First Friday Opening: Balkan Echoes by Martin Koenig
Vashon Center For The Arts
October 3: 5-8pm
Show runs: October 3 - November 2

Balkan Echoes is a powerful solo exhibition of photographs by Martin Koenig, presenting an extraordinary visual archive of Balkan village life during a time of profound transformation. Between 1962 and 1987, with early encouragement from cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, Koenig set out to learn folk dances and instead became a devoted documentarian of disappearing traditions. Over 25 years and nearly a dozen trips across Southeastern Europe—including Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece—he captured everyday life, rituals, music, and dance in pre-industrial rural communities. These poignant images reflect not only a bygone era, but the enduring soul of a culture rooted in shared rhythms and resilience. The exhibition also features portraits of Balkan American immigrants preserving these traditions in the U.S., offering a heartfelt chronicle of cultural survival, identity, and beauty amid displacement and change—a bridge between past and present, homeland and diaspora.

Gallery hours: Wed - Sunday 12-5pm