When artist Irena Paskali created a billboard poster questioning why many Macedonians had chosen to pay twice for utilities rather than object to being double-billed, she didn’t quite get the reaction she expected.

Her billboard was to have been included in the 2014 exhibition Billboard Art 2: Procrastination organised by the Institute for Culture and Art (Ars Acta) and held in the streets of the capital Skopje.

To Paskali’s surprise, however, the exhibition organisers couldn’t find a Macedonian printing house willing to print the billboard, which she had entitled: Double for Every Family – for the Benefit of Macedonia.

“This case was an indicator that if the art piece does not support government policy there is a chance it will be censored. Specifically, my work was banned from this exhibition, because one of the companies didn’t want to print it fearing that they would be fined by the authorities, or enter into conflict with them,” she says.