„What is there to like? It is just rich people talking about their lives.“The guy I was speaking to did not like La Grande Bellezza and could not understand why I was so obsessed with it. I am not sure how I answered, and if I did at all, but in the coming years, since that night in 2015, the global film industry moved more … Continue reading The new humanism of Ostlund, White and Sorrentino
How a trad Christian pop folk singer became the most controversial person in ex-Yugoslavia When you listen to Danica Crnogorčević’s music, you will be instantly amazed by her voice. Wonderfully colourful and powerful, she comes across as a Montenegrin Enya, and in a lot of ways the two share a lot in common. Like Enya, she cuts an almost impossibly wholesome figure: a church-going (her … Continue reading Danica Crnogorčević: the trad villainess of the Balkan Arts scene
Serbia’s and Yugoslavia’s embrace of modernist architecture after WWII has been so thorough that any thought of reviving architectural styles before 1920s is seen as automatically kitschy and a no-no amongst our architects. While some structures were restored (the building housing the National museum, Central Belgrade palace complex) after extensive aerial bombings during WWII many were replaced with new modernist buildings, but there was also … Continue reading Lost Belgrade: Structures that should RETVRN to Belgrade’s street
As a twenty-something third year student at Belgrade’s art Academy in 1960s, Slobodan Kojić dreamt big. A Kikinda native, he envisaged creating an art colony which would make use of his native city’s clay pits – which powered the city’s brick and roof tile industry – so artists could create majestic, grandiose works of terracotta. The use or clay in the arts in what is … Continue reading Terra, Kikinda: How a local artist used home turf to create a world’s best terracotta art collection
Imagine a state where the government works hard not only to build crucial infrastructure projects but to elevate the tastes of the people through lavish funding of the arts and protects them from contemporary kitsch. A country where every larger town would have an opera and which would invest in making its citizens healthy and joyful through various initiatives. A country led by a ruler … Continue reading Art though Politics: “Hitler and the power of Aesthetics”, Frederic Spotts
The first time that I remember crying to a song was with my Grandmother and Mum, after a Đorđe Balašević concert. That must have been in December 1995 of 1996, while we were staying at Grandma’s and I remember putting on a Balašević tape as we loved the concert. At one point it played „Priča o Vasi Ladačkom“ (The story of Vasa Ladački), and all … Continue reading Crying to and for Balašević
“The only way for us to become great, or even inimitable if possible, is to imitate the ancients.” Johann Joachim Winckelmann “As is the case with the weather: rain and storms from the West reached us and so did Postmodernism. At the very beginning of Postmodernism, a great conference was held in Zagreb on that topic, which identified vectors and positive values of the movement … Continue reading Belgrade Post-Modern: Ruins at the End of History
As Kingdom of Serbia was late to industrialise, modern Belgrade was a city built in large part with the money of proud peasants and cattle (esp. pig) merchants, more than happy to celebrate their rural heritage and especially the ornate dresses of Serbian villagers – this was especially popular as Orientalist and Romantic art, as well as Art Nouveau started looking for something to break … Continue reading Belgrade, Peasantville
Sonja Radaković o umetnosti i životu, “Kurvanju” i prijemnom ispitu za srednju baletsku, i još mnogo toga Beleške Oktobarski Salon 2020 Ako vas interesuje umetnost poslušajte moj razgovore sa Anderom Dramićanin, Igorom Simićem, Nemanjom Kneževićem, Dejanom Vučetićem (o Olgi Jevrić) i Anom Russel Omaljev iz Balkan Contemporary Art . Pratite Pokretače i na iTunesu, TuneIn, Stitcheru i YouTubeu,a i slušajte nove epizode na Radioaparatu svakog ponedeljka od 16h. Za Pokretače i slične sadržaje, lajkujte The Nutshell Times na Facebooku! Postanite … Continue reading Pokretači #87 Sonja Radaković o “Kurvanju”, baletu i performansu / Beograd, Novi Sad
Given that Belgrade is blessed by nice weather from April to November, it is no wonder that entrepreneurs and city planners of yore wanted to capitalise on this by building open-air cinema and theatre stages as attractions. Unfortunately, due to the lack of creativity and funds, most of them are now derelict or otherwise out of bounds for the crowds, although every once in a … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (51): Forgotten Summer Stages
Postanite mecena Pokretača i The Nutshell Times-a preko Patreona ili pomozite jednokratnom donacijom preko PayPala! Slavimir Stojanović Futro je jedan od najuspešnijih i najpoznatijih grafičkih dizajnera u Srbiji. Pored dizajna bavi se i pisanjem i predaje na Fakultetu Primenjenih Umetnosti u Beogradu.Pričali smo o njegovom razvojom putu, koji je išao preko Geteborga, Beograda 90ih i Ljubljane, kao i o vrednostima koje dobar dizajn (kao i dobro pisanje) … Continue reading Pokretači #68 Slavimir Stojanović Futro / Beograd
I got burnt last year by making a list of things to look forward to in Belgrade in 2019. Two out of four did not come to pass (Chinese Cultural Centre and St Sava Mosaics), and the restored Palilula market only opened in the last few days of 2019. Still, I decided to press on this year, out of spite to the general chaos surrounding … Continue reading Belgrade 2020: Three Things to Look Forward To
Jedna od najboljih mladih dramskih spisateljica i dramaturškinja u Srbiji, Tijana Grumić, o pisanju drama, uticaju kulture u društvu ali i stanju u pozorištima van Beograda i Novog Sada. Beleške Stvaranje Čoveka u Ateljeu 212 Nečista Krv u Pozorištu Bora Stanković u Vranju IS Petnica Petnica International seminar Intervju Ivana Brkljača iz Morkin House-a sa Tijanom Radio drama Stvaranje Čoveka Moj tekst o ovogodišnjem Venecijanskom … Continue reading Pokretači #63 Tijana Grumić / Beograd
Public art in Belgrade is back in fashion with many ambitious projects completed and planned. They range from the sculptural/architectural collaboration between Turner prize-winning Richard Deacon and widely acclaimed local sculptor Mrđan Bajić to the future gigantic monument to the founder of the most successful of Serbian medieval states, Stefan Nemanja, made by the acclaimed Russian sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov. There have also recently been two … Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (42): Art for The People!
Dr Ana Russell-Omaljev o radu na promociji kreativaca sa Balkana u Londonu kroz Contemporary Balkan Art (CoBA) i naporima da se percepcija našeg regiona ispravi kroz sjajnu umetnost koja se ovde stvara. CoBA takodje organizuje Southeast European Future Festival čije je najskorije izdanje bilo u septembru 2019-e u Rich Mix kulturnom centru u Shoreditch-u. Beleške Anina knjiga o identitetima u Srbiji Divided We Stand: Discourses … Continue reading Pokretači #57 Dr Ana Russell-Omaljev – Contemporary Balkan Art / London
The first time I heard live gusle singing, a UNESCO-protected Serbian national ritual, was not fortuitous. I was fifteen, and my stern Serbian teacher took our High School class to a local library to hear poems and stories written by fellow high-schoolers. The boredom of this dreary event was somewhat lifted when one guy decided to perform his longish poem, written in traditional decasyllabic verses, … Continue reading Rediscovering the Magic of the Gusle
When I first laid my eyes on Ravanica’s Church of Ascension last spring, it became apparent why medieval Serbia’s first and last autochthonous architectural style inspired so many artists through the centuries, from the graceful architecture of Branko Tanazević to the subtle poetry Vasko Popa. That cold April morning, I could not peel my eyes from the intricate rosettes and writhing mythical animals, which enlivened … Continue reading Morava Style: Medieval Serbia’s Majestic Swan Song
Exploring Belgrade’s “spomeniks”. Continue reading Hidden Belgrade (39): WWII in Belgrade in 10 Memorials
From the curvy floral beauty of the Subotica’s Synagogue to the Morava-style inspired rosettes on Belgrade’s telegraph building, Art Nouveau architecture takes various shapes in present-day Serbia. This diversity was in large part because this sensuous new style, originating in late 1800s France, was used as an artistic expression of national romanticism that gripped Europe those days. Back in early 1900s, north of the Sava … Continue reading Faces and Blossoms of Art Nouveau in Serbia
Through a set of lucky circumstances and generosity on part of a friend of mine, I found myself at an event which I wanted to visit for a long while: preview of the Venice Art Biennale. It was on my radar ever since I became interested in the fascinating workings of the world of contemporary art and I actively yearned to visit after reading Geoff … Continue reading Interesting Times at the Venice Biennale
