artistic quality and the strength of the proposal in relation to the concept of the edition. Geographic, disciplinary, and gender diversity is also considered.

By 23 May 2026, all applicants will receive a response.

Learn more

If this is your first encounter with Zvjezdane Staze, three pages give the wider context for this call:

Contact