The work Long Journey to Europe is part of a series of sculptures, hybrid objects, which Antonijević initiated in 2006, where he uses elements of church buildings and elements of tents. The hybrid object created by combining different forms becomes an object with the character of an industrial product and the sculpture gets a new “function”. In a way, he creates the objects that are a product and mirror of social reality that has changed through the wars, in which different identities (Balkan, post-Yugoslav, national, Eastern European, religious) are intertwined.

Antonijević uses colour as much as form (volume and plasticity), to define artworks, introducing an additional level of meaning. The olive-green colour clearly evokes a military character, while the motif of the trailer in combination with the grill resembles a portable “barbecue”.

As the artist himself points out, the title of the work makes you think of the mobility of the object, and this military-church trailer without its own drive was made to shed light on Serbia’s controversial position in relation to Western Europe during the transition period. Antonijević thus suggests and draws attention to the fact that the entire society in the mentioned period has turned into an inert mass that only has hedonistic-masochistic potential.

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-220/1/14.8.2014.
Inventory No. 1334
Photo: Courtesy the artist

Selected Bibliography:
Radoš Antonijević, KOREKTIVI OBLIKA: Vodič kroz skulptorske fenomene, Belgrade: ProArtOrg, 2014
Radoš Antonijević, Na svome mjestu stajati, catalogue of the solo exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka, 2017
Radoš Antonijević, Dekoltei i brojanice, Aug.a 23 – Sept.13, 2019, catalogue of the solo exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, 2019
Sonja Jankov, “Arhitektonske makete u suvremenim umjetničkim praksama postsocijalističke”, Život umjetnosti, a journal for modern and contemporary art of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka, 2017
Sonja Jankov, “Arhitektura u diskursu savremene umetnosti”, text in the catalogue of the exhibition XIV UAD (Art, Architecture, Design) – To Build Again: Artists on Architecture, Nov. 11 – Dec. 6, 2019, Cultural Centre of Pančevo: Gallery of Contemporary Art, Pančevo, 2019, 4–11

Perfection consists of 36 road signs warning of falling rocks on the road, specially made for the needs of the work. For the artist, they represent a schematic image of a material that rolls, shreds and changes shape. Precisely arranging the triangular signs, the artist forms a new image within the composition in which the rectilinear movement of rolling rocks becomes circular, and the landslide on the road interpreted as a warning is seen in the broader picture of reality as a segment of a harmonious process.
As Antonijević himself claims – every landslide is part of a circle, a story about the circulation of matter and the harmony of movement.

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-311/12.12.2017.
Inventory No. 1500
Photo: Courtesy the artist

Selected Bibliography:
Radoš Antonijević, Neka vrsta radosti, Apr. 8 – May 11, 2015, catalogue of the solo exhibition, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2015
Aleksandra Ćuk, “Svet je sočan, ali ume da zasmrdi” (interview with the artist), Danas, Belgrade, Apr. 29, 2015, https://www.danas.rs/kultura/svet-je-socan-ali-ume-da-zasmrdi/, accessed on Mar. 20, 2020
Žolt Kovač, “Radoš Antonijević / Neka vrsta radosti” (interview with the artist), Supervizuelna – magazine for contemporary art, Belgrade, May 12, 2015, http://www.supervizuelna.com/rados-antonijevic-neka-vrsta-radosti/, accessed on Mar. 20, 2020
Guided tour of the exhibition Some Kind of Joy, SEEcult.org, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3-tWdeD0Fk, accessed on March 20, 2020