AGORA

Photo and word: Marina Nikolic

My first deep contact with contemporary art began in 2015 when I met Dragana Brankovic and was invited to participate in an international artistic colony called “AGORA”. While in Belgrade at the time, working on a photo project documenting the city's recent creative upheaval, I got lost in trying to find the right way to start. Raquel Schembri, who was a talented painter from Brazil, told me about another Serbian friend who is working on a commendable project in an old factory "near some lakes", two hours car drive from the capital. I got in touch with this friend. As a result, Dragana and I decided to grab a coffee in Belgrade.

 In that meeting, she told me about herself, educational experience and  the current artistic gathering. She studied Contemporary Art at the well known Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. After doing an exchange Project in Belo Horizonte in Brazil she managed to stay and work there for another 6 years. Meanwhile in her hometown of Bela Crkva, she was organizing an artists colony in an abandoned wood factory called “Pobeda”. For this project Dragana got prestigious grants from the Serbian government and managed to invite international artists. That year Serbian, Brazilian, German and Croatian artists were coming to participate in the project. I took a few days off to visit them in June. But instead of two days, I stayed two weeks and couldn't get away from “Agora” as a source of inspiration.

The wood factory “Pobeda” (translated from Serbian, meaning victory) was built after World War II, back in the golden days of Jugoslawia. The company went bankrupt during the last Balkan war in the nineties, was reactivated then to supply coffins for the last Balkan war, but got closed again after. In 2013, Dragana discovered these run-down premises again. Located directly at the lake, she had the idea to transform these spaces into a cultural exchange and art workshop. In Portuguese, her project is called “Agora”, which means "gathering place" or "assembly."

Prior to participating in "Agora", I had never been particularly interested in modern art. In spite of this, I spent time there with brilliant people and had the opportunity to witness how they create. Listening to their thoughts, I realized that the creative process itself is interconnected across disciplines. Among the artists who took part that year were renowned Serbian artist Anica Vucetic, young German architect Franziska Wind, a digital artist and designer from Montenegro Svetomir Lazarevic, and Brazilian artists Requel Schembri, Manuel Carvalho and Roberto Freitas. In the same way that I was trying to redefine my creativity, they were also trying to redefine theirs. Together, we shared our views of the world and assisted each other in the work process. Above all, I discovered how to simply engage in the process rather than feeling obligated to produce the ideal result.

I returned to Belgrade with fresh ideas for finishing my photobook about the capitol after my stay in Bela Crkva. Creating my own individual storytelling has led me to another entry.