Abramović created "Balkan Baroque" as a response to the war in Bosnia. She remembers other artists reacting immediately, creating work and protesting about the effects and horrors of the war. Abramović could not bring herself to create work on the matter so soon, as it was too close to home for her. Eventually, Abramović returned to Belgrade, where she interviewed her mother, father, and a rat-catcher. She then incorporated these interviews into her piece, as well as clips of the hands of her father, her father holding a pistol and her mother showing empty hands then crossed hands. Abramović is dressed as a doctor recounting the story of the rat-catcher. While this is happening, Abramović sits among a large pile of bones and tries to wash them.