The spring season in Belgrade has welcomed a number of interesting events. We have selected our top 5 that should be appealing to our readers. Let’s kick off with:
- ART EXHIBITION: Mrdjan Bajic: Unreliable Narrator at MoCAB
The exhibition “Unreliable Narrator” presents the decades-long creative work of Mrdjan Bajic, one of the most prominent actors in the contemporary art scene in Serbia. Displayed on all five levels as well as in the immediate surroundings of the Museum, the exhibition is structured through chronological and thematic units (the 1980s vs 1990s, Yugomuzej, Unreliable Stories) that follow all stages of the development of Bajic’s sculptural work and the evolution of his distinctive artistic poetics, approach, and expression in the medium of sculpture. The exhibition includes the artist’s now emblematic works and projects that have defined artistic events in our country, in the region, and internationally for the last four decades, including a new interpretation of the Yugomuzej project, as well as the work specially made for the current exhibition.
After Bajic’s initial research into the media potential of sculpture and of the relationship between idea-form-space during the 1980s, there followed a period of the author’s intensive study of the three-dimensionality of form and the expressive possibilities of materials, in which he began to introduce the architectural-constructive methodology, later defined by the term sculptotecture (Lidija Merenik), which until today remains crucial in the interpretations of his work and the procedures of further complexifying and elaborating sculptural units that often included multimedia expressions.
In addition to sculptural creations which are excellent examples of sculpture in an expanded field, the exhibition also includes an important and inseparable drawing oeuvre for Bajic as a part of the research processes and everyday thought practice. For Bajic, a drawing or often a drawing-collage are conceptual starting points in testing final sculptural forms, an inexhaustible source of templates and sketches for completed or never realized works intended for exhibition and public spaces.
The exhibition units also provide insights into a wide range of subjects that the artist has dealt with, into perceptive and subtle critical reflections of the socio-historical, political, cultural contexts and narratives of local regions, firstly initiated by the immediate turbulent events in the last decade of the 20th century and then, by global civilizational phenomena that characterized his subject interests in the last decade and a half.
The individual exhibition segments dedicated to the collaborations with other artists, such as the British artist Richard Deacon, as well as the artist’s long-term involvement as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts and the education of generations of young artists, contribute significantly to the further understanding of Mrdjan Bajic’s oeuvre.
In cooperation with the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, the Faculty of Fine Arts, and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, art history students created a database of artists who studied under Professor Bajic and, in this way, created a kind of overview of the contemporary sculpture scene in Serbia in the last thirty years. As part of the exhibition, thematic guided tours, talks, and lectures are planned, at which local and foreign art historians, curators, and theorists will talk about the various aspects of Bajic’s artistic activity, but also about issues related to contemporary sculptural practices.
The promotion of the accompanying catalog of the exhibition with texts by Professor Lidija Merenik (Ph.D.), Professor Antonello Tolve (Ph.D.), and curators Zaklina Ratkovic and Miroslav Karic will be held on October 15, 2022.
Curatorial team: Miroslav Karic, Aleksandra Mircic and Zaklina Ratkovic
Time: 24.09.2022–23.01.2023.
Location: Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade,
Ušće 10
- MUSIC GIG: Brand New Heavies in BITEFARTCAFE
On October 20 and 21, Brand New Heavies will play at the BITEF ART CAFE club within the Musicology concert series.
Musicology Sessions aim to foster an intimate enjoyment of music and a close relationship with the performers. The series’ concept is simple – carefully selected performers of jazz, funk, soul, R’n’B, or other music genres, emphasizing quality in each segment. A lot of attention is paid to the selection of the concert space, sound system, ventilation, etc.
You can check the timeline and buy tickets through the links below.
Links:
https://tickets.rs/tour/the_brand_new_heavies_463
- MUSIC FESTIVAL: 38th Belgrade Jazz Festival
From October 26 to 30, 2022 – Belgrade Youth Center and MTS Hall will host Belgrade Jazz Festival
From October 26 to 30, 2022, Dom omladine Belgrade presents the 38th Belgrade Jazz Festival, under the slogan “JAZZBEATS”.
Having celebrated 50 years since its establishment and successfully overcoming two difficult pandemic years, without interrupting the series of festival editions in 2020 and 2021, the Belgrade Jazz Festival continues to present the best of contemporary jazz from all continents in its full glory. Under the slogan “JAZZBEATS”, in its 38th edition, it will host artists who push the boundaries of jazz and bring genre diversity, bringing new excitement to this musical direction. Like a heartbeat, the rhythms of this music continue despite everything, just like the Belgrade Jazz Festival – the oldest and most internationally recognized Serbian jazz festival.
Tickets are available here.
More info is available here.
- PARTY: Music Reactions Event Presents Boston 168
The beloved Italian duo, Boston 168, is coming back to the iconic techno club Drugstore in Belgrade. The event will happen on October 21, 2022. Find the FB event here.
BOSTON 168 ◾Turin duo Boston 168 stands as one of the brightest, most burning examples of Italy’s recent renaissance of acid techno. True masters of restraint, they harness the haunting, mercurial side of the 303, deploying its iconic gliding tones to a hypnotic effect. Tracks like “Acid Morning” and “Oblivion and Vapor” rush with elegant assurance, slowly boiling over without ever showing their hand. As a live act, they’ve quickly become one of the most definitive in modern club music, maintaining a touring schedule that could only be described as rigorous. Boston 168 is seen as of cathartic mood, moving from strength to strength.
◾️ RAR, Rèdacs, Vrag ◾️ representing homegrown talent in the best way and in full capacity.
Tickets:
- ART EXHIBITION: Humans and Other Animals by Kiki Smith
American artist Kiki Smith is presenting a retrospective “Humans and other animals” in the DOTS gallery in Belgrade.
The exhibition “Kiki Smith: Humans and Other Animals” presents works of art created during the multi-decade creative career of this significant artist: from the 1990s, when the artist mainly dealt with the subject of the human body in various aspects, through works from the 2000s, in which she focuses on animals, fables and nature, concluding with the most recent works from 2022. The installation, in collaboration with the artist, was designed as a compact unit with four tapestries, fourteen sculptures, and twenty graphics and drawings and “functions as a promenade that reminds visitors of their presence in the world”.
The exhibition is on display until October 29.
Location: Bulevar Vojvode Bojovic 4, 11000, Belgrade
Website: https://dotsgallery.org/
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