Brief description:

 

As one of the largest and longest-standing migrant communities in Vienna, people from the former Yugoslavia have played a significant role in shaping the city’s musical and cultural life. Scholars have long examined how “Balkan difference” – the region’s distinctive blend of sounds, styles, and identities – manifests in Austrian musical contexts. Yet less attention has been paid to how Balkan popular music shapes the lives of those who experience multiple forms of marginalization, particularly along lines of gender and sexuality.

This project focuses on two such groups within Vienna’s ex-Yugoslav music scene: women musicians working across different Balkan genres, and queer artists and collectivities associated with club events such as BallCanCan and Queer Yugo Pop Parties. By bringing these groups into view, the project explores how music becomes a space in which questions of identity, belonging, and difference are negotiated, not only in relation to Austrian society, but also within their own communities.

At its core, the project asks how music participates in the experience of what anthropologist James Diego Vigil has called “multiple marginality.” What kinds of musical practices emerge in these contexts? How do they reflect or challenge experiences of exclusion, power, and self-expression? And how do they engage with broader political discourses on migration and national identity?

To address these questions, the project brings together perspectives from postcolonial thought (in particular, Balkanism), feminist and queer theory, and cultural studies. It combines ethnographic fieldwork – such as observing musical practices and conducting interviews – with music and discourse analysis, as well as collaboration with artists through filmmaking and creative projects.

In doing so, the project makes three main contributions. First, it sheds light on the understudied intersections of music, migration, gender, and sexuality within and beyond Vienna’s ex-Yugoslav community. Second, it refines the concept of multiple marginality for the study of music and cultural practices. Third, it expands methodological approaches in the field by integrating artistic and collaborative forms of inquiry into ethnographic research.

 

Project lead: Jelena Gligorijević, Adriana Sabo