Dispatches from Serbia is a series of travel posters designed by Jahn & Treister that deploys humor and facts to raise questions about the Serbian diaspora.

Current estimates about the Serbian diaspora estimate that one out of ten people born in Serbia work abroad as guestworkers in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and elsewhere. A disproportionate percentage of these originate from East Serbia (a region that has been historically economically disadvantaged), resulting in a socio-economic vacuum and anxiety about the region's future. Emblematic of this sentiment is the Serbian expression that they are always waiting. Further, many Serbs claim that everyone is always leaving, and no one returns. However, contrary to cultural expectations is a desire from expatriates to return to Serbia. For instance, According to recent polls, 79% of Serbians living abroad described themselves as “happy.” At the same time, and much to the surprise of many Serbs, 76% of these emigrants say they would like to return to Serbia.

Taking this dynamic as a starting point, Dispatches from Serbia is a series of travel posters designed by Marisa Jahn & Noa Treister that uses the iconography of travel posters and humor to present Kucevo, a town in East Serbia, as a destination. Exhibited in the bus station in Kucevo (essentially a place where people wait), the posters ask the viewer to question what it would take to develop a sustainable Kucevo.

The double meaning within the project's title -- Dispatches from Serbia – refers to both the migration of Serbs to other European locales and what Treister and Jahn discovered as the expressed desire to establish communication (or “dispatches”) with their extended emigrant community.
Marisa Jahn

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DISPATCHES FROM SOUTHEAST SERBIA
by Marisa Jahn & Noa Treister
2007
media: inkjet prints

venue: the bus stop in Kucevo, Serbia (hosted by ArtLink Serbia)