EXHIBITION
LITTLE RED ELEPHANTS

Zolt Kovac
Miodrag Krkobabic
Milena Maksimovic
Vladimir Nikolic
The art and design group SKART

Project leaders: Per Platou and Sinisa Spasojevic

“If you try to find the term “Little Red Elephants” in a dictionary or encyclopedia, I have to disappoint you and tell you that you won’t succeed. These small creatures have not yet taken their place in such documents. “Little Red Elephants” were born a few years ago as an accidental hybrid, and since that time has not evolved beyond their initial infantile state of innocence. Isolated in their own reservation park, the little red elephants knew only of the existence of each other and their masters who provided them with their daily needs and made sure that they didn’t escape from the reservation. However, some elephants managed to leave their habitat, never to return. Secluded in the reservation and isolated from the rest of the world, the remaining elephants had no means of finding out what happened to them. They had simply disappeared.”
– Vesna Madzoski

The title of the exhibition refers to the artists’ own self-image. Exotic red elephants are perceived as ‘other’ and the title problematizes this mechanism as the ‘other’ is understood as ‘the suppressed artist’ under Milosevic’s regime. The artists showing their works at UKS do have an identity that reaches beyond being representations of the opposition in Belgrade even though this is an important parameter. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between UKS and the Belgrade Center for Contemporary Arts. It is also the first part of an exchange between young Norwegian artists and Serbian artists. In February 2003, a handful of Norwegian artists visit Belgrade and the areas around the city. Head of Belgrade Center for Contemporary Arts, the art historian Branislav Dimitrijevic gives a guest lecture on the Yugoslavic art scene and the project “Serbian Art During War Time”.

[excerpt, translated]