Sara Oklobdzija / Sandra Raes (°Belgrade, 1980) is a Brussels-based artist-pro­du­cer. She recei­ved uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­ti­on in both Serbia and Belgium and holds mas­ters degrees in Philosophy (University of Belgrade), Audiovisual Arts (Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade) and Film and Visual Culture (University of Antwerp). Her research in the fields of art and cul­tu­re con­ti­nuous­ly ques­ti­ons the intri­ca­te web of rela­ti­ons bet­ween migra­ti­on, com­mu­ni­ty (re)building, equa­li­ty and collectiveness. 

Sara is an arti­vist or soci­al­ly enga­ged artist with her own spe­cu­la­ti­ve docu­men­ta­ry prac­ti­ce. Through her research, she rai­ses sharp ques­ti­ons around tem­po­ra­li­ty, iden­ti­ty, migra­ti­on and col­lec­ti­ve res­pon­si­bi­li­ty. Together with co-thin­kers, artists and acti­vists, she foun­ded INFUZIJA, a ​‘Center for Cultural Decentralisation of Serbia’, in 2003. In the post-com­mu­nist, post-war area affec­ted by eco­no­mic and cul­tu­ral sanc­ti­ons, INFUZIJA focu­sed on disin­te­gra­ti­on and decen­tra­li­sa­ti­on. The cen­ter pro­du­ced numerous influ­en­ti­al pro­jects, inclu­ding Theater-Shelter – a series of a hund­red pop-up per­for­man­ces in rural sou­t­hern Serbia – and HOSTEL Yellowbed – a legal youth hos­tel for EU back­pac­kers con­tai­ning an ​‘illegal’ or ​‘secret’ arts cen­ter for inter­na­ti­o­nal exchan­ge and peer education. 

Since 2012 Sara is based in Belgium, whe­re she con­ti­nues to work around iden­ti­ty, rea­li­ty and (mis)representation. She incre­a­sin­gly com­bi­nes her prac­ti­ce as an artist and pro­gram­mer (Sara Oklobdzija) with her work as a pro­du­cer (Sandra Raes). In 2019 she joi­ned ROBIN as gene­ral mana­ger. In 2020 she foun­ded KOROW — a ​‘Center for Cultural Decontamination, Social Diagnostics and Social Correction’. Sara is cur­rent­ly wor­king on a PhD with the wor­king tit­le The School of Two-sides Integration or How to Build a Functional Host Society, affi­li­a­ted with RITCS and VUB.