FOR THE FIRST TIME, SIMILAR TO OURSELVES

video installation – 3 video channels, stereo sound - 2023

exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Arts Belgrade in 2023.
curated by Miroslav Karić

“For the First Time, Similar to Ourselves” is a series of intertwined works that use moving-image (Ivan Marković), spatial interventions (Natalija Vujošević), archival materials and texts. The exhibition forms a spatial choreography that revisits the vision of the future embodied in post-war architecture in the Non-Aligned countries. The video installation “Similar to Ourselves” merges documentary footage and performance to portray the headquarters of the former Yugoslavian company Energoprojekt.

Synopsis

A vault keeping traces and gifts from distant countries, a space that merges metaphorically distant places — the headquarters of the former Yugoslav company Energoprojekt embodied the ideas of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Walls are paneled with faded photographs of Energoprojekt's constructions in fellow Non-Aligned countries, from 1960's until late 1980's. Across Africa, South America, the Middle East and South Asia, the distinctive modernist constructions built by Energoprojekt formed an independent post-colonial architectural identity, beyond the Eastern and Western Bloc polarity.

Abundant plants and trees, different species brought from afar 50 years ago, still grow together under the glass roof. In choreographed sequences, the space is revealed along with the people taking care of the plants, forming an inseparable sense of belonging.

Screened at VideoEx Zürich, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Culterim Berlin and Metahouse Phnom Penh.

Exhibition view:

sound designer: Katharina Hauke
producers: Jelena Radenković, Ivan Marković, Senka Radivojević camera assistant: Lav Ziukovski
performers: Srđan Ramadanović, Katharina Hauke, Lidija Andrić, Cosme Rafel Bras Mauricio, Lav Ziukovski, Gloria Kravos, Dragan Ignjatov, Milena Karanović