fake LA

As in the previous years, we continue with our pocket-sized guides and monthly guides. In this one, we are recommending the most interesting events in 2021. For more information keep following Still in Belgrade on social media: FB, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

TROUBLED WATERS EHXBITION@NOVEMBER GALLERY

On display until 17 / 01 / 2021

By the means of this exhibition, we present Nina Ivanović’s landscapes in varying formats and techniques in the medium of drawing, with a dominant river, mountain, and forest motifs. Each landscape acts as one record, note, and one sentiment. For the first time on this occasion, the artist uses copper wire varying in tones and thickness by means of which she brings hue to her landscapes. The spatial drawings on view are complemented with paper drawings, which are stylistically and visually different from the wire landscapes. And while the two-dimensional nature of the spatial drawings stand in place of perspective drawings on paper, the abstracted forms of the linear structure and the cavities of the wire sculptures are permeated by the changes in hue of the tonal and colour value.

A specific trait of her practice has been the translation of two-dimensional drawings into sculptural forms, namely, spatial drawings. By replacing the line with wire, spatial drawings have become her trademark artistic gesture and modus operandi, which is instantly captivating and this, in turn, has been followed by prolific national and international exhibiting activity, numerous residencies and an array of accolades and awards.

The Troubled Waters exhibition title strikes us as a paradigm of the time we live in, accompanied by unrest, fears and turbulent events. In a sea of uncertainties, to go with the flow of the times means to become fluid, flexible and adaptable, but also to learn how to ride out the storm. Nothing is solid and stable, and neither are the spatial drawings by Nina Ivanović. Despite being made from armature, iron and copper wires, the forms and shapes are dematerialized in space, becoming, within the contemporary cultural context, visual records of the times, our relationship with nature and its transformations.

THE OTHER WORDLY GARDEN@NOVEMBER GALLERY

21/01-28/02/2021

A sculptor by education Čpajak continuously investigates form and materials in an attempt to present the harmony of shape, both natural and those that (wo)man creates in his/her fascination with nature. The Otherworldly Garden exhibition highlights sculptures and drawings created during 2020, including several sculptures from a prior opus. His recent sculptural work reveals an interest in the organic, stepping out of experimentation with materials, as well as a new interpretation of the sculptural tradition, while his latest drawings show Čpajak’s style and his proclivity towards meticulousness in the reduction of form to linear monochrome compositions. The exhibition, as the title implies, lures us into a garden of aesthetic delight whose elements entice us and drive us to pose ancient, but never outdated questions about the beauty of form and the function of art.

Follow Novembar’s FB page here.

WE HAVE LA AT HOME@EUGSTER II BELGRADE

Belgrade-based artist Vuk Cuk is exhibiting at Eugster II Belgrade art space.

Please note that masks are mandatory for visiting this art space
and the number of persons is limited to twenty-five.

The exhibition will be on view until 13 March 2021.

Doors open every Saturday from 2 to 5 PM

Everyone’s first thought of Los Angeles must be that of sunlit boulevards laced with palm trees. However, the trees did not originate in Los Angeles. Even though the weather conditions allowed for it to happen naturally, most of the city’s vegetation was moved from other places – corresponding, in a way, with America’s colonial history. But why palm trees? Palms, having rarely grown anywhere in Western territories, became a symbol of something exciting, tropical, oriental, and therefore something a wealthy person could afford, something a white man could enjoy (take Gaugin’s paintings, for example). The idea of an endless holiday is a type of luxury. On the other hand, luxury comes in so many other shapes, Los Angeles offering itself as a picturesque representation of it. City villas, pools, cars, designer objects, organic food, private parties, private planes, a view over Mount Lee. Yet the idea of a plant as a status symbol bears some sort of decadence, perversion even, especially when seen from the 2020 perspective. In regard to the alarming updates on climate change, continuous destruction of natural habitats, new viruses that emerge, literally, with wild animal consumption, nature truly is something precious.


Vuk Ćuk has been dealing with luxury from the beginning of his career. Things he wanted to have, things he liked, things that made him happy were a thing of their own; this was money (literally, painted banknotes on paper), Heron Preston socks, Kenzo hats, Kawasaki Ninja. His line of work, however, makes an arc, starting with an exploration into boyish understanding of the value and ending at the sedimentation of human activity that created its own geological era, the so-called Anthropocene. Thinking about what luxury really is, Los Angeles is both symbolic and real (you may or may not read Lacan into these terms). For Ćuk, L.A. is still, however, imaginary, which started a series of new works made after his travel plans were canceled, a situation many of us experienced this year. Rather than lamenting over postponed vacations, Vuk Ćuk is looking at the phenomenon of displaced values. Technological achievements, embodied by an interpretation of Tesla Cybertruck, automatically refer to matters of status. Ironically, and yet aptly, Elon Musk’s initiatives to conquer Mars open up the question of luxury once again: to create an artificial air-facilitating surrounding, available only to a single part of the population; in other words, air truly does have a price.
What makes this subject even more relevant is the stunning disproportion in the distribution of wealth, and then as well the distribution of information, rights, possibilities as such. The exhibition title refers to an Internet meme (Me: Mom, can we have L.A.? Mom: We have L.A. at home). In a way, this is a mini auto-parody of status that is wearable, that is Instagrammable, bought, and sold, but somehow, rarely lived. The Los Angeles that Ćuk made ’at home’ speaks of many things that the original speaks of, too. The glitches found in the Hollywood sign, the deconstructed animals, and scattered objects are all residue of hyper-production, but they present the discrepancies between two cities as well, for example, Los Angeles / Belgrade. In pictures and in reality, in concept and inexperience, things seem to have very different qualities. Whereas the L.A. from our imagination is still a place for dreams and prosperity, most Americans living in California dread civil war on a daily basis now. Belgrade is, unfortunately, familiar with the latter, both as a thing of imagination and of reality.

More info on FB event.

MATADOR@BARUTANA OPENING SEASON 2021

Matador is set to open the season 2021 in iconic open-air club Barutana on the 7th of May.

As DJ Awards’ 2016 Electronic Live Performer, Matador is a revolutionary live artist with a shining reputation for versatility, whilst never compromising on quality. Accolades have been showered on the Dublin-born producer, from a proud ambassador of the NEVE 5088 Console, and Richie Hawtin’s PLAYDifferently MODEL1 mixer, his tenure as an ENTER resident at their worldwide events, to his consistent spot in RA’s Live Artist poll, bringing him rapid worldwide acclaim and a devoted worldwide fan base of clubbers and peers alike. Still thirsty for new worlds to conquer, Matador, aka Gavin Lynch, recently took on a new role as label boss for his RUKUS imprint. Matador’s breath-taking explosive live shows result in packed crowds and an equally packed touring schedule including key bookings at top clubs and festivals such as Awakenings, Tomorrowland, Sonus Croatia, Ultra, and Output, DC-10, Space Ibiza, Stereo Montreal.

More info on FB event.

nick cave new tour

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS IN BELGRADE

Nick Cave’s concert will be happening in Stark Arena in Belgrade on the 15th of May in 2021. CANCELED!

Tickets are available on the following website.