The exhibition In Trance We Trust, developed from the book of the same title, is the outcome of a twelve-year collaboration (2003–2014) between Nenad Racković and Srđan Veljović—a sustained exchange that functions as a dialogue, translating Racković’s bodily and performative practices into the language of photography.
Formally, the photographs engage with Racković’s artistic behavior, which may be understood across four interrelated modes:
performative acts—a lexicon of corporeal gestures;
the skater identity;
the clubber identity;
and practices of hygiene and purification.
Together, these articulate his artistic method as a form of intervention within—and upon—public space.
In translating the phenomenology of Racković’s practice into a sequence of images, the work foregrounds the intensity of expression, seeking to grasp what lies beyond the visible—its impulse, its cause. It considers how narrative operates: how it touches us, and how it speaks of community.
The deeply intimate and the traumatic surface with urgency, seizing attention and generating sensations of a similar order, drawing in participants irrespective of their will. What unfolds is a raw interplay of unstable, undefined boundaries.
The narrative constructed through these images emerges almost automatically—through recognition—as a kind of play between two agents. It does not represent reality as such; rather, it enters it from the other side, from a position outside itself. It provokes and expands the field of imagination.
It educates.
The best example is a bad example.
Nenad Racković, multimedia artist, was born in Belgrade in 1967. He studied acting at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts.
His first poem was published in 1984 in the literary magazine Književna reč and he had his first exhibition in SKC (Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade) in 1985. He was the editor and host of the Radio B92 iconic program The Rhythm of the Heart (1990–1998), and was a regular contributor to the magazine Beorama (1995–1998).
He had 18 solo and over 20 group exhibitions; he acted in three films: The Fall of Rock and Roll (1990), The Black Bomber (1991), Marble Ass (1995) and in a television film The Last Dadaist Show (TV Novi Sad, 1992); performed the theater show Saint Nick, Nicholas Edward Cave – Life and Relationships (Bitef Theater 1992); and enacted a number of performances.
Aside from the numerous essays in literary magazines, he has also published six novels: Aspirin (2002), Book of Recipes (2002), The Insurmountable Story (2006), The Fifth Season (2017), The Bible (2019), Slime and Bile (2021).
The independent art association Remont published Nenad Johnny Racković’s monograph in 2018.
Srđan Veljović, photographer and conceptual documentarian, was born in Belgrade in 1968. Graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. He has been working in collaboration with a number of cultural institutions: Student Cultural Center, Center for Cultural Decontamination, National Library of Serbia, Youth Center Belgrade.
He worked as an associate at Radio B92. Documented the Belgrade club scene with Apgrade collective.
He has published photos in printed and electronic media: X Zabava, Beorama, Feral Tribune, Peščanik, Komunalinks, Playboy, Haaretz, Dazed Digital.
He was a member of the Led Art collective.
His work was exhibited in all of the former Yugoslav states, then in Germany, Albania, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Italy and the United States.
He has published three books: The Nineties (2020) and Petrovaradin, Casual Reflections on Time (2020), In Trance We Trust, (2022).
Izložba In Trance We Trust, izvedena iz istoimene knjige, plod je dvanaestogodišnje (2003-2014) saradnje Nenada Rackovića i Srđana Veljovića; njihove komunikacije, svojevrsnog dijaloga koji telesne, performativne prakse Nenada Rackovića prevodi u medij fotografije.
U formalnom smislu fotografije interpretiraju Rackovićevo umetničko ponašanje koje se može podeliti u četiri grupe:
1) performativni aktovi, katalog telesnih izražajnih gestova
2) skejterski identitet
3) klaberski identitet
4) higijena, pročišćavanje, tretirajući metod umetničkog delovanja Nenada Rackovića kao svojevrsne intervencije u/nad javnim prostorom.
Prevođenje fenomenologije Nenada Rackovića u sled fotografskih slika jeste prikaz silovitosti ekspresije, pokušaj razumevanja onoga šta je izvan, šta je uzrok. I načina na koji nas narativ dodiruje. Načina na koji priča o zajednici.
Duboko intimno i traumatično probija i pleni svu pažnju do koje može doći, izazivajući senzacije istog registra, uvlačeći aktere nezavisno od njihove volje. Gruba igra nedefinisanih granica.
Ovim slikama stvorena pripovest nastala je automatski, prepoznavanjem; igrom dvojice aktera. Ona ne prikazuje ono što jeste, već ulazi u stvarnost sa druge strane, izvan nje same. Provocira, proširuje polje imaginacije.
Edukuje.
Najbolji primer je loš primer.
Nenad Racković, multimedijalni umetnik, rođen je u Beogradu 1967. godine. Studirao je glumu na Fakultetu dramskih umetnosti.
Prvu pesmu objavio je 1984. godine u Književnoj reči, a prvu izložbu imao je u SKC-u 1985. godine. Uređivao je i vodio kultnu emisiju Radija B92 Ritam srca (1990–1998), bio je stalni saradnik Beorame (1995–1998).
Priredio je 18 samostalnih i preko 20 grupnih izložbi; snimio tri filma: Kako je propao rokenrol (1990), Crni bombarder (1991), Marble Ass (1995); televizijski film Poslednja dadaistička predstava (TV Novi Sad, 1992); odigrao pozorišnu predstavu Sveti Nik, Nicholas Edward Cave – život i veze (Bitef teatar 1992); izveo brojne performanse.
Pored mnogobrojnih tekstova u književnim časopisima objavio je i 5 romana: Aspirin (2002), Knjiga recepata (2002), Nesavladiva priča (2006), Peto godišnje doba (2017), Biblija (2019), Sluz i žuč (2021) .
U izdanju Remont – nezavisne umetničke asocijacije 2018. godine je objavljena monografija Nenad Johnny Racković.
Srđan Veljović, fotograf, konceptualni dokumentarista, rođen je u Beogradu 1968. godine. Diplomirao na Elektrotehničkom fakultetu u Beogradu. Sarađivao sa nizom institucija kulture: Studentski kulturni centar, Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju, Narodna biblioteka Srbije, Dom omladine Beograd. Objavljivao fotografije u štampi i elektronskim medijima: X Zabava, Beorama, Feral Tribune, Peščanik, Komunalinks, Playboy, Haaretz, Dazed Digital.
Izlagao u svim jugoslovenskim državama, zatim Nemačkoj, Albaniji, Austriji, Rumuniji, Mađarskoj, Italiji, Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama.
Objavio tri knjige: Devedesete (2020) i Petrovaradin, neobavezne refleksije o vremenu (2020), In Trance We Trust, (2022).
Exhibition realised in collaboration with the Festival Grenze Arsenali Festival, with the essential support of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Belgrado, and book published by Studio Faganel.
The story is the result of hours of walking, observing, and listening to all the living elements that make up the island: the land, the stone, the people. In this precise order, I sought to build a series of events that have characterized and made this place unique. I started from the land that men dug to bring the stone to light. I arrived at the land that is now preserved in the cavities that give rise to the underground gardens. In this place, the real past and present blend with facts, legends, possible truths, and distant mythologies: the literary contribution of Marilena Renda is essential in conveying these words, as she was invited to participate in the project by drafting unpublished texts. Photography and words translate and strengthen the meaning of the cavity, understood as a generative space.
Alessandra Calò
Word and image have always been in a mutually generative dialogue. The image evokes absence, while the word brings it to life and sustains it. The twentieth century turned this into a drama – a creative conflict over what forms, settles, and becomes the artisan or material of an imaginary. The installation at the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade prompts the relationship between iconographic text and narrative text in the realm of myth, where “high” and “low” vie for the kingdom of storytelling and memory. A tale without an incipit, development, or conclusion unfolds linearly along the walls of the room, without interruption. The visitor is on an empty island. This allows every “once upon a time” to begin anew from the perspective of the frontal viewer, reflecting in the circularity of their own archetype, whether celestial or maritime, earthly or divine. Here, texts emerge from the image like the voice of a sibyl from the cavity plunged into the unspeakable. The culture of syntax distills the wild chaos of nature. In the disordered secret garden, the voice of reason gathers the remnants of ancient regenerative metamorphoses. A fierce darkroom, magma and repository of found iconographic fossils, made visible only by the hand, the craftsmanship bent to the reasons of the artistic process, like ghosts: before the final immersion in the popular archive.
Simone Azzoni
Izložba realizovana u saradnji sa festivalom Festival Grenze Arsenali Festival, uz neophodnu podršku Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Belgrado, a knjiga je objavljena u izdanju Studio Faganel.
Priča je rezultat višesatne šetnje, posmatranja i osluškivanja svih živih elemenata koji čine ostrvo: zemlje, kamena, osoba. U ovom preciznom redu, pokušala sam da konstruišem niz događaja koji su karakterisali ovaj predeo i doprineli njegovoj jedinstvenosti. Počela sam od zemlje koju su ljudi iskopavali kako bi otkrili kamen. Stigla sam do zemlje koja se danas čuva u šupljinama koje stvaraju podzemne bašte. Na ovom mestu, stvarna prošlost i sadašnjost se mešaju sa činjenicama, legendama, mogućim istinama i dalekim mitologijama: književni doprinos Marilene Rende, koju smo pozvali da učestvuje u projektu i priredi neobjavljene tekstove, odigrao je ključnu ulogu u svemu ovom. Fotografija i reči prevode i jačaju značenje šupljine, podrazumevane kao plodonosan prostor.
Alesandra Kalo
Reč i slika su oduvek u međusobnom plodonosnom dijalogu. Slika evocira odsustvo, reč ga čini živim i održivim. Dvadeseti vek je od toga napravio dramu, kreativni sukob oko onoga što se formira, taloži i postaje stvaralac ili materija imaginarnog. Izložba u Italijanskom institutu za kulturu u Beogradu pospešuje odnos između ikonografskog i narativnog teksta u oblasti mita, gde se „uzvišeno“ i „prizemno“ otimaju za vladavinu pripovedanja i sećanja. Priča bez uvoda, razrade i zaključka odvija se linearno preko zidova sobe, bez prekida. Posmatrač se nalazi na praznom ostrvu kako bi „bio jednom jedan“ moglo iznova početi iz perspektive frontalnog posmatrača koji se ogleda u okviru sopstvenog arhetipa, nebeskog ili pomorskog, zemaljskog ili božanskog. Ovde tekstovi izranjaju iz slike poput glasa proročice iz šupljine potonule u neizrecivo. Kultura sintakse destiluje divlji haos prirode. U neurednoj tajnoj bašti glas razuma sakuplja ostatke drevnih regenerativnih metamorfoza. Svirepa mračna komora, magma i naslage pronađenih ikonografskih fosila koje vidljivim, poput utvara, čini samo ruka, veština koja se povija pred zakonima umetničkog procesa: pre konačnog uranjanja u narodni arhiv.
Simone Aconi
Summer is not as innocent as it looks.
Beneath the bright colours, the sticky skin and the endless light, something else unfolds.
A choreography of bodies exposed to the sun.
Rituals repeated year after year.
Moments of pleasure, excess, boredom and quiet absurdity.
In SUNBURNED STORIES, summer becomes a space of observation. A place where intimacy turns public, where gestures are exaggerated, and where the ordinary reveals its strange, almost surreal nature. Sunburned skin, plastic textures, restless children, distracted gazes, fleeting encounters, fragments of a season that feels both universal and deeply personal.
This exhibition marks the fourth collaboration between Бартcелона POP UP and Radisson Hotel, a series dedicated to paying tribute to the photobook as a central form of photographic expression. Each edition takes inspiration from a seminal publication, revisiting its themes and visual language through the eyes of contemporary photographers. On this occasion, the exhibition draws from Life’s a Beach, the iconic photobook that redefined how we look at leisure, tourism and the rituals of summer.
Conceived as a tribute to a way of looking that embraces humour, contradiction and honesty, this exhibition brings together a group of photographers who engage with the language of everyday life. Their images do not seek perfection, but presence. Not spectacle, but recognition.
There is warmth here, but also tension.
There is laughter, but also discomfort.
There is beauty, but never without friction.
Because summer, after all, is not just a place we go to,
it is something we perform.
Artists
Ana Batricevic (Serbia) @ana_batricevic
Daniel Quirarte (Mexico)
Joal Caldera (USA) @dudewiththe_camera
Jovana Kuzmanovic (Serbia) @jqzmanovic
Jean Guy Lathuilière (France)
Marie Lourier (Russia) @marie_lourier
Meri Mustapic (Croatia) @sea_mousse_
Tim Rusell (British) @timrussellphotography
Ljeto nije tako nevino kao što izgleda.
Ispod jarkih boja, ljepljive kože i beskrajnog svjetla, odvija se nešto drugo.
Koreografija tijela izloženih suncu.
Rituali koji se ponavljaju iz godine u godinu.
Trenuci zadovoljstva, pretjerivanja, dosade i tihe apsurdnosti.
U okviru izložbe SUNBURNED STORIES, ljeto postaje prostor posmatranja. Mjesto gdje intimno postaje javno, gdje su gestovi prenaglašeni, a svakodnevno otkriva svoju neobičnu, gotovo nadrealnu prirodu. Koža izgorela od sunca, plastične teksture, nemirna djeca, odsutni pogledi, prolazni susreti, fragmenti sezone koja djeluje istovremeno univerzalno i duboko lično.
Ova izložba predstavlja četvrtu saradnju između Бартcелона POP UP i Radisson Hotela, seriju posvećenu odavanju počasti foto-knjizi kao ključnom obliku fotografskog izraza. Svako izdanje polazi od jedne značajne publikacije, preispitujući njene teme i vizuelni jezik kroz radove savremenih fotografa. Ovom prilikom, izložba je inspirisana knjigom Life’s a Beach, ikoničnim fotobookom koji je redefinisao način na koji posmatramo dokolicu, turizam i ljetne rituale.
Zamišljena kao omaž načinu gledanja koji objedinjuje humor, kontradikciju i iskrenost, izložba okuplja autore koji se bave jezikom svakodnevice. Njihove slike ne teže savršenstvu, već prisutnosti. Ne spektaklu, već prepoznavanju.
Ovdje ima topline, ali i napetosti.
Ima smijeha, ali i nelagode.
Ima ljepote, ali nikada bez trenja.
Jer ljeto, na kraju, nije samo mjesto na koje odlazimo,
ono je nešto što izvodimo.
Autori
Ana Batricevic (Srbija) @ana_batricevic
Daniel Quirarte (Meksiko)
Joal Caldera (SAD) @dudewiththe_camera
Jovana Kuzmanovic (Srbija) @jqzmanovic
Jean Guy Lathuilière (Francuska)
Marie Lourier (Rusija) @marie_lourier
Meri Mustapic (Hrvatska) @sea_mousse_
Tim Rusell (Velika Britanija) @timrussellphotography
* Galerije i izložbeni prostori zadržavaju pravo izmene datuma i vremena održavanja izložbi i drugih dešavanja