Podroom Gallery, Republic Square 5/-1
29/06 – 06/08/2023
Approaching Zero
Katarina Petrović
(…) universe comes into being when a space is severed or taken apart. The skin of a living organism cuts off an outside from an inside. So does the circumference of a circle in a plane. By tracing the way we represent such a severance, we can begin to reconstruct, with an accuracy and coverage that appear almost uncanny, the basic forms underlying linguistic, mathematical, physical, and biological science. – Spencer Brown, Laws of Form, 1969
Approaching Zero represents a new chapter of the ongoing research on creative processes, from cognition and notion of Origin, to the relationship between language and physical phenomena. Focusing on the negative representation of what cannot otherwise be presented (zero, nothing, infinity), the exhibition in the form of a dichotomous video installation examines what negation may be in language and nature.
While considering unique natural and social phenomena, Katarina Petrović engages in an intriguing research process, establishing an immediate connection between organic and inorganic life, i.e. between analogue and digital experience. Similar to the Dadaist understanding of the concept of tabula rasa, the principle of negation that the artist has been manipulating with in recent years functions as a tool for transformation of meaning and thinking, with the aim of producing new forms of knowledge. Two new works, Negative Poetry v.2.0 and Origin v.2.0., sum up the recent research by Katarina Petrović, based on using artificial intelligence, generating new textual forms, experimental moving images and sound.
Accompanying programme:
Saturday, July 1st, at 18:30
Conversation on experimental artistic practices at the verge of science and art, on the occasion of Katarina Petrović’s solo exhibition in the Podroom Gallery, with two works performed by Katarina Petrović and Hrvoje Hiršl in the Pavilion of Large Refractor of the Belgrade Observatory.
Wednesday, July 5th, at 19:00
Exhibition guided tour by the artist and curators Zorana Đaković Minnitti and Vladimir Bjeličić.
Thursday, July 18th, at 19:00
Guided exhibition tour
* Katarina Petrović is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. By focusing on generative processes in language and nature, she creates works in the form of modular installations in online and offline space, using media such as generative text, poetry, sound, software and performance.
She holds a MMus degree from ArtScience Interfaculty, Royal Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague and an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade. In 2019 she was the winner of D. B. Mangelos award. Katarina Petrović is a member and chair of the board of the art space Trixie in The Hague, a researcher affiliated with the trans-disciplinary research centre Leo Apostel and a guest lecturer at the postgraduate School of Thinking in Brussels and ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. Her work from the Negative Poetry series is part of the October Salon Collection, while the new work from the same series has been commissioned for the Art Encounters Biennale in Timisoara. She lives and works between Belgrade and The Hague.
Collaborations and support:
Negative Poetry v.2.0 – Studio RNDR, Beng Yeunyong, Rianne Zijderveld (Unformed Informed Publishing), Stimulerings Creative Industry Fonds NL
Origin v.2.0 – prof. Stephen Picken, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Crossing Parallels artist-in-residence programme TU Delft, Stefan Bandalac (SBAE.nl), Zeno van den Broek.
The exhibition and accompanying programme are realised with the support of the Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Mangelos Award, Belgrade Astronomical Observatory and Centre for the Promotion of Science.
