Art Biennial in Pančevo

Art Biennial in Pančevo

Exactly thirty-seven years ago the organising of Art Biennial was started under the name Pančevačko Exhibition of Yugoslavian Sculpture. Several years earlier (1976), the organiser of Art Biennial, Cultural Centre of Pančevo, established the Gallery of Contemporary Art, which was located, all the way to 2011, in the premises of the Military Headquarters building, on King Petar the First Square. The exclusive gallery space suited the intention of founders of Biennial to organise big exhibitions and complex events of Yugoslavian character. During those years sculpture, as an art discipline was strictly determined in relation to other artistic disciplines. The beginning of this manifestation looked like this, while today it adopted numerous changes of the concept and the form. Geopolitical changes in Yugoslavian federation, changes in the development of contemporary art, and strong influence of modern technologies had an impact on Art Biennial as well.

The observation of several decades long success and importance, closely following the Biennial, a large archive was preserved including: documents, photographs, audio-visual material – rich archive material, and a solid collection of art works, today kept partly in the depo of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, on a new address, and partly, unfortunately, in an inadequate space that was offered as a temporary solution due to the lack of space in the Gallery. Over the decades of its existence Art Biennial has been successfully establishing clear articulation between contemporary art tendencies, audience and expert public. National, but also international importance of this manifestation, representing a contact with contemporary expression, was very well documented and archived, and available to researchers, thus being a significant part of contemporary art scientific material during the past three decades.
Visual identity of the history of Art Biennial was presented as a part of the Creative Europe Forum 2018 in the premises of the Kolarac Foundation in Belgrade. This will enable a visual overview of the Biennial to artists, but also admirers of contemporary art coming from abroad who didn’t have the chance to see this manifestation, and it will offer them an opportunity to follow the historical evolution of Biennial in fragments.