Predrag Caranovic sculptures Sep. 2014 | Page 119

Ante Markovic, there was money and the salaries would permit a comfortable living. It was the time when we all travelled a lot, not only on duty, but also in private, so we were aware of all the world trends. The Museum had two curators (custos) for the International cooperation. Jelena Stojanovic was in charge of the Francophone area and Aleksandra Jankovic for the Anglophone area. To handle the International cooperation, they both had to travel and meet people. I worked at the Centre for the Visual Culture along with Kosta Bogdanovic. It was a job that fit me and that I loved. And I considered myself really lucky to have obtained it. It was a time of great work and great travels. Zoran Gavric understood that there was no contemporary art without communications, so we used to travel abroad several times a year, and monthly we would visit principal cities of ex Yugoslavia (SFRJ), above all Ljubljana and Zagreb, or people would come from there to Belgrade. We were all a great network. It was a period of intense communication. What did your particular activity at the Museum consist of? I made only one authorial exhibition and some three-four scheduled exhibitions, because my main duty was the lectures that I held once a month or once every three weeks. I insisted that these should be state-of-the-art lectures and that would deal with subjects that couldn’t be heard anywhere else if not at the Museum. Kosta started the lectures first. I didn’t manage to follow Kosta, because he had his own particular vision. What I was interested in was the history of the ideas, so I followed that path. I had little to deal with the domestic art. I considered art in its phenomenological aspect and would treat certain themes in art throughout history. Just to give you an example, I used to study the history of the Middle Ages more intensely then than during my university years. During my university years it was something that had no interest for me. I discovered the Middle Ages later on and studied it greatly. And not only the Middle Ages, but the entire art history. But, differently from Kosta, that thought that these lectures should be educational and should be recorded, which he did and would publish them every now and than, I wanted my lectures rather than to teach, to preach. Of the utmost importance to me was the contact with the listeners and that all that was said should leave a mark in their memories. I wanted them to be extensive in their presentation. These lectures were greatly oriented towards anthropology, philosophy and phenomenology. My starting point was that all kinds of persons attended the Museum, both education and age wise, there were members of the Academy, but also Green tea, 2006 119