Populated by a multiethnic, multi-religious and multilingual mixture of citizens, the peninsula known as the Balkans looks back upon a fairly complex history, powered and inspired by the magnificent, border-defying ecosystem and infrastructure that is the Danube.

The "OCTO_HASI BALKAN PICNIC" portrays the area as a cultural sphere that is tied together by the majestic river regardless of national diffe-rences. From the Balkans comes "OCTO_HASI" the mysterious hybrid rabbit on its mission to spark up communication around the world.


For people in Japan, the Balkans are a "virtual" place of sorts, and even though we still remember vividly the news reports of the conflicts in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, these were mainly brought to us via mass-media and without providing much directly accessible information. The flying Balkan picnic that lands in Tokyo with a basketful of superb fantasy will take visitors to a land somewhere between dream and reality – though derived from the latter – where anyone is welcome, and where imagination is enough to erase national borders and other limitations from the future map of the world and its inhabitants. Playing elemental roles here are the aspects of mobility, transmission of information, and as a result, possible transformation of the state of things.

Mobility, transmission and transformation… An advocate of “Eurasia”, Joseph Beuys suggested

a spiritual presence in the form of a rabbit that travels  across borders and ideologies in order to connect Europe and Asia, and it is needless to mention that OCTO_HASI is a 21st century variant of that very idea.


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Yukiko Shikata, curator, ICC Tokyo

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Artist/ curators: Natalija Ribovic, Toru Fujita

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Special thanks to: Yusaku Imamura, Kayoko Iemura (Directors TWS Tokyo), Tetsuya Ozaki (ART IT), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), Michael Haider (Austrian Cultural Forum, Tokyo), Aleksandra Kovac (Embassy of Republic of Serbia), Embassy of Republic of Germany, Goethe Institut Japan, Sayako Mizuta, Natalija & Danilo Doroghazi, Janko Hornjak, OAK- Design, OAK- to all relations, Tokyo.

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© Photo by Natalija Ribovic

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