Museum of contemporary art of Montenegro
Kruševac bb, Podgorica, Crna Gora
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Last night, an exhibition by renowned artist Sam Durant, titled “Echoes of the Non-Aligned: Gifts and Returns,” was opened at the MCAM Gallery.

“The postcolonial period and the exploration of ideas and the history of the Non-Aligned Movement have been the focus of the artist’s research for several years,” said exhibition curator Natalija Vujošević at the opening, adding that the artist is presenting his new work, based on a model of the Petrović Park, which emerged as a result of his research into the Non-Aligned Art Collection.

“This is a participatory and process-oriented work, built through the connections and extensions of the artist with the Non-Aligned Art Collection, and then the audience, whom he invites to further develop the work, creating a collective artistic piece dedicated to imagining a better future, which will continue to evolve in future iterations after this exhibition,” Vujošević concluded.

Artist Sam Durant expressed great satisfaction with the realization of this project and the exhibition at the MCAM Gallery, emphasizing that the Non-Aligned Movement Art Collection is, in his opinion, one of the most significant collections in the art world.

“I truly believe that the Non-Aligned Movement Collection, which you have here in Podgorica, is something very valuable and that it is essential to continuously preserve and promote it, as people around the world are interested in this collection.”

Durant added that the collaboration on this project is of great significance to him as an artist and that he is extremely happy that this new work will allow everyone who participates to become artists for a moment. He invited all present to contribute to the creation of the piece.

The exhibition is open to the public until October 10.

Sam Durant is an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses various social, political, and cultural issues.

He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1987 and completed his master’s studies at the California Institute of the Arts in 1991. His most recent work, *Untitled (Drone)*, a public sculpture exhibited at the High Line Plinth in New York, sheds light on issues of armed conflict through drones and surveillance in American society.

He has held solo museum exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent, Belgium), MOCA (Los Angeles, USA), and The Kunstverein Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, Germany). His works have been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including Documenta 13, the Yokohama Triennale, and the Venice Biennale. In 2007, Durant compiled and edited the monograph *Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas* (Rizzoli Intl.) and curated the exhibition of the same name at MOCA in Los Angeles and the New Museum in New York. Durant’s works can be seen in many public collections, including The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, USA), Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Project Row Houses (Houston, USA), and Tate Modern (London, UK). He is represented by Blum & Poe in Los Angeles and Tokyo, Sadie Coles HQ in London, Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, and Praz Delavallade in Paris. Durant lives and works in Berlin and is a professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart.