Read this in Serbian.
Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Slovakia prof. dr.
Momčilo Babić opened the exhibition of illustrations “Contemporary Serbian
Children’s Book Illustrators” by Senka Vlahović at the International House of
Art for Children "Bibiana" in Bratislava, Slovakia on August 1, 2019.
In addition to the ambassador, Peter Tvrdonj, director of
Bibiana, and Senka Vlahović, curator of the exhibition, spoke at the
exhibition.
The exhibition will be opened at the Dušan Rol Gallery in
Bibiana until September 15, 2019, organized in collaboration of Bibiana and the
Banat Cultural Center.
"Bibiana" also attached to the exhibition a set of
books illustrated by the authors represented at the exhibition, and
"Bibiana" owns them in its library in the archives of the traditional
biennial of illustration.
The exhibition includes the illustrations of 25 contemporary
Serbian illustrators of books for children, according to the selection of M.A.
Senka Vlahović, curator of the exhibition. The exhibition will include
exclusively illustrations of published books for children.
Senke Vlahović is the author of several theoretical books in
the field of illustration is the ULUPUDS prize winner at the book fair in
Belgrade is the founder and director of the Book illustration festival
„BookILL Fest”, and a frequent participant in several international symposiums as
well as a member of several juries in Serbia and abroad.
About the exhibition
The
collective creative spirit is like a mosaic made out of parts that represent
each of the 25 Serbian illustrators of children’s books, which have been
published in the last 10 or so years by domestic and foreign publishers and
collected at the exhibition “Contemporary Serbian Children’s Book Illustrators”.
The following illustrations are present at the
exhibition: from the bards of Serbian illustration, namely professors Rastko
Ćirić and Dušan Petričić, to the youngest authors whose books have been
well-received in the last few years – Marica Kicušić, Tanja Stevanović, Milica
Radenković, Manja Ćirić, Luka Tilinger, Stefan Katanić; through the authors of
the younger and middle generation, such as Aleksa Gajić, Dušan Pavlić, Tihomir
Čelanović, Aleksa Jovanović, Maja Veselinović, Aleksandar Zolotić, Kosta
Milovanović, Ivica Stevanović, Ana Grigorjev, Jovana Ukropina, Bojana
Dimitrovski, Mladen Anđelković, who have very serious bibliographies and prizes
in their professional histories, to the “stars” among illustrators, like the
witty and humorous master of Serbian illustration Bob Živković. Painters, who
occasionally turn to the world of illustrations, can also be found here, as is
the case with Nebojša Đuranović, as can authors who are not primarily or
dominantly engaged in illustration for children, but who occasionally dabble in
it, like Marija Jevtić, David Vartabedijan or Boban Savić Geto with books that
can be intended for all ages. Many of them parallelly deal with comics,
animations, caricatures, video games, design, which is also reflected in their
work.
The contemporary children’s hero, tomcat Marko
Mrnjavčević, through the very cover illustration of the picturebook*, but also
cover illustration of this entire exhibition, brings light to the modern
alienated man, and the alienated child, and offers renewed love and affection
as the brightest humanistic value, overly-needed in a cold, digital world. A
good children’s book teaches “what it means to be human” and brings about a
“recognition of what the truth is” (Andrew Hall).
(from the catalog)
M.A. Senka Vlahović, Exhibition Curator
* Pop D.
Đurđev, Kosta Milovanović, “The Mrnjavčević Cats” [orig. Mrnjavčevići],
Pčelica, Čačak, Serbia 2016.
