The exhibition of Aleksandrija Ajduković in the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade contains both photographs shot in the past and those captured recently, as well as video materials created in the last five years.

Altough Aleksandrija trained to be a photographer, in the past few years her work is marked by the research in video and film.

Selected parts of photographic series that were created in the past, some more than ten years ago (Tigeresses, Similar, Chinese, Fashion Journal…) are displayed on the exhibition, in order to point out to the author’s balanced thought process, as well as to make a clear connection with the new projects (Donors, Regional Art Print – video and film), which at the same time can be perceived as a extension of old ones.

The exhibition is not intended to be a retrospective, but it aims to demonstrate author’s continuity of interests within phenomena in reality, by examining of cultural models – life style of individuals and groups, fashion (self-fashioning), taste, as well as insistence on using of photography as a resource for its further dispersion into other media formats.

NO NAME Riviera is envisioned as a kind of small media event, presentation of works in different media: digital photography, polaroid, video, 16mm film, books. This seems to be the only way to show and describe Aleksandrija Ajduković’s practice in the right way, as she has been a sort of phenomena on Serbian photography scene for a several years mostly due to her interest in hybrid models of presence and culture of spectacle.

It points out to the complexity of Aleksandrija’s work and wide interpretation of it. In other words, the exhibition before us strives to inform us of the specific model of communication and collaboration that was developed between the curator and the artist. The comprehensive curatorial dedication is at work here, considering the way of presenting the artist’s practice in the best way, more precisely connecting different photographic units (in the exhibition’s display), emphasizing the relationship between photography and video recording, pointing out to inclination to consiously use different visual language (shifting between documentary, diary, biographical, all the way to critical, leaning toward parody). This way, the exhibition summs up the perspectives on the works, it also provides a sketch of the artistic portrait of Aleksandrija Ajduković.

A portion of works, such as Chinese (2011- ), Tigresses (2004), Similar (2006) point out to the way Aleksandrija views an individual within a particular environment and cultural phenomena, which is both imposed and self-made. As much as in those early works we can perceive author’s pursuit, dillemas, a sort of photo-hunting of models as a tendency to fixate certain social (and consequently aesthetical) representations, in the later works we can note her participation and a kind of exhibitionism, creating of an image of „photographic ambiance“ in order to characteristically approach and provoke the viewer to read the difference between the representation and „what is happening in reality“.

Aleksandrija Ajduković (1975, Osijek) graduated in photography on the Academy of Arts of BK University in Belgrade, in the class of professor Milan Aleksić. She obtained a masters degree in Novi Sad, in the class of professor Đorđe Odanović. She was a guest student of Marina Gržinić in the class for postconceptual art practice on the Vienese Arts Academy. Currently, she is enrolled in Ph.D. program on the Faculty of Dramatic Arts on the Department for Theory of Dramatic Arts, Culture and Media. She was twice a finallist for the prize Dimitrije Baščićević Mangelos, a recipient Henkel Art Award for the young artist in 2005, as well as prize of 45th October Salon. By taking pictures of passersby, unprofessional models in an elaborate and funny way, she records phenomena associated with contemporary life and its everyday reflections in the domain of fashion, pop culture and lifestyle of (non) urban environments. She participated on significant number of solo and group exhibitions in the country and abroad.

Curator: Una Popović