“Only after watching this video does Nikolić’s intention become clear: if the art system by its whole constitution aims to make the artist its clerk, then a critical artist must first auto-reflexively bring this function into question in order to define their own speaking position. It’s not about whether the artist is for or against the institution, says Andrea Fraser in her well-known essay on institutional critique, but whether they have a consciousness of their own role in the perpetuation of its positions, and which values they interiorize through the work of their ‘inner curator’ so they wouldn’t become a court jester that is expected to say whatever they want and be rewarded for it. Therefore the cutting edge of Nikolić’s cynical intervention is not turned towards the institution but towards the artist-clerk, in other words towards their ‘correct false consciousness’ (K. Marx) that, as demonstrated by the experience of conceptual art, even in the resistance toward the authority confirms the accuracy of the illusion that this authority can be disputed. The repetition of conceptual forms of expression and appropriation of modern painting do not put to the test only the notions of new and diversity that Groys theorizes about, but establish historical relays for actual analysing of the ambivalent status of the artist within art as both the subject and object of the production of aesthetic contents.”
Dejan Sretenović, the catalogue of the exhibition Voice Over, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-219/14.8.2014.
Inventory No. 1333
Photo: still from the video work

Selected Bibliography:
50^th October Salon, Circumstance. Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2009
Vladan Nikolić: Voice-Over, text by Dejan Sretenović for the solo exhibition, Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, 2009
Jasmina Čubrilo, “Aporija autonomije i heteronomije savremene umetnosti: For the sake of humanity – let art be more ‘arty’”, Nova povezivanja. Od scene do mreže, Faculty for Media and Communication, Belgrade, Artprint, Novi Sad, 2017, 153–167

The Mirrors Series was created in the period between 2011 and 2013 and consists of Reclining Nude, Portrait of Mauro Romito, Portrait of Filippo Riniolo, Train Passing, An Act in Space and The End of the World. Before we see a certain scene, all the works follow and show the process of creation, that is, the work of the artist, who, respecting technical procedures and protocols, diverts attention from the discursive nature of the image/perception to its methods, specificities, i.e., to some of the elements through which its substance/autonomy can be determined and proved.

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-478/1/15.12.2014.
Inventory No. 1396
Photo: still from the video work

Selected Bibliography:
Vladimir Nikolić: The End of the World, solo exhibition, Podroom Gallery, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2014