Breda Beban was born in Serbia and raised in Macedonia and Croatia. Her work exhibits a restless tension between Balkan and British cultural identities, and emotionally charges the spaces it is shown in. Her work is about what is strongly felt on the peripheries of bigger stories about geography and politics.

In 2002 Film and Video Umbrella commissioned Beban for the work ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’. This two-screen projection work furthered the artist’s exploration of video and photography as devices to reflect deeply personal stories.

Beban’s work has been widely exhibited, with solo presentations at Whitechapel Art Gallery and Camden Art Centre, London; Site Gallery, Sheffield; and National Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid. She has contributed to numerous group exhibitions, including at Tate Britain and Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland. She was part of the touring exhibition British Art Show 6. In 2001 she was given the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts.