MASTERPIECES VI

The Masterpieces project by the U10 collective has been providing a gateway to the youngest generation of artists since 2019, guiding them towards further exhibition experience while also generating awareness of a unified contemporary scene where artists, curators, and institutions operate in interdependent relationships. Precisely because of that, collaboration and open communication are imperative for the success of the project. Selected master’s students from all departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the U10 Art Space through organizing the exhibition, and the collective remains connected to the current production of young artists. In this way, Masterpieces functions as a platform for connecting stakeholders in the art scene and for establishing future collaborations.

This year’s sixth consecutive edition proves that the experience of participating in the Masterpieces project has become a distinctive rite of passage. The generation of artists who passed their first academic year in the conditions of the Covid pandemic brings a blend of influences from standard formal education and approaches developed during the artist’s imposed inner dialogue with themselves. Now, through the intersubjective experience of presenting their artworks and conceptualizing a group exhibition, they affirm the results of their ongoing work. Seventeen presented master’s students conduct artistic research on various visual and thematic levels. Among their distinctive authorial approaches, questions regarding the relationship between personal perception and the collective, as well as a critical approach to their chosen artistic media, frequently emerge. Their critical stance extends beyond the realm of visual art and questions the possibilities of artistic education itself. Through collaboration between students and the collective, the project becomes an experiment with de-hierarchized models of artistic education. On one hand, the U10 collective functions as a model of artistic self-organization. On the other, and more significantly, collaboration among master’s students and members of the collective allows each participant in the project to act as Jacques Rancière’s ignorant schoolmaster, an individual who, through unforced communication, fosters the desire for knowledge in their colleagues.