Curator: Dunja Petković

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December 18th – 28th

The exhibition Don’t stare so romantically by Dunja Petković was created as a result of the curatorial workshop Izložbotvornica (Exhibition Factory) led by Stevan Vuković and Tijana Savatić, and represents a cycle of recorded video dialogues between artists and curators.

Taking into account the structure of the relationship between an artist and a curator during a realization of an exhibition, the author decided to methodologically examine the dilemmas that emerge from this process by asking questions that are current in the local art scene. The questions are not only about the participants and their curatorial or artistic oeuvre; but also relate to the problem of constructing a content that corresponds to the original issue the author has encountered: how to collaborate with an artist as a curator? Being insecure about her own assessment and knowledge, in her role of a student of art history, Dunja Petković created a concept that was appropriate for the research conducted prior to the realization. Meetings with potential participants and the lessons learned from them, resulted in the format of the recorded video dialogues, without moderation and specific guidance, that allows an apparent freedom of expression, giving this work a performative character.

Participants were selected according to the determinants of their own professional engagement so far, so that they could produce one piece of a meaningful, honest and concrete content. The focus was on diversity when selecting participants, and the factor of merging them into couples according to their past curatorial and artistic work. The concept was implemented by the factor of surprise: before the filming, the participants were not familiar with whom they will be having discussion and on what topic, or what issues they will cover. The aim of this approach was to avoid a starting position where both parties would be prepared and aware of the other interviewee’s position, but also to notice the views of both the curator and the artist who, through talking about current problems in the domestic art scene, come to the answers that are not necessarily synchronized.

Participants: (curators) Branislav Dimitrijević, Miroslav Karić, Dušan Savić, Teodora Jeremić, Katarina Kostadinović, Darko Vukić and (artists) Ivan Šuletić, Iva Kuzmanović, Slobodan Stošić, Luka Cvetković, Lazar Njegomirović and Anastasija Pavić.

Camera: Jelena Todorović
Editing: Luka Miljuš

Thanks to Pavle Pavlović, Sanja Djuričić, Dušan Kovačević and Magacin Cultural Center.

Photo: Jelena Todorović