Darja Bajagić will represent Montenegro at the 60th Venice Biennale: "It was discussed for a long time, a positive change"

At the 60th Venice Art Biennale, Montenegro will be represented by an artist Darja Bajagić, which has been attracting the attention of the American cultural public for years, where she has lived since the age of ten.

This was announced by a curator from Italy who was a member of the international jury at today's media conference in Petrović Castle, in the area of ​​the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MSUCG). Daniel Capra (Capra).

The jury consisted of: director of MSUCG and commissioner of the Pavilion of Montenegro dr Vladislav Scepanovic, museum consultant at MSU Marina Celebic, the curator of Kapra, a curator from North Macedonia Jovanka Popova i Gunnar B. Kvaran, curator from Norway.

The decision was not unanimous, pointed out Šćepanović and added that it was deliberated for a long time, which he sees as a positive change compared to the previous practice.

The theme of the 60th Biennale is "Foreigners everywhere", and the concept and project of Darje Bajagić answered it best, although the projects of artists also stood out. Tadije Janičić and curators Ljiljana Karadzic, as well as a co-authored project Andrijane Gvozdenović i Nela Gligorović.

The novelty is that the Pavilion of Montenegro will be in a new space, at the insistence of commissioner Šćepanović.

So the location is no longer Palazzo Malipiero but Ospedaletto, in a prominent position in Venice. The tendency is for the Pavilion to move to a new exhibition space in the coming years, for the sake of better visibility and attendance, Šćepanović said at the press conference.

In addition, this year the selection process was different, he said, so both the curator and the artist were selected through a public competition for the representation of Montenegro at the Art Biennale in Venice, which was not the practice until now. Šćepanović said that he wanted to correct the injustice practiced against the interested curators and to make the process more democratic, and 15 applications were received for the competition. Daniele Kapra confirmed that it was successful.

Darje Bajagić's project deals with the island and the former Mamula camp, it is a research concept that combines the past and the present, examines the culture of memory, and brings a wealth of paintings, photographs, testimonies and other arts.

The sponsor is the Ministry of Culture and Media of Montenegro, which allocated 80.000 euros for the presentation and artistic concept and allocated additional funds for the new space.

Darja Bajagić presented herself to the Montenegrin public for the first time in 2020 at the traditional Montenegrin art salon "November 13" in Cetinje at the invitation of selectors, art historians and art critics Petar Ćuković.