ECHO II is the continuation of the ECHO pilot project implemented in 2018-19 exploring Dark Cultural Heritage of the Balkans and within the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. ECHO II emanates from a deeper need to support and realize the concept of the EU motto “united in diversity.” In particular, traditions constitute parts of local identities that are defined by the use, re-use, change, and transformation of traditions in the course of community life. These traditions shape and are shaped by the group and significantly determine their culture. The existence of significant traditions is a common element among European people. Re-exploring and revisiting traditions through a new lens can benefit communities and mobilise them in order to reconsider existing perceptions of static traditions that need to be protected and to reintroduce these traditions in their group life. ECHO II focuses on Traditions in Transition. This is an alternative viewpoint to the established concept that tradition is fixed and in need of protection and as such we have to preserve it as an object of musealisation.

Alternatively, ECHO II sustains that in order to keep alive local traditions that are important for the ingroups, it is more fruitful to understand and accept their changing, dynamic character according to the needs of the communities.

We perceive local traditions as dynamic and evolving processes that shape and are shaped by the lives of local communities. This means that we recognize traditions as constitutive elements of cultural identities, but we don’t consider them "objects" that need to remain unaltered and protected via musealisation. In this light, we take a critical stance towards established but unfruitful perspectives that restrict innovation and creativity, and we hope ECHO II to be an opportunity for artists to highlight and renew local traditions through contemporary artistic creation, and for the local communities to self-reflect, in turn allowing them to reconceptualize and revitalize their own traditions within the framework of European cultural heritage.

ECHO II aims at tightening and promoting the link between artistic creation and local traditions, enabling contemporary artistic creation based on cultural elements from different European communities.

Through various digital strategies we hope to promote the circulation of the artworks, enabling access to new audiences and improving capacity building for cultural professionals.

The collection of ECHO II artworks produced in each residency and the digital transformation of this collection is seen as the added value of ECHO II compared to ECHO.