It was during your studies that you became a member of ULUS?
(Association of Artists of Serbia)
I have been a member of ULUS since 1978/79. In those days,
to obtain certain rights, one had to be a member of ULUS. I was carried by this illusion that I would obtain an atelier, a studio, so it was
of the utmost importance for me to regulate my position and become a member of ULUS. At that time, no one could become a member of ULUS before obtaining at least three judged exhibitions. Those
were collective exhibitions with a jury. The only similar exhibitions
were, at the time, the October Salon, Drawings and small plastics
and Autumn Salon and if you weren’t exhibited there you couldn’t
possibly enter ULUS. At all. I proposed myself many times, two,
maybe three times, and I was not admitted. I was finally admitted to
ULUS by Rasa Todosijevic that was a member of the admission jury.
Still, my main supporter was Mica Popovic. In the jury there were
also Semsa Gavrankapetanovic and a woman from SIV (Internal Affairs). I even didn’t know Rasa was in the jury. Rasa called me at
three o’clock in the morning to tell me that I was admitted. I was already working at SKC. Some time earlier, in 1974. I had an exhibition
with some of the former members of Atelier, along with Otasevic,
Atanackovic at the Cultural Centre and at the Youth Centre (Dom
omladine), so ULUS had decided to retroactively recognise my activity since 1974.
Along with your studies went your activity at SKC. How did you get
there?
I think it was Boris Miljkovic that had discovered SKC as a
great place. We started hanging out there together, but Boris soon
after was admitted to the Film Academy and somehow our lives took
separate paths. I used to go to SKC everyday, because it was the best
place in town. Everything was new to me and everything was interesting. There was no similar place in the city. It was dramatically different. Before SKC, I didn’t even realise there could had existed such
art. Initially, I was very critical to it all. I was constantly considering
the pros and cons. I didn’t believe in myself, but I didn’t believe in
anyone else either. Still, I wasn’t as stupid to ignore it all. I would go
very often to SKC and soon enough I had also found a job there. A vacancy was opened for a position where, before me, there worked
Slavko Dimitrijevic from Novi Sad. I started working at the Happy
Gallery (Srecna Galerija) by Slavko Timotijevic. As a freelance. In
those days, 70% of SKC were freelancers. They paid us fair enough,
enough for me to never consider whether it was too little or too
much. Almost all of my social life was there.
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