GIVE TO TAKE / Intellectual Property Agency / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Question by Simona Nastac (Curator, London)
Question:
Do you think the concept of Eastern Europe is still appropriate within New Europe?
In your opinion, are all the members of New Europe defined as a unity, rather than in opposition to one another (especially in relation to the artworld)?
Answer by Vesna Milicevic / Visual Artist living in Belgrade, Serbia
The integral part of European identity is a classification on East and West.
The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe shows how common identity could be dramatically changed as a result of shifting of the world powers.
This struggle to find oneself in the post cold war world order has not always been so easy for some countries.
For republics of ex Yugoslavia, it has not been peaceful. From that point of view, these new made countries are rather opposition to each other than an unity.
In Serbia, my native country, people are faced with shifting of the international powers from the one side and burden of recent national history from the other.
And when we talk about the artworld, the "fall of the iron curtain" opened the possibilities to Eastern European artists to be part of the international art scene. In my opinion, these works were something new, fresh and different influenced by specific social, cultural and politic contexts.
Nowadays, thanks to Internet, the Southeastern artist cannot feel isolated any more.
His/her background could influenced the work but I do not believe that we could talk separately about new European or western European art world. The art scene is one with many artists and their various and authentic statements.
