In my position that allows me to shape and influence the education of others, I regularly remind my colleagues, students and policymakers that curiosity is one of the most transformative human capacities and that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right
I have always believed in education. Since my earliest days of learning – as a child in nurseries and schools across various parts of the then Yugoslavia, my higher education in Belgrade, my master’s and doctorate studies in the U.S., through my first steps as an educator and the years of exploring and conveying the fruit of that research to others, to my current role as executive dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Literature and Film at the University of Essex – I have nurtured the passion for learning in myself and others.
In my current position that allows me to shape and influence the education of others, I regularly remind my colleagues, students and policymakers that curiosity is one of the most transformative human capacities and that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right.
I have also always believed in art; in the power of art to educate us, express the potentials and challenges of society, serve as therapy and mould and transform the ways we think and perceive the world. When I teach, I ask my students to imagine all the fears and hopes of the primordial humans who so delicately painted the caves of Altamira or Lascaux, as they discovered and navigated nature, other humans and their own internal world. I then remind my students that these first humans were akin to the surrealists of the early 20th century, who rediscovered and reimagined the world and themselves.
When I teach, I ask my students to imagine all the fears and hopes of the primordial humans who so delicately painted the caves of Altamira or Lascaux, as they discovered and navigated nature, other humans and their own internal world
So, when the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade invited me to conceptualise an exhibition celebrating the centennial of surrealism, I leapt at the opportunity to educate myself and others. One of the earliest surrealist groups in the world emerged in Belgrade in 1924, as a collective that produced a panoply of visual, performative, literary and other artworks, together with ethical, epistemological, philosophical, political and even pedagogical writings.
I borrowed their concept of “aktivitet” and made it the focal point of an unusual, comprehensive and curiosity-driven project. “Aktivitet” has a few meanings that resonate with me: that art plays a highly significant role in society and that society has a mandate to support the arts for benefit of individuals and collectives, and specifically to enable marginalised groups to participate in art practices.
I posed a question to myself: how can I exhibit surrealism – this weird and wonderful movement that believes in the potential of the human unconscious to transform the world – in such a way that it is inclusive, inviting and emancipatory for the groups that our surrealists cared for in particular: children and the youth, the disabled and people with mental health challenges?
The result is the exhibition “Aktivitet: 100 Years of Surrealism”, which runs at the MoCAB from 19th October 2024 to 25th February 2025.
Educators know that they themselves learn constantly. I am still learning – from every conversation, interaction, artwork… every “aktivitet”.
