the INTERTWINED exibition

• Atelje Jovanović (Jovanović Atelier), Miloš Jovanović, stonemason

In 2021, Miloš established his workshop Atelje Jovanović as one of the youngest stone masons in Serbia. He gained his formal training at the Department of Design and Artistic Shaping of Stone in Aranđelovac and from Professor Vladan Martinović. Miloš’s stone of preference is marble, due to its structure and possibility of shaping as well as the fact that its dust is absorbable within the human body.

Jovanović Atelier offers two types of decorative stone objects: objects made on commission and the serial ones. He started his career by stone masoning religious objects where the Serbian Orthodox Church is still the largest commissioner of stone-masoned objects.

• Atelje Stanišić (Stanišić Atelier), stained glass making, restauration and installing

Stanišić Atelier was established in 1908 by Milan Stanišić (the great-grandfather of its current owner). Today, it is one of the few remaining stained-glass workshops in Serbia. During the 1990s, the workshop became active in three cities – Sombor, Budapest, and Washington D.C., under the same name and with its own signature technique. Today, Aleksandra Stanišić runs the almost exclusively female enterprise, with Aleksandra’s daughter Ena Borovac inheriting the family’s “love of glass” and taking an active role in the workshop’s activities. Today they are producing new stained glass for sacral objects and other public spaces, and they actively restore old pieces produced by the workshop’s previous generations.

• Sestre Vitanov (Vitanov Sisters), Marina Vitanov-Jevtić and Danijela Vitanov, goldsmiths

Vitanov Sisters, Marina and Danijela, are the third generation of goldsmiths and jewellery makers in the Vitanov family. They learned their craft working side by side with their parents, who ran their store together for several decades within the same work and shop space in Belgrade. Though they were both educated in different directions, one studying languages and the other design, they realised their love is in the craft, and they embarked on the journey of creating their signature style. In 2018, Sestre Vitanov brand was established, and since then, the two sisters run the workshop and the store within the original space used since the 1960s. They create handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces, often from repurchased metal and with the already cut stone which they either inherited or purchased at specialised fairs. Their approach, including craftsmanship, sales, and advertising, positioned them as a small jewellery phenomenon in the local landscape – working with passion, care, and always with a smile.

• Aleksandar Todorović, wool dyeing

Aleksandar Todorović is a professional conservator at the “Staro selo” open-air museum in Sirogojno, where the maintenance of buildings and objects is conducted by using traditional and old crafts as much as possible. 

Through comprehensive field research and learning from women in the area, Aleksandar mastered the craft of wool dyeing. His interest in natural dyeing did not come as a surprise as his nurturing nature and enthusiasm for all things natural already found its place in his work. He systematised the knowledge of local materials and practices into the educational format of manuals, creating the possibility of making the traditional craft contemporary and in accordance with the changed surroundings. 

• Mina Kaljević (Twenty Five Market), tapestry and tufting

In 2021 Mina Kaljević established her workshop – Twenty Five Market – as the youngest entrepreneur specialised in tapestry and tufting in Serbia. She is trained as a multimedia artist and is a self-taught tapestry maker, mastering handwork with a needle or hand tufting “gun.” Mina produces objects on commission, but under the name of Twenty Five Market she makes objects in her signature style – specific motives (reoccurring smiley face) and colour. Mina brings together a traditional craft and material on the one hand, and contemporary shapes on the other, always with an emphasis on the potentials for social and economic emancipation, which can come from the two. Her goal is to use the upcoming status of a “traditional” craftsperson for establishing a social entrepreneurship business structure.

• Rush Stuff – Pavle Nećakov and Maja Đurović, rush braiding

Rush Stuff is a family-owned business, led by Pavle Nećakov and Maja Đurović. The craft of braiding has been in Pavle’s family for three generations, and he learned the craft alongside his father and uncles. Within their workshop rush is harvested, braided, and finally sewn into the commissioned object. The production process results in eco-friendly and highly durable objects of diverse application – from shoes and bags to rugs, baskets, and furniture.

• Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGE), University of Belgrade, Serbia

Group for Eco-Biotechnology and Drug Development of the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering is focused on developing eco-sustainable processes based on microorganisms and microbial enzymes. In the processes, they are using microbial bioactive metabolites as a starting point for further structural optimizations and activity enhancements, through molecular biology methods. The team has achieved a significant level of progress in the biotechnological conversion of a variety of waste streams and by-products into the next-generation bio-based colourants, bio-therapeutics, and biopolymers that are to provide added value applications, thus creating an environmental and economic production value.  

What makes them stand out as a research group is the application of diverse types of waste in the fermentation processes as feedstock for the bacteria. In their own words, they are doing All things bio – biomaterials, biofilms, biosensors, biopigments, biosurfactants, bioremediation, bioeconomy.

• SOMA (White Lemur)

The White Lemur startup company is the force behind SOMA projects – SOMA BioWorks and SOMA Wellness. The final products are initiated within the same process of growing the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, and depending on the project in question different products are made. SOMA Wellness is known for their immune support supplements, which have significantly adjusted the traditional manner of extracting substances from Ganoderma lucidum. In the process of making, IMUNIN products are developed as either pharmaceutical or biotech products (chitin and chitosan). Agricultural waste used for the growing of mushrooms is used as the basis for producing BiosporinTM, White Lemur’s second staple product researched, tested, and produced within the SOMA BioWorks project, which is a green substitute for expanded polystyrene.

Works created during the INTERTWINED workshop:

The “Interwined” workshop originated as a Made IN 2.0 project activity, and it represents the joint work of two groups of young creatives, based on knitting as its methodological approach. Just as knitting can be regarded as a community-performed craft, so in the case of this workshop the very process of joint work was as important as the results we obtained. Knitting was in this case understood as a wider concept enabling the repetitiveness of intertwining forms, materials, and meanings. All prototypes were made in accordance with circular production, without applying hazardous chemical glues, while some were also based on recycling previously used materials.

 The workshop took place between April and June 2024.

Work created during the RESIDENCY:

One-month residency programme was part of the Made IN 2.0 activities in Serbia, and it involved collaboration between artist and glass designer James Earley (Dublin, Ireland) and craftspeople working for the stained-glass workshop “Stanišić vitraži” (Sombor, Serbia), one of the oldest stained-glass workshops in Serbia. Creative collaboration between artist and craftspeople provided an opportunity to create a unique object – privacy screen which among other things draws its inspiration from the collections of the Museum of Applied Arts, Belgrade. The result of the residency programme puts emphasis on the traditional craft and heritage values of the declining glass industry in the Western Balkans. 

Latitudes, a generative art series by Aleksandra Jovanić

Latitudes, a generative art series by Aleksandra Jovanić, invites viewers into a world of infinite motion and abstraction. In this work, elongated shapes follow set paths with minimal deviation, intersecting and weaving through loops, beams, and numbered asteroids, echoing the boundless, cosmic journeys inspired by Italo Calvino’s stories. As the shapes endlessly drift, the series explores themes of direction, connection, and continuity. In many of the scenarios shapes intertwine with each other making it a perfect digital setup for the theme of the exhibition. Jovanić’s unique approach combines her expertise in digital arts and computer science, creating a captivating experience that challenges perceptions of movement and space, thus resembling crafts processes. 

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