The Montenegrin pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art will be officially opened on Friday, May 8 at 6 p.m., in the new ArteNova exhibition space in Venice.

Montenegro is represented at this year’s Biennale by artist Siniša Radulović with the multimedia installation “Out of the Blue, I’m Swept Away”, with curator Svetlana Racanović. The commissioner of the pavilion is Vladislav Šćepanović, and the organizer is the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro. The general sponsor of Montenegro’s participation in the Biennale is the Ministry of Culture and Media.

Starting from philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s ideas about modern societies as “anthropogenic greenhouses”, Radulović through a complex spatial installation explores modern models of life, control and standardization, as well as the possibilities of their transformation.

The work is structured through two interconnected spatial levels: the lower, “basement” zone, built as a claustrophobic and depersonalized architectural system, and the upper, fluid zone filled with moving images. In the lower space, the artist uses the matrix of his own living space to generate a repetitive, modular system in which serially produced humanoid figures appear – without identity, relationship or community, as the only possible “inhabitants” of such a world.

In contrast, in the upper zone, a subtle visual narrative of a fragmented body in constant transformation, which oscillates between presence and disappearance, materiality and fluidity, develops. The observer is introduced to a state of sensory openness and free movement through images, freed from rigid structures and meanings.

The installation is additionally completed by analog photographs made in the wet-collodion technique, as well as a sound environment that balances between recognizable and abstract frequencies (White and Pink Noise). A special element is a vintage photographic magnifier that projects the image of a blossoming cherry branch – a motif that symbolically rounds off the work as a reflection on transience, renewal and the fragility of the moment.

The work Out of the Blue, I’m Swept Away does not aim for a simple depiction of dystopia or nostalgia, but establishes a complex dialogue between opposing systems – digital and analog, rigid and fluid, material and immaterial. Through this “sliding” space between structures and images, the artist opens the question: from what kind of images do we build our own world today and can we find a place of refuge in them.

By participating in the 61st Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, the world’s most important art fair, where 99 countries are represented this year, Montenegro confirms its place on the contemporary international art scene. The Biennale will be open to visitors until November 22.