We are witnessing that virtual-digital formats of games and toys mean much more to the youngest today than the real, materially established formats through which dolls and toys develop our coordination of movements and imagination, the artist states in an interview for Vijesti. Nikola Markovic, who has primarily dealt with childhood in his artistic practice for years.
After almost three decades of "absence" from the Montenegrin art scene, but at the same time a presence and numerous recognitions in Europe, Marković presented himself to the Podgorica audience at the end of 2024 with an impressive solo exhibition "Toys without a Name", which was held at the Public Institution Museums and Galleries of Podgorica.
"In less than three years in Vienna and Berlin, he achieved more in terms of his affirmation, reputation and references than in 30 years in our region," Marković tells Vijesti... The exhibition, which premiered in Berlin, attracted great public attention, and was awarded the prize by the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro (ULUCG) for the best solo exhibition in the past year.
"Nikola Marković's solo exhibition was realized and designed as a kind of retrospective exhibition, which provided an opportunity to gain insight into his rich and continuous creative opus, which has lasted for several decades," the art historian emphasized. Milica Bezmarević, who was also on the jury of this year's jubilee, 80th Traditional Exhibition of ULUCG.
The Montenegrin painter, sculptor, architect and designer describes this recognition as particularly important, but also reveals that in 2026, the Montenegrin audience will have the opportunity to see another of his major retrospective exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MSUCG).
Nikola Marković talks about the recognition, the exhibition, his work dedicated to childhood, but also about a unique project of the Museum of Contemporary Art with the same theme, and about the Montenegrin and global art scene, trends and challenges, in an interview for Vijesti.
You won the ULUCG award for the best exhibition of the year. How did you experience the award, considering that it comes from a professional association, but also as recognition for the exhibition, and after a long time during which you did not exhibit independently in Podgorica?
Considering the exceptionally high-quality exhibitions of my colleagues that were opened and held last year, I did not expect that my exhibition would receive such an important recognition, especially in the year of the Association's jubilee, which is especially important to all of us. The exhibition was certainly extremely successful and the audience response was beyond all expectations, considering that it lasted only a month. As the author, I am very pleased that we managed to shed light on this topic of childhood, which is so important to all of us, in a European-based manner, with a quality museum exhibition. Awards from professional associations are always particularly important to us artists as a reflection of successful visibility and confirmation of the achievement of our work by those who can and are best able to recognize the quality of what has been achieved.
Why did Podgorica, and Montenegro, wait almost 30 years between your two major solo exhibitions? So is “Toys Without a Title” a kind of comeback or an announcement of a greater presence and more frequent opportunities to see your work?
For all these 30 years, I have always been open to any proposal and invitation to exhibit, either individually or in groups within certain exhibitions and exhibition sections. Why certain "expert" people from our art milieu who have been creating our art and contemporary art scene for these 30 years have avoided me, I do not know, so it is perhaps better to ask them directly on this topic. I have certainly achieved more in terms of my affirmation, reputation and references in less than three years in Vienna and Berlin than in 30 years in our region. Now I can say that something has changed significantly and that only last year, for the first time in so long, I was included and invited to almost all important group exhibitions in our country, which encouraged me in terms of the fact that some new possibilities are opening up in the field of our rather neglected art culture and contemporary artistic practice.
The award-winning exhibition "Toys without a Name" was organized at the Public Institution Museums and Galleries of Podgorica in the fourth quarter of 2024. How would you bring it closer to those who did not have time to see it?
The exhibition itself was the result of a spontaneous agreement with the leading people at the Public Institution Museums and Galleries of Podgorica to enable the presentation of an important and successful exhibition from Berlin to the Podgorica audience in accordance with the newly created circumstances. Given that the deadline for preparing such an extensive exhibition was very short, I asked my colleagues from Berlin to get involved and help transport the exhibits to Montenegro, and only after they confirmed that they would provide support, did we begin dynamic and day-and-night preparations to have everything done by the announced opening date. An extremely extensive 206-page catalogue in English was also prepared, which gave additional visibility to the exhibition contents to foreigners who visited this exhibition in large numbers. For those who were not able to visit this exhibition, I recommend that they visit my retrospective exhibition in Podgorica (Petrović Castle), which I am preparing for our MSUCG in 2026. The theme of this exhibition is a universal puzzle of a wonderful mosaic of childhood, built and completed over a long period of time. The one we usually remember little in comparison to how important his experience is to most of our life-shaping habits, traits and qualities.
The exhibition has already been shown in Berlin, where it was created over the past few years. How do different environments react to your work and is there a difference in perception between the audience in Germany and Montenegro, but also between the position and interpretation of art, and the view of art and the artist itself?
Every environment reacts in its own way when it comes to diverse cultural and artistic practices, but when it comes to the topic of childhood, I can say that in it, like in few other corners of artistic nature, a person truly gets to know a person precisely through one of his purest, most sincere and most creative periods of development and growing up. What particularly pleases me is that the universality of the topic I am working on is definitely a kind of Esperanto language of emotional backgrounds that, it seems, we understand on all meridians and in all cultures. Although conceptual art in its manifesto excludes emotions, dealing mainly with theoretical analysis, and not with the production of the work itself, I try to create works that have a deep conceptual and analytically formed basis, the goal of which is to awaken new experiences and important emotional interactions with the audience.
Your work, and thus “Toys” itself, thematize the relationship between childhood and play through artistic discourse. What is the role and function of toys in your work, which corresponds to both sociological and psychological aspects, with a dose of nostalgia, but also engagement?
The role of toys is immeasurably important in terms of the essence of the origin and development of art itself, and therefore of everything we consider modern man today. After more than 6000 years of existence, many of the symbols of childhood important to the history of the development of dolls and toys are disappearing before our eyes. We are witnessing times in which virtually digital formats of games and toys mean much more to our youngest than those real materially established formats in which dolls and toys develop both our coordination of movements and imagination within the same. The secret of the value of Pinocchio and his metamorphosis cannot be preserved if we do not make an effort to feel the nature of the tree and the life it brings. These and other such values are not preserved by video games and social networks. It is extremely important that we manage to teach our youngest that the technology they use is a good servant, but also a bad master, and that it depends on them which of these roles they will take on in their lives. The Internet and AI (artificial intelligence) should be a means by which they achieve their goals and visions, and by no means an end in itself by which they spend their time and the life focus of youth, with almost no results.
How do you see the transformation of toys over time and how does the disappearance of some, or their decreasing presence in the digital era, affect childhood and the development of new generations, from your perspective? How important are toys actually for the growth of children and young people, but also for adults later on?
When we talk about art, transformation is almost always an unfinished process that shapes and inspires us, both through the power of the properties of metamorphosis, and through the visibility of the process that alone can describe the essence of life. If we understand that change is the only eternal and indescribable thing as the most important category of the cosmos and our existence, then we can more easily understand the very essence of creativity. This is especially expressed in the symbols of childhood, in which it is now important to notice that they are maintained even in the digital era of the new transhuman age. However, the very tactility of the material properties of toy making is disappearing. That is why I believe that it is important that through such projects, through the language of contemporary art, we preserve and transmit those values that significantly influenced the development of the spirituality and morality of our parents and ancestors. The child's brain, when it is in full development of the ability of imagination during childhood, seeks stimuli and inspiration, not ready-made solutions that video games provide. The kind of experiences that children receive today are superficial and can only improve their individual reflexes in the visual field, but they also devastate their deep streams of imagination and curiosity that can only create the wonders of their great works and ideas.
You are present and recognized on the art scene in Central Europe, especially in Germany. You have exhibited there several times, worked as a curator, and are also working on establishing the Museum of Contemporary Art dedicated to childhood, AMoC, in Berlin. What was it like to break into the foreign scene, and then further establish your own place there?
The breakthrough was not easy and was somewhat slowed down due to the corona and everything that shook the European art scene, even more so than it could be felt here. However, the dedicated and dedicated work on the development of the AMoC museum platform enabled the support of several important institutions that immeasurably contributed to the fact that the very setting of the AMoC concept began to be adequately exhibited and to accumulate extremely important positive impressions from the audience and the professional public. AMoC or Art Museum of Childhood is an innovative concept of museum activity that has a multifaceted important role in its future development as an institution, not only of an artistic and cultural profile, but also as an educational platform for learning about important elements of the universal world of childhood. The first major text about my project was published by the famous German magazine ExBerliner in 2022. And of course, I always emphasize my special gratitude and honor that Dr. Mark Gisbourne, as such a world-renowned name in the field of contemporary art criticism, wrote texts about my work.
What stage is the implementation at, what can be expected specifically?
I don't like to talk about the details of the project and its development phases in advance, so I can only say that this exhibition with its 206 exhibits is only a fraction of the total AMoC museum's collection, which already has over 2600 museum exhibits. The AMoC project is significant both on the global cultural level and as the first contemporary art museum in the world that is entirely dedicated to the theme of childhood.
Have you thought about something similar in Montenegro?
Of course I am, and there are already several locations that could make a significant contribution to the development of AMoC as an innovative museum platform. Discussions about all this will soon be held with some of the most important people who govern our cities who will be shortlisted for this project.
What is your opinion on the current art scene in Montenegro, what are the dynamics and what challenges are present?
The current art scene in Montenegro is crying out for better working conditions for artists, the formation of a free market, better visibility, support in the field of digital literacy, support in the field of financing production and many other aspects that would establish it and more clearly integrate it into current contemporary European art practices and institutions. Most of the above can be provided if certain legal regulations are made that would make it easier for business people, entrepreneurs and others to opt for financing artistic production from the consumption of their tax obligations.
How do you see the current moment, but also the future of contemporary art in Montenegro and the region? What should be changed to make the domestic scene more vibrant and competitive on the international level?
The contemporary European art scene is a very complex mechanism of action of many sociological, economic, political and cultural factors that determine and shape it... What is important for us to understand is that proper investment in quality artistic practice is profitable in the long run in terms of the development of cultural tourism, which should be our greatest development opportunity. The success of the MSUCG team so far has shown in this short period that with good management and organization, as well as dedicated work, much can be achieved in the promotion of our culture and contemporary art, not only in our area but also in the field of its regional activity and visibility. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the entire team of the Public Institution Museums and Galleries, led by the esteemed Ivana Nina Vukčević Ćupić who, with their quality work, have certainly improved the status of Podgorica's artistic offer, which is increasingly being noticed by foreigners themselves as our most important guests. In terms of changes in the field of competitiveness of the domestic art scene, it is necessary to create much better conditions for financing its independent production.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on the texts and layout of my two new books, one of which is dedicated to the history of toys and their developmental potential in the increasingly uncertain future of the transhuman era. While the second book was formed on the need to make the concept and setting of the AMoC museum foundation visible through such a publication.
Art is the air I breathe.
What particularly influenced the cycle dedicated to childhood and toys? Also, given that the exhibition also had a retrospective aspect, encompassing works created over several decades, whether in idea or physical form, how would you describe your creativity over time?
I always experience art as the air I breathe and will breathe as long as I can... That is a statement I made about art, back in 1992, and which I believe has confirmed itself in many ways in everything that is the topic of our conversation today. My work is primarily a deeply lived prayer about the truth of the origin of man before the stage of his earliest development. It is about reading contemporary human existence and the meaning of his relationship to nature, life and the essence of our existence through the language of childhood symbols. I deeply believe that it is precisely in childhood that our truth is most visible and most sincere in relation to all these phenomena. That is why I see my art as documentary records that convincingly testify to our earliest memories.
An island that will remain unconquered by the onslaught of technology
What are the opportunities, movements and trends in the field of contemporary art in the world? Also, how do you see the correlation between artificial intelligence (AI), technology and art?
Contemporary art, in a large part of its anatomy, also manifests its very superficial and populist nature, which reflects the qualities of contemporary life, such as the patterns of the new "fast food imagination" that feeds the content of social networks and the relatively superficial aesthetic qualities that we witness every day. On the contemporary art scene in the European Union, you have exceptional achievements and brilliant works that are the result of the work of true and dedicated creators, but you also have a lot that is a recurrence of some lobbying, financial agreements and sophisticated corruption that is in the hands of a small but selected team of people and powerful people who dress and dress in the fields of auction and gallery platforms. Artificial intelligence will eat up at least 60 to 70 percent of the market of that commercial artistic production that was very present until just a few years ago. True works of art and those truly deeply experienced authorial productions in the fabric of contemporary artistic practice will perhaps remain the last unconquered island in the face of the sophisticated blows of the new AI technology that we are not yet aware of.
The current art scene in Montenegro is crying out for better working conditions for artists, for the formation of a free market, better visibility, support in the field of digital literacy, support in the field of financing production and many other aspects that would establish it and more clearly integrate it into current contemporary European art practices and institutions.
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