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Aperto gallery, Montpellier, France
December 1st – 17th 2017

Exhibitors: Lidija Delić, Nina Ivanović, Sava Knežević, Isidora Krstić, Iva Kuzmanović, Nemanja Nikolić and Marija Šević
Curator: Milan Tutunović

The project “… on porosity” revolves around an international exchange between actors in the field of contemporary art from Montpellier in France and Belgrade in Serbia. These events aim to bring together different spheres of the contemporary art field, whether non-profit or institutional. This project takes form through exhibitions and lectures in Belgrade and Montpellier.

A first series of exhibitions (… on porosity I and II) took place in Belgrade in November 2016 at U10 Art Space and Podroom gallery. During this first phase, twenty-four artists, teachers and art students from Montpellier and the Occitanie region were invited to exhibit their works in the Belgrade galleries.

A second series of exhibitions was held in Montpellier in December 2017, at the Aperto gallery. Members of the U10 Art collective present a series of recent productions, for “… porosity III.” U10 Art Space was created in 2012 and is composed of seven artists who collectively run the gallery. U10 is particularly involved in supporting and promoting young artists through a program of exhibitions, meetings and conferences. “… Porosity III” is the continuation of the dialogue between the U10 and Aperto collectives and the curator Milan Tutunović. It is based on the notions of landscape(s) and living together. Unlike the Aperto collective, U10 members do not create collective works. They are focused on their individual artistic practices and the joint management of an Artist-run space. The project of the Aperto collective “Landscape”, presented at the exhibition ” … on porosity I” at the U10 gallery in Belgrade, is a case study of the reflection of living/creating together. It is the starting point of the dialogue that resonates with the individual practices of U10 artists. Reflect on a Landscape? But how? This interrogation invites multiple possibilities: mental perspectives, desire for adventures, explorations and critical reflections. The landscape is both a factual and tangible space, and sometimes it is a purely mental surface, or a fantasy of some sort. Through various media: drawing, painting, video and installation, the artists of U10 offer a look at the porous world that is ours.

The artistic director of the Cluster-101 association and curator, Milan Tutunović is the initiator of these events. For this project, he propounds a reflection on the concept of porosity as a driving idea. As a metaphor for dialogue and artistic exchanges between Belgrade and Montpellier, it resonates as a phenomenon linked to passages and fluctuations. Previously mentioned reflection is developed from the works of Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. This multifaceted notion can be activated in a variety of domains and perspectives. This project is built through the reciprocity amidts the structures, galleries and other venues, thus allowing to develop cross-proposals with singular and diversified approaches. The crossings between associations, institutions or art schools, questions contemporary artistic practices in these two countries. This is not a question of comparison between the two countries, but an invitation to dialogue and exchange.

“The reflection carried out in this text is a sort of arboreal extension of the thoughts of Deleuze/Guattari and Benjamin about the notion of porosity. It is not a question of according these two approaches, but rather of establishing mutual oppositions. Indeed, these thinkers conceive the notion of porosity in different dimensions. For Deleuze/Guattari, porosity is a matter of a surface; flat as the skin, two-dimensional. For Benjamin, it is like the Napolitanian volcanic rock, three-dimensional, solid, but pierced with holes and spongy. For Deleuze/Guattari, the pore is at the origin of the fraction of the opposites, whereas Benjamin sees the complementarity there of the opposites.”
Excerpt from the text “… on porosity” by Milan Tutunović.

The project “… on porosity” continues at ESBAMA-MoCo’s Pré Carré Gallery, where ten artists, teachers and art students from Belgrade and Novi Sad are invited to present their works as part of the exhibition “… on porosity IV”.

Photo: N. Ivanović