Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Dejan Vukelić, graphic designer
Summer in Belgrade started well… there’s certainly been a lot of important design events, but three of them marked the month behind us in my opinion.
First, on June 6th, the 50th May Exhibition of ULUPUDS opened – the traditional annual edition of the works of all sections and trades of the Association of Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia, which was first held in 1955 at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade.
This year, for the first time since I was a member of the Association (17 years), the curator did not accept any of the two works I sent to the jury (both from the domain of visual identity). Ouch! I’m not in the May exhibit?! Oops! It’s not that I took it too hard, but it did ruin my day. I remember two decades ago, and the tension I was feeling when I was submitting my works for admission into membership – will I satisfy the criteria, will they receive me? And I remember how happy I was when they accepted me – when the confirmation came that I was actually good in what I do. And somehow I was deeply convinced that this was a very important thing – to be admitted to a professional organization. During the years, little by little, my enthusiasm evaporated completely … looking from the corner of my section (design), there’s almost no weight to membership, the Association almost doesn’t have any influence – several exhibitions per year that are actually attended by us, our families and friends, almost represent the only visible activity. I don’t know who are the people who are applying for membership each year, but most of the great (best) Serbian designers I know have never even thought about, let alone desire to be members. Does it say more about them, or the value of the Association itself?
And it doesn’t have to be that way, and I know it shouldn’t be. Last October at Nova Iskra, Maša Milovac, president of the HDD (Croatian Designers’ Association) held a lecture titled Croatian Designers’ Association and It’s Role in Developing the Design Environment in Croatia. The audience numbers could have been counted almost on your fingertips (terrible!), And Maša nicely and clearly demonstrated how much good things they’ve done, and you should see the things they are planning! By the way, they also struggle with equally similar problems as we do. So it’s possible.
I did not go to the May exhibition. Out of grief, not out of revolt.
Then, on June 11, there was Grifon 2018 – 12th best graphic design competition in Serbia, Republika Srpska and Montenegro in 2016 and 2017. Grifon is a biennial competition launched in 1996 by the Graphic Collective and the Quadra press company (then called the Yugoslav Competition for Best Graphic Design) with the idea of first promoting original creativity in all forms of visual communication and graphic design, one second, more importantly, to affirm creative designers who melded into the creative teams of various agencies. Over the course of 20 years, Grifon has become and survived as one of the most relevant forms of appreciation and affirmation of graphic design in our region, and the Grifon award unmistakably valorizes and recognizes the best author of graphic design.
This year, 62 authors submitted more than 170 works, and the Selection Commission selected 33 authors whose works – more than 60 of them – were exhibited in the famous Gallery of Graphic Collective at Obilićeva Voda until June 30. Each time so far, when I participated, the juries would select one of the few works I had submitted for the year. This time, two of them went through, both in the category of visual identities. Imagine the feeling I had when I received the mail with that message – it kept me energized for a week. And imagine how I felt when I came to the exhibition, and saw all the other great works. So much great design in such a small place causes crackling in your ears and electrifies the air.
What throws a great shade on the whole thing is the fact that the Gallery of the Graphic Collective will have to move in a couple of days, and leave the address it occupied since 1949. Through the process of restitution, the space was returned to its former owners, who had some completely different, economic interests, so they sold the space to some catering facility allegedly. Where and how will one of the most important galleries in the region continue to operate remains to be seen.
Third event happened on June 20th. Actually, Slavimir happened, with his exhibition Weare Percfet, which deals with the phenomenon of subconscious adaptation of the individual to the obviously erroneous global value system. The mistake that everyone sees, and nobody notices, is the main motif for various Slavimir’s visual interpretations, in which he uses the aesthetics of a child’s drawing and geometric abstraction, and draws into it the elements of ubiquitous branding, and all sorts of other things.
Every time I see Savimir’s ventures like this one, into something completely uncommercial, something that falls into his artistic oeuvre, something intimate and marked by his spirit, I almost get shocked with his strength desire and will, and he finds the time to do something like this. “What can I say when I love it,” he says, boyishly honest. Bravo, bravo, bravo, one great big bravo. I obviously like some other things, so I succeeded in opening myself so honestly to the public like that very few times … the everyday job is a different type of encounter, with a different audience.
Finally, after 15 years of reconstruction, in the presence of numerous dignitaries from the worlds of culture, state officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps and religious communities, the National Museum was opened. But that is the fourth thing actually, and the number of characters in this text is already maxed out.