Selling the Otherness – the Stereotyped Image of the Balkan in Serbian Art of the Early 2000s
The image of countries once constituting Yugoslavia, imposed by the West, was affected during the period of the dissolution in the 90s. This region was soon (again) perceived as a barbarian space, exotic and far away from civilized Europe, while the search for identity, the crash of value systems, and inflation influenced life within parted territories. Due to political circumstances, the art scene in Serbia was completely isolated, while simultaneously, the idea of art was standardized and shaped by the perspective of economically powerful Western countries. In this paper we will follow the generation of Serbian contemporary artists starting their career at the very beginning of the 21st century when the country finally stopped being in isolation. To become visible in the West, Serbian artists appropriated the image of exotic Other from the Balkans and played with it. Combining constitutive elements of Western art institutions with traditional Balkan cultural elements, these artists created an image the West wanted to buy. We will finally analyze if, when criticizing through the appropriation of the imposed gaze in their work, Serbian contemporary artists really succeeded in moving away from the Western image of the Balkans or simply supported it more.
Milena Jokanović
Milena Jokanović, PhD is a research-associate and lecturer within the Seminar for Museology and Heritology, Art History Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade and associate of the Museum of Yugoslavia. She holds a PhD in art and museum studies as well as MA diplomas in the fields of art history and cultural policy and management. Her interests include cultures of memories studies, bonds between contemporary art and memory, as well as community mapping methodologies and heritage interpretation. She is author of the book: Cabinets of Wonders in the Art World, and many papers in the mentioned fields and curator of several contemporary art and history of photography exhibitions.