Becket is With Us

The legacy of Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) is a deep dive into the essence of human existence. His words and descriptions elevate the everyday from banality, revealing to it the depths of time and space. His writings, novels, and plays echo through the experiences that have shaped contemporary visual art. In these layered works, allusions and myths intertwine, conveying a dense atmosphere of restlessness, wonder, loneliness, and the power of memory.

Beckett’s presence on the cultural map of the Balkans begins early — with the illegal Belgrade performance of the play “Waiting for Godot” in 1955, as a response to geopolitical changes. Through his words we perceive the world and its limits of endurance:

“To give expression to the fact that there is nothing to express, and that there is nothing with which to express it, even nothing from which to move towards expression, where there is neither the power nor the desire to express, and yet the obligation remains – to be expressed.”

In the unstable 21st century, his tragicomic vision takes on new meaning. Today’s reality, filled with dark secrets, neurotic information and absurd incidents, increasingly confirms Beckett’s powerlessness as a universal voice of contemporary society.

The exhibition “Beckett is with us” offers works that provoke and disturb. Artists reshape objects and environments into complex visual structures, creating textures that reflect the internal tensions of today. These visual narratives not only continue Beckett’s thought, but transform it into a bodily and sensory experience for the viewer.

MARIJA ĆALIĆ

She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade, as well as photography at St. Martin’s School of Art in London. She is a member of ULUPUDS (photography section) in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. She has published her author’s photographs in daily and weekly newspapers, as well as in monthly magazines in Belgrade and Serbia. She has worked on photographic contributions for books, exhibition catalogues, film productions and other media. She was the photography editor of the weekly magazine (Europa Press Holding), Belgrade, 2003–2011. Residency in the Kulturreferat of the city of Munich, Germany – Villa Waldberta, 2010 and Cité des arts, Paris, 2017.

From participation in various group exhibitions, the following thematic units stand out: Closed Circuits, 2005 at the Konak of Princess Ljubica, Museum of the City of Belgrade; Micro-narratives within the framework of the October Salon in Belgrade, 2007; Musée d’art moderne de Saint-Étienne, France, 2008; as well as at the International Biennial of Visual Arts in Pancevo, 2012.

Recent solo exhibitions (2012–2017), primarily in Belgrade, consist of thematic cycles of photographs: Post-memorija, The Spell of the Past, Moj Dom, Nothing is Left To Tell, Cache Memory, Izbor posrodnosti, Info – Stanar, Stern-Berg – October Salon 2018.

VANA UROŠEVIĆ

She was born in Skopje, North Macedonia. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1984 in the class of Professor Mladen Srbinović, and in 1987 at the same faculty, postgraduate studies in the class of Professor Radomir Reljić.

In 1987, she had a study stay in Paris. In the period 1988/1989, she was on specialist studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in the class of Professor Borella.

She is the winner of the Dimitar Kondovski Award at the Winter Salon in Skopje and the First Prize for the work Alchemical Box at the IX International Biennial of Miniature Art in Gornji Milanovac. In 2003, she represented North Macedonia at the Venice Biennale of Art.

She has exhibited solo and in groups in Skopje, Belgrade, Cetinje, Podgorica, New York, Ljubljana, Venice, Bitola, Struga, London, Tallinn, Sarajevo, Vienna, Čačak, Gornji Milanovac, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Murska Sobota, Geneva, Sofia, Osnabrück, Thessaloniki, Subotica, Rome, etc.

She works at the National Gallery of North Macedonia. Since 2010, in addition to solo exhibitions, she has also realized joint projects with Zoran Todović.

ZORAN TODOVIĆ

He was born in 1958 in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in the class of Professor Božidar Đmerković in 1983. He completed his postgraduate studies in 1985 at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Miodrag Rogić.

He had a study stay in Paris in 1991. He is the recipient of several international and domestic awards and recognitions (Politika Award, Varna Grand Prix, the Grand Seal of the Graphic Collective, Award of the October Salon in Belgrade, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant).

He has exhibited individually and in groups in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Rijeka, Ljubljana, Podgorica, Bar, Stockholm, Ronneby, Eskilstuna, Krakow, Katowice, Wroclaw, Frechen, Berlin, Catania, Biela, Kyoto, Wakayama, Osaka, Bhopal, Varna, Buenos Aires, Couven, Verviers, Ferrol, Menton, Paris, Maastricht, Skopje, Győr, Miskolc, Banská Bystrica, Thessaloniki, Martini, Subotica, Guanlan, etc.

He has been a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia since 1984. He is a professor at the Academy of Arts at the University of Novi Sad. Since 2010, in addition to solo exhibitions, he has also been implementing joint projects with Vana Urošević.

NIKOLA ŠUICA

Born in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia – former Yugoslavia. He graduated and received his master’s degree in art history from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade; PhD at the University of Arts in Belgrade.

Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts and at the postgraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Arts in Belgrade.

Selected publications: Anatomical Measures, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2017; 57th International Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia: Enclavia – Painting as a Consequence of Such a Life (Vladislav Šćepanović – Milena Dragičević – Dragan Zdravković), Pavilion of Serbia, La Biennale Viva Arte Viva, Belgrade, 2017; History of Art in Serbia in the 20th Century (Volume II and III), 2012; 2014; Trajković Collection, Belgrade, 2010; Milan Blanuša – Paintings, Drawings and Graphics (Monography), Vršac, 2009; Closed Flows, International Group Exhibition, with artists from Serbia, participation of Joscelyn Pook, Martha Rosler, Tom Phillips, Istvan Horkay, Peter Greenaway; Tom Phillips – New Moment, 2003; Sculpture by Milun Vidić, ULUS, Belgrade, 2003; Leon Cohen (1859–1934), Yugoslav Gallery of Fine Arts, Belgrade, 2001.