You left Belgrade and went to the mountains, in a real isolation. How are you, how do you spend your time and how do you feel about this abrupt change?
I’m fine, but I do feel the weight of global anxiety above my head. I wonder if this world and life in it will be the same? I spend time with my family in a forest log cabin on Tara—a beautiful mountain where my predecessors used to live. I give online lectures to my students from here and I have used this time to try to realize if it would be possible to actually live in a place like this, surrounded only by nature. I was amazed at the conclusion: Not only is it possible, but it is necessary!
What are you working on at the moment?
I am particularly thrilled by the fact that, in spite of the isolation, I am able to complete a virtual retrospective exhibition of my works together with VR-AII-Art and Milan Marković. Everything will be put in a space which convincingly tries to assure us that it really exists…the paintings are genuinely there…they have been transferred and hung. And, as strange as it may sound, it was all real – it took us time to decide which painting will go where: on which wall, next to which other painting…very similar to setting up a real exhibition, and yet, it has all been done from here, from nowhere, straight from the woods .
Currently, my work AM/FM (collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade) is part of the exhibition Reflections of Our Time: Acquisitions of the Museum of Contemporary Art 1993–2019, for now only in a virtual form. We hope the exhibition will see its tangible version, planned to be staged in the museum building.
Simultaneously with the VR adventure, I am working on a complex and demanding painting of a smaller format, for which I just needed this spare time. That painting should fit into a series I have been working on for a year now. And when will I exhibit all that? Don’t ask… In these apocalyptic times it is difficult to talk about the future; that would be even more unreal than VR.
We work together in the Foundation Saša Marčeta, within the Program Council: you, Stevan Vuković and I. How do you see the future of the Foundation and what are your expectations?
As I said, I don’t like predicting the future, but what I can tell with certainty is that the whole concept of SM Foundation and Cinema Balkan grew from a very solid groundwork, and it would have been impossible without a strong desire and green light by the founder, Saša Marčeta.
Our joint work is based on true respect and trust. The three of us have know each other for a long time and our cooperation is complementary, because we rely on the experiences of the other easily, with no skepticism, knowing perfectly well what each one of us has accomplished in his/her field. I truly enjoy our meetings and consultations and I feel we are heading in the right direction. This is just the type of work I like, and as long as it is so, I will have great expectations from the Cinema Balkan, the potential centre for contemporary art and culture of the Balkans.