Last night, at the House of the King’s Guard of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, an authorial evening was held featuring the writer Aleksandar Bečanović. Alongside the author, Vladimir Vujošević, an associate professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Donja Gorica, also spoke at the literary event.

In his presentation, Aleksandar Bečanović reflected on his work “Tri pršljena više” and the French painter Auguste Ingres, whom he considers the greatest French painter.

“In comparison to Eugène Delacroix, a representative of Romanticism with whom Ingres was in constant conflict, Ingres is far more renowned and retrospective in French painting. He is characterized by his painting and obsession with the female body, which he brings to perfection in his portraits, for which he is well-known,” highlighted Bečanović.

The painting “The Grande Odalisque” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres served as the author’s inspiration for the title of his work “Tri pršljena više.”

“It was thought that there were three extra vertebrae, whereas today, medicine claims there are five. That’s how many it took the painter to depict the perfectly proportioned female body,” he recalled, emphasizing the painter’s fetish for white, flawless hands, even when it comes to older women.

Vladimir Vujošević particularly highlighted certain motifs in the author’s stories, such as the day of apocalypse, which serves as a motif in many films.

“And this day that the author places in the space of his hometown of Bar can be applied to any city, anywhere on the planet.”

Vujošević also reminded the audience of the motif of vampires associated with our cities and drew a distinction between zombies, a prevalent theme in today’s films, connecting this motif specifically to our cities.