Exhibition segment: Workers' University, interactive installation, Photo: Irena Lagator Pejović

Spaces of love and social responsibility

The solo exhibition of Irene Lagator Pejović will be opened tonight in Čačak in the "Nadežda Petrović" gallery.

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Exhibition segment: Workers' University, interactive installation, Photo: Irena Lagator Pejović
Exhibition segment: Workers' University, interactive installation, Photo: Irena Lagator Pejović
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Independent exhibition of a Montenegrin visual artist Irene Lagator Pejović "Spaces of Love" will be opened tonight in the Art Gallery "Nadežda Petrović" in Čačak, at 18 p.m.

The exhibition is a segment of the program "Awarded at the Memorial" and is organized as part of the jubilee 150 years since the birth Nadezhda Petrović. Lagator Pejović is the laureate of the Memorial in 2007, and as the only Montenegrin representative, she also participated in the international exhibition "Awarded at the memorials - from XX to XXX of the Nadežda Petrović Memorial".

Although the independent exhibition should have happened much earlier, given that Lagator Pejović was awarded in 2007, the exhibition has been planned for a long time and now it's time.

Both thematically and spatially, these research works include the topics of inflation, work and knowledge, and deal with the complexity and contradictions of today's situation, in which we can no longer deny the extreme urgency of critical economic and ecological breakthroughs", the curator points out. from Poland Patricia Rilko

photo: Promo

"'Spaces of Love' solo exhibition by Irene Lagator Pejović, shows a diverse selection from the artist's recent works, including new artistic works. Both thematically and spatially, these research works include the themes of inflation, work and knowledge, and deal with the complexity and contradictions of the state today, in which we can no longer deny the extreme urgency of critical economic and ecological breakthroughs", the curator points out from Poland Patricia Rilko.

Near Rilko is also a curator Julka Marinković, and he will speak at the opening of the exhibition Branislav Dimitrijevic i Mirjana Šijačić-Nikolić.

"For the title of the exhibition 'Spreads of Love', the artist takes as one of the reference points a book of works from literary contests from 1985 on the theme of the National Liberation Movement in Yugoslavia, greater equality and solidarity. For example, one of those texts was written by a primary school student. She shares with us her thoughts on what she would do if she were in her place Ronald Reagan, and fearlessly imagines a time without conflicts, wars, borders and battles. However, taking into account our recent history and, more importantly, the reality of today, with the rising cost of living and the ever-present wars, the possibility of achieving her innocent childish desire, courage and light seems distant and unattainable", emphasizes Rilko.

The curator adds that the opening of the exhibition takes place on the day of commemoration of the Nazi bombing of the National Library of Serbia on April 6, 1941, when more than 600.000 books, manuscripts, charters, documents, newspapers, periodicals were destroyed...

Lagator Pejović in the gallery
Lagator Pejović in the galleryphoto: Julka Marinković

Lagator Pejović is one of the rare Montenegrin artists who engage directly in analyzing, witnessing and documenting the present, with a special focus and ear for nurturing the past. She told "Vijesta" that the goal of her activity is actually to raise the question again about what art represents and how to present reality through art, in a challenging but also critical way.

"In my case, it is about making visible inconspicuous and paradoxical situations, language and system constructions, which seem to be irrelevant. I analyze and elaborate them, and treat urgent issues of our time that concern the environment, system instability, fragility of human existence, memory and history. I try to offer an objective picture of the time I witness and with the help of such an objective picture I find hope, utopia as an imagination of a better reality, with which I deal with the present and try to make every individual harmoniously involved in social life. Understanding the past and the present is therefore also a look ahead," Lagator Pejović pointed out.

Part of the 'Spaces of Love' installation
Part of the "Spaces of Love" exhibitphoto: Irena Lagator Pejović

In a broader sense, the exhibition is conceived in relation to the concept and process of the book as a magnificent invention of mankind, but also as a witness and mediator of its paradoxical instrumentalization. In a narrower sense, the exhibition starts from the work "Beyond Memory", which won the 24th Nadežda Petrović Memorial Prize in 2007.

"The artist deals directly with each of these questions through the relationship of history to modernity and the insertion of both her own and other people's very personal experiences, while at the same time deconstructing the storytelling we are used to. It gives a stronger voice to transdisciplinary perspectives, social transitions, as well as knowledge that is protective of the environment. "Lagator reveals the growing tension between social responsibility, community exchange and natural resources versus widely accepted political agendas based on toxic, heteropatriarchal mechanisms that promote inequality in the distribution of information, labor, money and natural deposits", Rilko believes.

The work examines aspects of the memory of Nadežda Petrović's work and character, contemporary history, art and economy, and the exhibition also refers to the specifics and contexts of the Yugoslav self-governing and post-Yugoslav transition space.

"In my works, I deal with issues of social responsibility and its visibility and functionality in everyday life. Encouraging audience participation and empathy towards all these topics, I try to make visible how the present is shaped and how it communicates with our senses", said artist Lagator Pejović, and Rilko adds:

"Not only does it consider multiple perspectives and voices and make them visible through artistic means, in conceptually precise and contextually expansive ways, but, most importantly, it offers us real models of an alternative economy for the unemployed, or defined solutions for reversing the winding spiral of ecological collapse through small grassroots initiatives, such as being able to plant specific plants to extract heavy metals from soil and polluted areas. In his engaging approach, Lagator places these materialized stories in the true presence of the concerns of our time," the curator points out.

In his engaged approach, Lagator places these materialized stories in the true presence of the concerns of our time," the curator points out.

The accompanying program of the exhibition also includes lectures: Monika Leish Kisl "Two cities - Lady reason and writing history" April 19 at 18 p.m. and Toni Hildebrandt "Dreaming forward - categories of non-linear and non-circular time", May 19 at 18 pm, in the gallery in Čačak.

Bonus video: