kalemegdan – Handel Street Projects

Handel Street Projects
14 Florence Street, London N1

Kalemegdan Bridge Collaboration with Richard Deacon and Mrdjan Bajic, 2008 to 2010

An exciting new public art project for the City of Belgrade
Handel Street Projects is pleased to announce the exhibition of work by Richard Deacon and Mrdjan Bajic. The show will take place at the City of Belgrade Assembly and Gallery ULUS (Serbian Artists Union), opening on 16 April. It will present, not only the artists final designs of the footbridge at Belgrade Fortress, but the whole process of collaborating together in the last eight months. The proposed bridge will connect Kalemegdan Fortress with the promenade by the river Sava, over the busy road and railway track, bringing to the City of Belgrade a landmark structure at a very symbolic place, which used to be the border between east and west.

Aerial view of Kalemegdan Fortress and Park

Three possible locations for the Bridge

The exhibition will be the first stages of creating a major landmark for the City of Belgrade and the first time since the 19th Century that an artist from another country is involved in the production of a public monument in Belgrade. In 1873 Florentine, Enrico Paci came to Belgrade to start work on the monument to Prince Mihailo Obrenovic, who ordered the creation of Kalemegdan Park in 1867. Kalemegdan (Belgrade) Fortress, is a heritage site dating back to at least Roman times with several Serbian cultural institutions in its grounds and many public monuments including Ivan Mestrovic’s ‘Victor’, symbol of Belgrade.

Richard Deacon & Mrdjan Bajic on site

Access to Bridge from Fortress

Deacon and Bajic represented Wales and Serbia, respectively at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Richard Deacon has been at the forefront of British sculpture since the seventies. In 1987 he was awarded the Turner Prize and showed in many prestigious art galleries and events around the world including Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art New York, Biennal de Sao Paulo, Sculptur Projekte in Munster, The Biennale of Sydney, Documenta Kassel etc. Since 1983, he’s been represented and regularly shown at Lisson Gallery, London.

Access to Bridge from River

Bridge trajectory

Mrdjan Bajic came to prominence in the eighties Belgrade and since then produced a vast body of work in rather different circumstances: from the lively post Tito Yougoslavia, to the isolated nineties wartime and at present new start for independent Serbia. His work was always embedded in the social practice and its effects, questioning and giving answers to the position of the artist in society. His work has been shown internationally from early in his career including 1990 APERTO La Biennale di Venezia,Kunsthalle Wien, The Biennale of Sydney, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Artists Space New York, Biennal di Sao Paulo etc.

Download PDF interview with Mrdjan Bajic and Richard Deacon