In 2003 Serbia emerged from 12 years of bloody war that broke apart the communist former Yugoslavia. Its ousted leader, Slobodan Milosevic, had been handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Indicted over its particular responsibility for the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Serbia was waking up from its nationalistic nightmare. It envisaged a new future in Europe but still found it difficult to face up to its recent past.

At that time the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade came up with the bold initiative to organise a press cartoon exhibition on the wars in Yugoslavia. In place of words that injure and divide, it sought to achieve an exchange of views in the form of drawings, and to call for an examination of the country's recent history – without appearing to do so.

Held in a gallery in central Belgrade, the exhibition bringing together Corax, a leading Serbian caricaturist and Milosevic opponent, and Patrick Chappatte, a Swiss cartoonist working for the international press, attracted 1,000 visitors daily. A round-table discussion held in the gallery was an opportunity for informative and lively debate.

This simple idea, to use cartoon drawing to facilitate discussion in a conflict setting, was to form the basis of all the "Crossed Pens" projects.