Critics speaking of the year behind us - FINE ARTS From social realism to Soros realism by Gordana Vasiljević - Danas / 11. January 2oo1 Has the long-term confinement in the ghetto ended with the departure of the year 2000? This confinement has mostly influenced the fine arts. BITEF, BEMUS, FEST have given, at least for a moment, an illusion of freedom, opened the gates of Belgrade; they helped to see and to hear what was new, which and what the new aesthetic movements were like, so that some comparisons could be made. And in fine arts - nothing. Not a single significant exhibition visited Belgrade. Not even at the end of the century did we ourselves organize an exhibition for some of our grand fine-arts masters, though we constantly promoted cultural rebirth. Only the “Haos” gallery has organized an exhibition of drawings by Marko Čelebonović. Chamber space, chamber exhibition, and yet a real event. Has any of the promoters of culture noticed that a gallery has ceased to work, that the offices of the “Zvono” gallery have been closed? The only gallery in town that had been discovering new talents, the gathering- place of the young, of those to come, had to lock its door because the taxes for private galleries equaled those of luxurious liquor and cigarettes shops Whosoever has read the G17 Plus Group programme (officially accepted by DOS) has not found a single mention whatsoever of fine arts. Does this mean that the culture will be practiced by those who are not interested in the culture of fine arts? Perhaps the fine arts will be under the supervision of the Fund for the Open Society, which would suit the artists who are willing to experiment in new media, to explore new ideas in vague and unpredictable fields. That is, certainly, necessary; without experimenting, nothing new has ever been done. But, what to do with the majority who still have a lot to say in the classical media in which they have been making considerable progress. They are viewed by Soros people in the same manner in which the ideologists of the social - realism viewed the Zadar Group. If the second part of the twentieth c entury with us commenced with the ideology of social-realism, and ended in the ideology of Soros realism, where is the freedom of creation in that?
	There is a lot of illusion in fine arts happenings. These happenings comprise of numerous fine arts colonies. Whose and what masterpiece has originated in a colony, while there is so much money scattered in the society which does not finance even the monographs of the artists who have received them as the first prize of the Autumn Salon. Where are the exhibitions organized in the honor of the laureates of the “Ivan Tabaković” reward? All these are burning issues; and the transition is still awaiting. In spite of the culmination of social uncertainty which marked the year behind us, there were significant exhibitions in Belgrade, thanks to enthusiasm both of the artists and gallerists. The readers of Danas had the opportunity of monitoring the reviews of those exhibitions, so we will not mention explications but only state those authors who, in our opinion, marked the year 2000. We have singled out 12 of them (like 12 apostles), and additional three debut independent exhibitions. 1 - Milan Stašević - KC of Belgrade; 2 - Jelena Trpković - “Ulus” gallery; 3 - Jasmina Kalić -“Ulus” gallery;4 - Jelena Radović -“Zvono” gallery; 5 - Velizar Krstić -“Glas” gallery; 6- Milan Atanasković - MSU salon; 7- Balsa Rajčević-“Ulus” gallery; 8-Olivera Parlić-“Dom omladine” gallery; 9 - Miodrag Mladjević - MSU salon; 10 - Kosta Bogdanović - “Haos” gallery; 11 - Gabrijel Glid - “Zvono” gallery; 12 - Miron Mutaović - “Zvono” gallery The debut solo exhibitions: 1 - Dejan Kaludjerović - “Youth Center” gallery 2 - Tijana Knežević - “Zvono” gallery 3 - Nina Todorović - “Kolarčeva zadužbina” gallery