Although the bulk of MoMA’s initial art collection was European modernism, the fact that the interpretation on display at the museum was not European escaped the notice of the majority of the audience. After all, It was a story told by an American - A.H. Barr. After the Second World War, MoMA began to be revered in Europe as the most important museum of modern art in the world. Admiring the American museum, the inhabitants of the Old World were not aware that they were also indirectly adopting its story: the story of their own art and culture. Gradually, the American vision of European art became the dominant narrative, the canon, on both sides of the Atlantic, shaping the future development of art. So, how did such a marked turnaround occur in a period of “only” one hundred years? What did that turn mean for all contemporary art, and what (if at all?) for the development of the Serbian contemporary art scene?

Both Bulajic and Sugimoto play with the idea of mimesis; while Sugimoto starts not from the imitation of nature but from the imitation of the imitation of nature, thereby returning to nature itself, Bulajic starts from the imitation of Sugimoto’s imitation of the dioramic imitation of nature, making it three mimeses removed from the ‘original nature’. Through this process, she seeks to approach the essence of the artistic—by layering and analyzing imitation itself, both others’ and her own, she arrives at the ‘inner truth’ of the original imitation and, through the lens of her own interpretation, offers one possible version of that truth. In Aristotle’s definition the artist is the creator of a possible world, and another layer is added to Jelena Bulajić’s approach. As an artist she is not only a creator but also emerges as a scientist – she observes the artworks that she begins from with both her eye and her mind. Her inspiration is not just the visual effect and form of a work, but what makes the piece unique compared to all other works, whether by the same or a different artist. The first artistic act is the selection of a starting point. It is precisely this scientific and engineering nature of her approach that becomes particularly evident in the second step – finding a way to achieve a result from the chosen template. Methodologically systematic, the artist experiments until she discovers the approach that can achieve the desired outcome. Sometimes this entails adding new layers to the existing work, inverting the template into a negative or alternating light, removing backgrounds and traces of context, or making special interventions in framing, as Sugimoto does. Yet, always and without exception, it is painting between black and white. This layering of exclusively shades between black and white, and the use of negatives in interpretation, makes the painting more two-dimensional regardless of the number of layers, which sometimes are several dozen. This flatness once again plays with our perception of reality: is the image a photograph, or is it a painting of a photograph—or the reverse? What is the starting point, and what is the destination? What is truth, and what is its imitation? - Ana Simona Zelenović about the exhibition „After Sugimoto” Jelena Bulajić in Salon of MCAB, 2024.

If the selfie is in the first person, with the camera tilted towards yourself, I will take advantage of this possibility to illuminate a fragment of the mission of the independent curator and art critic: to highlight underrepresented artists. In this act there is a “looser relationship” with art, which is reflected in the openness to new resolutions of historical propositions or in the articulation of contemporary issues, and has several positive aspects. On one hand, I strengthen artists by giving them exposure, and at the same time I train my eye, taste, and practice of recognizing talent and potential. This experience has shown me that to follow this process means being several years ahead of trends. If I am already writing about artists, I should mention that the art world on the periphery of global capitalism, unlike the center, still mostly operates within binary gender categories. The Annual Student Exhibition of the Faculty of Fine Arts , this year in 2024, was a place for encounters with new artist practices and exercises the possible categorizations of artist processes. With unique approaches to expression, this time the following artists stood out: Ana Simić, Teodora Nešković, Sonja Ćurin, Ksenija Popović i Marija Topalac.

Ana Knežević's VR works transport us from everyday life, the pressures of contemporary existence, and the "precise machine" into an impeccable, quiet, serene universe tailored to each personality. It is a space for the realization and actualization of a very Goethean maxim: "architecture as frozen music" and "music as liquid architecture." It is perceived visually, constructed from blocks of emotional affects, with the intention of producing a new epistemology for understanding virtual reality, art, and the realities that occur within ourselves. In the times we live in, characterized by several virtual and only a few actual realities, as well as an unprecedented number of imagimages, reflecting and understanding what is seen in that reflection is more than necessary. Ana Knežević's intention is to turn us towards emotional/ intuitive experience instead of rationality, giving priority to the meditative over the manipulative, to open up space for individual experience, and finally, to allow us to react to the work. (Knežević 2011, 56).