The City and its Memory – exploration of visible and invisible spaces in the city of Belgrade

Interdisciplinary artistic research

Elective Course for Erasmus+ students

Cities like dreams are made from desires and fears…
Italo Clavino „Invisible Cities“

Every city is beyond topography, it is more complex than a list of spaces carefully deposited under intricate numbers in the land registry, and it is far greater than the most sophisticated transport network inscribed into its territory. The true description of the city is beyond the reach of any cartographer since it is a true palimpsest of our impressions, our dreams and desires; it is part of our memory as well as our oblivion. Located on the eternal confine between reality and imagination, cities define one specific liminal realm. The understanding of the plurality of the urban space, of the space beyond geography is the key topic of this interdisciplinary course.

 The aim of the course:  Students will have the opportunity to explore the space of the city, in particular those very loci where different deposits of the pasts are at their most apparent. Those are the spaces where the perpetual process of appearance and disappearance is at its most visible. Each year a different part of the city will be given a particular focus by the creators of the course.

The urban space will be the starting point for the students’ personal artistic interdisciplinary research which should not only reflect the observed and experienced but also become a small part of the history of that very place. The spaces which simultaneously belong to the past and the present, to the real and the imaginary, are very susceptible to the interaction between the genius loci and the artist’s realm of imagination. This dialogue between the internal and external landscapes can result in intriguing creations in diverse art forms.

Course task: Course will include lectures, research of the area and creative reaction to the selected parts of the city, theoretical and practical work in the studio. The course will end with the exhibition of the newly-created works in the Gallery of Faculty of Fine Arts.

Course duration: One semester
Available in Spring Semester only
Erasmus+ students will be awarded  ECTS Credit Points

*NOT AVAILABLE IN 2024