Belgrade Notes

2009

Original drawn on kips panels, donated to private collection. Reproduced on paper 70 x 100 cm

Download bigger size: link

In 2009 I was in Belgrade on a two-month artist’s residency. I spent this time finding out about the art scene of Belgrade as it presented itself through the stories told to me by the people I met here. The result is a drawing depicting the impressions I formed of the scene as an outsider without much previous knowledge. It also shows many of the most acute concerns of the scene at the time and the different interrelations between its members, both professional and personal. As the information was collected in informal situations, it is often very subjective and sometimes incorrect. Some misunderstandings on my part are also possible.

My research focuses mainly on the contemporary visual arts scene, where I myself am active. However, the art scene is only one micro-community; similar research could be conducted in other communities as well. Moreover, an art scene cannot be clearly delimited, as it overlaps with other disciplines. Not all the members of the Belgrade art scene are represented in this drawing, but only those whom I was told about or met during my residency.

I have previously done similar research in Istanbul (Weekend – Istanbul Map, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, 2005), Zagreb (Zagreb Notes, Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery, 2006) and Ljubljana (installation Ljubljana Notes in Kapelica Gallery 2009, and poster Ljubljana Notes as part of the exhibition ’Museum in the Streets’ by Moderna Galerija). Visually, the drawings resemble one another, but their content varies greatly, since the art scenes function in different ways and have different kinds of dynamics and positions of power.

Through reproducing all the complaints, interpretations, gossips and suspicions, the series of works are describing a phenomenon of the existence of such a gossips-driven discourse in these contemporary art scenes, which has a major impact on the professional productions coming to the public view from these scenes.