Jelena Vesic - Vesna Pavlovic: Stagecraft

VESNA PAVLOVI

VESNA PAVLOVI

STAGECRAFT

VESNA PAVLOVI

Essays by Jelena Vesi, Branislav Dimitrijevi, Jordan Amirkhani, and John J. Curley

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS

Nashville, Tennessee

Copyright 2021 Vanderbilt University Press

All rights reserved

First printing 2021

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Dimitrijevic, Branislav. Vesna Pavlovic. | Vesic, Jelena, 1974 Stagecrafting. | Pavlovic, Vesna, 1987 Photographs. Selections.

Title: Vesna Pavlovic : stagecraft / [photography by] Vesna Pavlovic.

Other titles: Stagecraft

Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2021] | Includes images recorded by Pavlovic between 1999 and 2019 in Yugoslavia. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020044653 (print) | LCCN 2020044654 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826501837 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780826501844 (epub) | ISBN 9780826501851 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Documentary photographyYugoslavia. | Architectural photographyYugoslavia. | PhotographyPolitical aspectsYugoslavia. | PhotographersYugoslaviaBiography. | Pavlovic, Vesna, 1987

Classification: LCC TR820.5 .V47 2021 (print) | LCC TR820.5 (ebook) | DDC 770.39/87dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044653

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044654

COVER IMAGE: !No pasaran!and Kolona, ore Andrejevi Kun. Inside the Federal Executive Council Building, Belgrade, Serbia. From Collection/Kolekcija series (20032005)

CONTENTS

JELENA VESI

BRANISLAV DIMITRIJEVI

JELENA VESI

JORDAN AMIRKHANI

JOHN J. CURLEY

ARTISTS NOTE

In 2018 I returned to Belgrade as Fulbright Research Fellow. Working with photography students and colleagues at the University of Belgrade allowed me to have a fresh look on the post-WWII era of former Yugoslavia. While in Belgrade I was exploring my personal archive and wondered about the meaning of the images of past and present. I am indebted to my friend and collaborator art historian Jelena Vesi, who helped me in this process of imagining an exciting new reading of my photographs. This became Stagecraft, an intimate exploration of my documentary aesthetic of highly charged ceremonial spaces of Yugoslav socialism.

Stagecraftbegins with Herzlich willkommen im Hotel Hyatt Belgrad, April 1999. Taken while on journalistic assignment for Die Zeitmagazine during the times of war, this image, capturing a representative of the foreign media in a space that offers a false sense of safety, marked a conceptual shift in my photography. The photographs in the book, from vacant hotel spaces to two art collections of the cold war opposites, and the visual translation of the historical archives of the Museum of Yugoslavia, all convey a reflection on the very idea of the image and how it relates to memory and ideology. The photographic grain reminds us of an analogue momentin time, a brief pause, a site of memory.

This book largely benefited from my time as a Fulbright Research Scholar in Belgrade, and from the generous funds of the Vanderbilt University Chancellor Fellowship and the College of Arts & Science Deans Office. The Museum of Yugoslavia and the Department for Historiography of Radio Television of Serbia continued to provide the logistical and collegial support during the production of the book. Vanderbilt University Press allowed me the time and space needed for such an encompassing endeavor. Hadley and Luke stayed home in Nashville during my year in Belgrade, which was a tremendous gift. I remain in gratitude to the essay contributors Jelena Vesi, Jordan Amirkhani, Branislav Dimitrijevi, and John. J. Curley, who took an extraordinary consideration and critical reflection of my work.