It appears the US will not be the one nation whose Venice Biennale decide is stirring up discontent within the arts neighborhood again residence.
Prague-based artist Predrag Đaković was tapped to symbolize Serbia on the 2026 Venice Biennale with a undertaking titled “Throughout Golgotha to Resurrection.” Serbia’s Ministry of Tradition reportedly introduced the competitors on its web site on September 6, with a one-month deadline, however didn’t announce Đaković’s win. As an alternative, the announcement seems to have been made by way of the Serbian artist’s Instagram, which boasts simply over 700 followers.
A petition calling for the reversal of the decide has garnered greater than 600 signatures at time of writing.
“We consider that his choice is the results of an unprofessional and non-transparent course of by the Fee, which abused its authority slightly than evaluating the standard of latest inventive manufacturing in Serbia,” claims the petition, which factors out that some members of the fee that chosen Đaković “are carefully linked to the ruling social gathering,” referring to President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Get together (SNS). It claims that they carried out their perform “with out skilled integrity and fundamental skilled ethics.”
The choice, says the petition, represents “yet one more manifestation of the collapse of tradition in Serbia.” The petition was created by ZUK Casual Artwork and Tradition Collective.
“This yr, our colleagues have been uncovered to aggressive stress and repressive measures from the ruling construction, which threatens the autonomy of their work, in addition to their working and residing situations,” the petition states. “Artists have been publicly focused by the best officers, fundamental funding has been minimize, public sources and establishments are being handled because the personal property of the ruling social gathering slightly than the general public good of all residents, and all universities within the nation have stopped working, as a result of the youth and the way forward for this nation demand change.”
Neither the artist nor the Serbian tradition ministry responded to requests for remark.
The Fee that chosen the artist, in line with a report at Belgrade information web site Vreme, included artwork historian, curator, and performing director of the Serbian Academy of Wonderful Arts Marijana Kolarić; Jelena Medaković, metropolis secretary for tradition of Belgrade; Stanko Blagojević, performing assistant minister within the sector for worldwide relations and European integration in tradition; performing assistant minister within the sector for up to date creativity Miodrag Ivanović; and sculptor Miodrag Miša Rogan.
Đaković’s workforce, per Vreme, consists of curator Tomaš Koudela, who teaches artwork training on the College of Ostrava within the Czech Republic, and Olga Čučković, a tour information in Rome.
The petition comes in opposition to a backdrop of upheaval in Serbia. The lethal collapse a yr in the past of the cover of the just lately renovated prepare station in Novi Unhappy, Serbia’s second-largest metropolis, gave start to huge pupil protests calling for accountability that grew right into a nationwide motion. Some 325,000 converged on Belgrade in March. Vučić has accused the protesters of being paid by overseas pursuits and of being out to destroy Serbia, even calling them “Satanic,” in line with author Nathasha Tripney, including that the SNS has staged astroturfed counterprotests.
Predrag Đaković, The Final Goodbye of Filip Čučković (2024-25).
Zvonimir Segi
“It’s virtually like a civil battle outdoors at some moments,” mentioned artist Marina Markovic, who lives in Belgrade and Paris, in a cellphone interview. Relating to the Venice decide, she mentioned, “It’s onerous to clarify the diploma of absurdity, but it surely’s a logical and brutal endpoint of the dismantling of visible artwork and cultural coverage for greater than a decade.” She described the choice course of as a black field with no transparency and no publication of a brief listing, which has sometimes been the case in previous years.
“It’s an insult to your complete inventive neighborhood,” she mentioned.
Đaković’s web site, which describes him as a “Serb-Czech painter who brings colours to the Prague scene,” signifies that he was born in 1964 in Derventa within the former Yugoslavia and earned a portray diploma on the Academy of Wonderful Arts in Prague. His topics embrace the historical past of the previous Yugoslavia, the Holocaust, “the disasters of Communism,” and the Balkan wars, in addition to lighter topics like jazz music.
“I like to color issues that I expertise with out faking something,” says the artist’s assertion. “My thoughts will not be set on fulfilling any expectations via my work however simply expressing myself. I additionally attempt to avoid an excessive amount of social media as it’s potential to get distracted by all of the digital noise.” Although he seems to have proven internationally, in cities starting from London to Prague, his web site makes no point out of Venice. It does, nevertheless, notice that he received a gold medal for extraordinary achievements in artwork from the Serbian president.
“The golden medal for artwork? It seems to be like somebody is kidding,” Markovic mentioned. “Nobody has heard of him. His work are like one thing you’ll discover on the road—to not offend anyone who exhibits their work on the street.”
In a cellphone interview, Serbian artist Ivana Ivković referred to as the Biennale decide symptomatic of the federal government’s rising intrusion into the cultural sphere. “We was left alone,” she mentioned, “however now they won’t go away us any free house.”
She identified that the Serbian Parliament voted final month to strip cultural protections from an architectural landmark within the nation, clearing the way in which for US President Donald Trump’s household to erect a luxurious resort there.
“It’s like a nasty film,” she mentioned. “We’re uninterested in being ironic. It’s like, Come on. We’re ready to the touch the underside and the underside by no means comes.”
The broader tradition scene has borne the brunt of firm disdain, writes Tripney, noting {that a} former paramilitary chief was appointed president of the board of the Nationwide Theater of Belgrade and an SNS social gathering member was made director of the distinguished Šabac Theater.
The Exit music pageant, which takes place in Novi Unhappy, just lately famous that when Irena Joveva, a member of the European Parliament, visited Belgrade and met with members of Serbia’s cultural neighborhood, Exit Pageant founder Dušan Kovačević informed her that “your complete free-thinking cultural and artistic scene in Serbia is on the verge of extinction.”
