In the age of Coronavirus, the distance between individuals in order to protect oneself from the virus has earned a different meaning. Distancing has occurred in numerous other interpersonal relationships – in political, economic, sociological, ecological, and even scientific fields. The usual dialectic flow of things has been disturbed while a pandemic and “raging capitalism“ show that a disease – actual and metaphorical – has repercussions on the entirety of society, rooted in the systematic neglect of care for individuals even in the most developed state systems. Contemporary society has found itself in circumstances of forced reality and that is exactly what is presented (and proven!) by the central exhibition of the Danube Dialogues 2021. At the same time, the exhibition emphasizes the importance of new artistic aesthetic and ethical systems by which the participants from Germany, Austria, Serbia and Bulgaria try to make “repairs to the world in crisis”, as Bonami once wrote. Using new technological procedures, Ana Prvački and Antoni Rayzhekov are dedicated to the topic of the pandemic crisis and its impact on everyday life; Venelin Shurelov and Ana Vasof point to the stereotyping of human life in the conditions of networked capitalist, technological and other tasks of today’s (forced) reality, while Stevan Kojić in his computer systems dedicates himself to ecology by creating electronic-biological syntheses.
Sava Stepanov (1951): Sava Stepanov is an art critic and graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade. Worked in Gallery of Matica Srpska, Photo Gallery, Centre for Visual Culture Zlatno Oko and Institute for Culture of Vojvodina. Author of numerous exhibitions, and participant in many symposiums. Editor of Fine Arts and illustrative material in the Encyclopedia of Vojvodina VANU. He has written several books and monographs on contemporary art and artists and won several awards. He lives and works in Novi Sad.
Venelin Shurelov: Venelin Shurelov graduates Scenography at the National Academy of Art, Bulgaria – PhD. He is a co-founder and Associate Professor in MA program Digital Arts, National Academy of Art; Co-founder and part of the curatorial team and technical organizer of DA Fest, International Digital Art Festival, Sofia, Co-founder of DA LAB Foundation, Founder of ‘Subhuman Theatre’ and the International art group ‘Via Pontica’ (2002-2005). He is the author of various interactive installations/performances. In 2011 he realized the cyber lecture “Man Ex Machina”, and in 2016 he directs a durational performance/installation \”Post-Everything\”, as a guest lecturer at Towson University, USA.
Stevan Kojić (1973): Stevan Kojić graduated from the sculpture department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrad. He is a full professor at the Department of New Fine Media of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje. As a professor, he was engaged in teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Trebinje. He is a winner of several art awards in Serbia and abroad. He has participated in group and solo exhibitions, festivals and symposia nationally and internationally.
Ana Prvački: Ana Prvački is an interdisciplinary artist working in watercolor, video, performance and augmented reality. She creates imaginative tools for the challenges of daily life, drawing on such fields of interest as music, theatre, mask design, architecture, fine art and beekeeping. She has realised her solo exhibitions and projects in SIngapore, Los Angeles, Boston, Turin, etc. Her work has also been included in many international exhibitions.
Antoni Rayzhekov: Antoni Rayzhekov is a conceptual media artist and researcher. He works at the intersection between sound and visual arts, computational arts, performance and science. He creates audio-visual installations, interactive objects, body- and lecture-performances. His works are based on scientifical theory, statistical data or archival information. He is an associate lecturer at the University for Applied Science, St. Pölten, and a guest lecturer at the National Academy of Art, Bulgaria.
Anna Vasof: Anna Vasof is an architect and media artist. She studied architecture at the University of Thessaly in Greece and Transmedia Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her videos and short movies have been presented in several festivals. At 2020 she finished her Ph.D. thesis about a cinematographic technique that she developed with the title Non Stop Stop Motion. She works on designing innovative mechanisms for producing critical and narrative videos, actions and installations.