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Boravak u umetničkoj rezidenciji Cité internationale des arts tokom 2025. godine, u godini obeležavanja šezdeset godina njenog postojanja, otvorio je prostor za promišljanje odnosa između umetničkih praksi i društvenog okruženja u kojem one nastaju. Iako se umetničke rezidencije često percipiraju kao prostori koncentrisanog i izdvojenog rada, one istovremeno funkcionišu kao složeni društveni konteksti u kojima se prepliću različiti oblici (ne)vidljivosti, (ne)pripadnosti i privilegije.

Neposredno okruženje rezidencije, u kojem su boravili mladi beskućnici iz Afrike, pomerilo je fokus mog istraživanja ka pitanjima socijalne (ne)vidljivosti, liminalnih identiteta i institucionalnih okvira koji oblikuju svakodnevni život marginalizovanih grupa. Fizička blizina umetnika i mladića bez doma, praćena ograničenom društvenom interakcijom, ukazala je na složenost pojma inkluzivnosti u savremenom kulturnom prostoru.

U tom kontekstu, ova umetnička rezidencija je i mesto u kojem se propituje odnos između deklarativne otvorenosti i inkluzivnosti i realnih mogućnosti razmene. Perspektive onih koji se nalaze izvan institucionalnih okvira ostaju teško dostupne, ne nužno zbog nedostatka empatije, već usled strukturnih i profesionalnih granica unutar kojih umetnici deluju.

Ovaj projekat polazi od pitanja u kojoj meri savremene umetničke prakse mogu prevazići poziciju posmatranja i kako prisustvo „drugih“ utiče na umetničko promišljanje prostora, odgovornosti i sopstvene uloge. Umesto zaključaka, tekst otvara prostor za refleksiju o granicama umetničkog delovanja, kao i o mogućnostima pažljivijeg i svesnijeg odnosa između umetnosti, institucija i društvene stvarnosti. Ostaje otvoreno pitanje u kojoj meri umetnost i umetnici mogu i žele da prevaziđu poziciju posmatrača, kao i u kojoj meri, učestvuju u reprodukciji onih struktura isključivanja koje njihovi radovi često nastoje da problematizuju.

Tekst pod nazivom Konteksti nevidljivosti / Umetničke rezidencije i marginalizovane grupe (KEC Art Box, Novi Sad, 2025), nastao tokom umetničko-istraživačkog projekta u Cité internationale des arts, u Parizu 2025, možete pročitati na: Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić Konteksti nevidljivosti Contexts of Invisibility

English translation:

The stay at the artist residency Cité internationale des arts in 2025, the year marking the institution’s sixtieth anniversary, opened a space for reflecting on the relationship between artistic practices and the social environment in which they are produced. Although artist residencies are often perceived as sites of focused and secluded work, they simultaneously function as complex social contexts in which different forms of (in)visibility, (non)belonging, and privilege intersect.

The immediate surroundings of the residency, where young homeless people from Africa were staying, shifted the focus of my research toward issues of social (in)visibility, liminal identities, and the institutional frameworks that shape the everyday lives of marginalized groups. The physical proximity of artists and young people without a home, accompanied by limited social interaction, pointed to the complexity of the concept of inclusivity within contemporary cultural spaces.

In this context, the residency also emerges as a site in which the relationship between declarative openness and inclusivity and the real possibilities for exchange is examined. The perspectives of those positioned outside institutional frameworks remain difficult to access—not necessarily due to a lack of empathy, but rather as a result of the structural and professional boundaries within which artists operate.

This project explores the question of how contemporary artistic practices can move beyond a position of observation and how the presence of “others” influences artistic reflections on space, responsibility, and one’s own role. Rather than offering conclusions, the text opens a space for reflection on the limits of artistic agency, as well as on the possibilities for a more attentive and conscious relationship between art, institutions, and social reality.

The question remains open as to the extent to which art and artists can and wish to move beyond the position of observers, as well as the extent to which they participate in reproducing the very structures of exclusion that their work often seeks to examine critically.

The text entitled Contexts of Invisibility / Artist Residencies and Marginalized Groups (KEC Art Box, Novi Sad, 2025), developed during an art-research project at Cité internationale des arts in Paris in 2025:

Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić Konteksti nevidljivosti Contexts of Invisibility