A ROOM WITH A VIEW #1
Opening, Thursday, December, 10
A ROOM WITH A VIEW #2
Opening, Monday, December, 28
Artists: RADOŠ ANTONIJEVIĆ and NENAD MALEŠEVIĆ/ BOJAN BEM
DEJANA VUČIĆEVIĆ/GABRIEL GLID/VESNA GOLUBOVIĆ
MARIJA DRAGOJLOVIĆ/IVANA IVKOVIĆ/LJILJANA JARIĆ
NEMANJA LAĐIĆ/GORANKA MATIĆ/IVANA POPOV
JELICA RADOVANOVIĆ and DEJAN ANĐELKOVIĆ/MILICA RUŽIČIĆ
IVAN ŠULETIĆ
Curated by: Svetlana Petrović and Gordana Dobrić
Cultural Centre of Belgrade Art Gallery
10.12.2020 – 21.1.2021.
The exhibition A Room with a View presents works by several authors who live and create in Belgrade and is a selection of photographs and video works that can be understood as a collection of comments on contemporary Belgrade, visual notes on its private and public being.
Although the exhibition’s title itself implies an intimate observation and elevated view of the observer on the public space from their private corner, it can be understood metaphorically as a broader framework that leaves space for individual perception of the city, but also of the room as a spatial determinant that, in a figurative sense, can have a much broader and deeper context. It is in this extended context contemplating the view of the city from several different angles that one can observe the constellation of diverse works presented in this exhibition. Fourteen different views, i.e., excerpts from visual diaries, indicate disparate art practices and subjective perceptions of one view, one topic and one city. The selection of works and authors of different generations – from intimate, internal perceptions and chronicle notes to entirely conceptual approaches – dissects, deepens and examines the boundaries of the topic itself.
Although, at first glance, one would expect a special sight from a room with a view, what is common to almost all the works is that they deviate from the representative image of the city and accentuate seemingly ordinary and universal scenes, which generally do not clearly refer to the city in which they are located. In this regard, each room offers several different views, and the selectivity of scenes and the choice of a particular angle of view speak primarily about the inner view, i.e., the concept of reality. Using modern media, technically capable of capturing immediate moments and spontaneous scenes, each of the authors responded to the topic with their own interpretation of a room with a view, which does not necessarily imply a view on the public, or a view directly from the room.
What is symptomatic of most of the works presented in this exhibition is the presence of absence, i.e., the absence of people from most of the captured views, since traces of their existence and action can only be sensed through certain scenes. Therefore, the question may arise of how much a city without people says about the city itself, and how much about a view that (un)consciously avoids other people. How does a view of the environment, society, home, or city become a terrain where the public and the private intertwine, and a room with a view a symbolic space for loading different projections and individual poetics? These are just some of the questions raised by this exhibition.
Although they are sometimes post-apocalyptic, at times melancholic, quiet and intimate, or almost abstract and desolate scenes, with a look full of anticipation often focused on the sky over Belgrade, these works bring to the surface several faces of this city and a variant of its contemporary visual chronicle. (from the Marijana Vaščić’s catalogue text)
We invite you to join the program of the exhibition A Room With a View by posting a photo of the view from your window on your Instagram or Facebook profile with the hashtag #aroomwithaviewccb. The photos posted by December 10, with the appropriate hashtag, will be shown on the TV screen in Belgrade Window Souvenir Shop during the exhibition.
A Room with a View – Marijana Vascic
Visual Essays on Belgrade Today – Gordana Dobric
