As part of this year's, jubilee 60th Venice Biennale, which takes place from 20 April to 24 November 2024, the works of two Serbian artists – Dijana Vujačić and Maja Dimitrijević – will be showcased, with the support of the Belgrade Festivals Centre – CEBEF.
The Venice Biennale, an interdisciplinary exhibition of contemporary art, is a cultural event of global importance, with an emphasis on the presentation of nations and their peculiarities.
Since its beginnings, which date back to the 19th century, the most famous painters, graphic artists, sculptors and their works have been presented at this exhibition. Over time, exhibitions of film (Venice Film Festival), architecture, theatre and music have been added. The latest addition to the Biennale scheme is the contemporary dance exhibition.
Today, the Biennale includes 30 permanent pavilions in the Giardini park. Countries that do not have permanent pavilions use temporary pavilions in the Venetian Arsenale.
The two artists from Belgrade will showcase their works in the gallery of the Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello museum at the exhibition, called RITUALS, as part of the Venice Biennale. They will present their artistic concept EGONIA, which they realized in the period from November 2021 to April 2022 in the form of visual dialogues.
Dijana Vujačić, Master of Applied Arts and member of the Applied Artists and Designers Association of Serbia, built her professional career as a fashion designer.
Maja Dimitrijević, Master of Architecture, was awarded for her work in the field of architecture and urban planning.
Both artists have been painting for almost two decades, participating in group and individual exhibitions. Their many years of artistic work and friendship from early youth led to the initiation of the concept Egonia.
Below is the text written by Dijana Vujačić and Maja Dimitrijević about the artistic concept Egonia and 24 paintings they produced within the concept.
Artistic concept Egonia – Visual dialogues
Egonia is the meeting of two Egos on a canvas, which do not exchange words but interact exclusively visually with an uncertain outcome. It explores the world of our relationships and the artist's introspection. ‘Cogito, ergo sum’........ ‘I think, therefore I am’. Is thinking a performance of the ego? If we ‘lower’ our Ego, can we better understand ourselves and others?
We are looking for a way to orient ourselves in today's world, which is anything but what we thought it would be: we are faced with violence, injustice, wars. The present times set new standards that once again impose the questions ‘Who am I?’, ‘Who are you?’, ‘Who are we?’. We need a new meaning, a new connection. The desire for a deeper understanding of ourselves and others inspired us to create paintings in the form of visual dialogues.
Communicating with colors instead of words, we inspired each other with our differences, different attitudes and unexpected reactions. How does it feel when you let someone else interfere with your work?
No matter how important it is to have control, the vast range of emotions we experienced while ‘The Other One’ was interfering with the intimacy of our canvas was a necessary opportunity for emotional and mental ‘ventilation’.
Egonia as a process has a strong inspirational energy within the framework of improvisations on a canvas painted by someone else, making us as artists see ourselves and our potential from a completely new perspective, through interaction with another artist.
The painting that ‘Someone Else’ painted and passed on to us is ‘the given’ that frees us from manners within a limited time to work.
During Egonia, in the period from November 2021 to April 2022, we produced 24 paintings, oil on canvas technique. There was no verbal communication about the paintings. We independently started working on two canvases and exchanged them every seven days. With the completion of the fourth stage, the paintings were ‘finished’, therefore each painting was created within 28 days, regardless of the circumstances. All stages of the paintings’ creation were photographed, which documented the development of each painting. Along with painting, we kept work diaries, which, when combined, describe the creation of the paintings, as well as many dramas, pleasures and wanderings.
Additionally, a professional video material was recorded in the studio, showing our first reactions to the final ‘revelation’ of the paintings completed by ‘The Other One’. A short video montage lasting four minutes can be found at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzoQELw4Or8
The works created during Egonia have not yet been published or exhibited. The artists plan to organize an exhibition that would provide a comprehensive presentation of their artistic concept.
