Zaječar, Serbia, Serbia & Montenegro

Summer Art School - Felix Romuliana

The University of Arts in Belgrade traditionally organizes the Summer Art School with the aim of exploring artistically enticing cultural-historical and natural environments and reanimating them and making them more visible, using contemporary artistic language and tools. This year, the program is being held at the archaeological site of Felix Romuliana, Gamzigrad's ancient Roman imperial palace near Zajecar in eastern Serbia. Felix Romuliana, which is included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List, represents the monumental residence of the Roman emperor Galerius, built at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century, and named after his mother Romula. Seemingly, the palace has never been completed, and the emperors of the 4th century left the magnificent property to the Christian church. The palace was destroyed by barbarians during the 5th century, whereas Justinian I rebuilt Romuliana as a border fortress in the 6th century.

The Summer Art School workshops are designed as intensive short courses and focused on mentoring and an individual approach to each student. At the same time, the program enables interdisciplinary and intercultural connections among students, while the organizers ensure that all participants are actively involved in the program activities. The participants exchange experiences and learn different ways of applying the acquired knowledge in artistic practice. Each participant will evaluate the program activities upon their completion, and the moderators will analyze the results in cooperation with the students. Personal engagement, dialogue, and joint workshops will help motivate students to implement new perspectives and acquired knowledge in future artistic practice.

The four workshops – on sound direction, photo-video, fine arts, and graphic design - aim to encourage the diversity of artistic expression while simultaneously representing an interactive platform and joint interdisciplinary work of art students, both from within the country and abroad. Next to the dedicated students, the moderators greatly enhance the quality of workshops – notable professors at the University of Arts: Ph.D. Marko Stojanovic from the Faculty of Music, MA Aleksandar Mladenovic from the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), Aleksandar Kostic from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDA), and Slavisa Savic from the Faculty of Applied Arts (FAA).
The goal is for students to freely experiment in the creation of new artistic forms, from contemporary practices, inspired by the tradition and cultural heritage of Eastern Serbia. Another goal is to acquaint students, especially foreign ones, with this region's cultural and historical heritage. Through the sublimation of tradition and a modern approach to art, the workshops will open new horizons for the participating young artists as well as the local population.
As art finds its unexpected ways and young artists their inspiration in towering heights, we decided to call the Summer Art School of the University of the Arts 2023 ArtSalto.

1. Immersive Soundart workshop
Music workshop
Marko Stojanovic, professor at the Faculty of Music
Immersive Soundart workshop includes up to 8 participants, whose simultaneous work is mentored by the workshop moderator. Before each step in the process, the moderator will hold the necessary lecture – a presentation, thus enabling all participants to complete their tasks. Collaboration with participants of other workshops is desirable, in the form of a common theme (multimedia synergy in creativity).
Tasks:
- Designing the concept of a sound image and musical form (theme of work, form of work, elements, compositional aspects). What does the author want to tell the audience and in what way?
- Recording of specific sounds (via audio interface or portable recorder)
- Transferring recordings, processing, and sound manipulation, creating a music (sound) stream
- Sound-music mix
- Preparation for a three-dimensional mix (immersive sound).
- Collection of all samples prepared for 3D sound and work on the immersive mix
- Preparation for the public presentation of the completed assignment - multi-system 3D sound projection setup
- Public presentation upon task completion - all assignments are played in a multi-channel system.

Immersive Soundart is a workshop that will provide participants with the opportunity to do research and creative work in the fields of sound art and electroacoustic music, with the aim of delivering individual as well as a group art projects, which will be publicly presented on the last day of the art school. The goal is for students to freely experiment in the creation of a new art form, which will be created by recording real sound and its processing and manipulation aiming to create a sound time-space unity.
Students will also use previously recorded sound materials and virtual instruments and, if interested, engage in sound synthesis. At the end of the workshop, participants will learn how to independently create a three-dimensional sound space using modern techniques and technology and finally present such work to the audience.

2. Beehive art, graffiti in the palace
Fine Arts Workshop
Aleksandar Mladenovic, professor at FFA
Sending visuals and textual material, internet links that can serve as inspiration for enrolled participants (Old Rome, Hajduk Veljko and Cucuk Stana, King Ibi performed by Zoran Radmilovic, Alfred Zari). Participants can do their initial preparatory drawings prior to attending the summer school or on-site. The focus is on artistic expression that can be transferred to the form of graffiti.
Getting to know each other, creating teams based on the chosen motifs, and determining the teams’ "frontman", discussing graffiti as a medium of visual art. The central motif is the bearer of the message. A conversation about the subject topic.
Organizing a workshop in a covered outside and inside room space, used for the preparation of drawings, collages, stencils, and other actions that do not involve chemical fumes. It is intended to be done with non-toxic water-based sprays.
Work in a hub, artistic environment with participants of other workshops until the end of the Summer School with mutual influence and cooperation.
Getting started with canvases, optional underpainting of local, valerian, and color-neutral tones, transfer of the outline to the canvas, and the start of work. The teams are free to agree on the method of work, whether everyone will have an agreed "timing" and space for their free session, or whether they will work according to the plan as a team.
The surprise factor is the possible replacement of work crews during the workshop.
Leveling up the "high" and "low" culture. The interweaving of the contemporary spirit and reinterpretation of the historical context (perhaps solely as an initial inspiration) in the process. Free movement (improvisation and experiment), while respecting the classical values and artistic elements of composition. Teamwork, interaction, and creative exchange with participants of other workshops. Focus on the very process of artistic research with a visible result, which can be exhibited. A journey outside of the framework of the academic, common, and familiar comfort of the studio and workshops in the free space of the open studio without tasks that are evaluated. Departure from the competitive world into the world of togetherness, the result of which, in the moral sense of authorship, will be joint work. Introducing participants to the history of graffiti and wall drawings, from Lascaux and Altamira, through the Situationists, the New York "Downtown" scene of the early 1980s (Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf), the French artist Ernest Pinyon-Ernest to Banksy and other contemporary authors, Deeface, Jimmy Couty, Shepard Fairey, whose medium is graffiti and billboards, underground posters and other means of urban interventions. Cultural contribution to the local community of Zajecar and Timocka Krajina.

3. Souvenirs from Zajecar and its surroundings
Design workshop
Slavisa Savic, professor at FAA
The workshop will be divided into several time stages.
- Presentation of "souvenir as a phenomenon" – by workshop moderator
- Getting to know Zajecar and its surroundings, presentations, and tours of localities and institutions that are included in the tourist program
- Research work, brainstorming, sketching
- Working on computers, 3D modeling, drawing on paper
- Prototype modeling
- In parallel with modeling and tours, work would be focused on the creation of a visual identity, slogan, and logo of the Tourism Organization of Zajecar.
- Other workshop participants would be welcome to join the process of seeking idea solutions and their implementation
- Presentation of solutions and consultations regarding their realization and implementation
- Printing of posters and visual solutions could be done in local digital printing shops.
Creative presentation of Zajecar and its surroundings through the prism of tourist souvenirs and visual identity. A souvenir we purchase as a memento object of a visited location is nowadays threatened primarily due to a lack of innovation and mass production, even in highly visited tourist locations. Therefore, the idea is to arrive at a solution that will make Zajecar recognizable, using a modern original approach to the topic. With this workshop, the City of Zajecar could become the leader and pioneer of the most original souvenirs in Serbia and beyond. In this way, every souvenir buyer would also be a promoter of this area, because they could showcase it to their friends, colleagues, and neighbors, and with social networks, that number could be spread indefinitely. That is why it is important to approach this task in a new way and add emotions to the product. Each souvenir prototype would be handed over to the tourist organization of Zajecar for potential further realization. In addition to working on souvenirs, participants will also work on packaging solutions, points of sale, as well as on the visual identity of the tourist organization, which would give the overall image of Zajecar as a well-deserved place on the tourist map.

4. Scenes of Truth and Deception
Photography workshop
Aleksandar Kostic, professor at FDA
Students deliver a project in the domain of photo collage as a stage installation and an expanded medium of photography that includes photography, sequence photography, and in series, cinemagraphs, animation, and video. The method of work creation, after the introductory lecture and with mentor guidance, consists of three basic processes:
- Photographing (motifs), archiving, processing, and printing of photographic content
- Staging of photographs, alongside their material and spatial interposition (implementation in real space, cutting, crumpling, etc.) and the potential inclusion of props, objects, or people. Recording the created scene.
- Processing and finalization of artistic work using the appropriate medium. Each student can create up to three pieces of work, depending on their intention and the medium they chose.
Topics under consideration: The relationship between the real and the imaginary; Photographic narrative; Directed versus documentary (false dilemma); Use of archival materials; Collage and photomontage; Sequence and series; Expanded photographic medium - from photobook to photo film.
Intermedia work, which includes the collaboration of students within the workshop, but also the collaboration between different workshops and connecting artistic methods and media into a unique content whole. Over a course of a week, the workshop is also a daily, public, artistic event related to the location as a public place, including the presence and participation of the audience in the artistic practice. All events should have a parallel presentation on the Internet ("Diary"). It is necessary to define a common topic and create an ongoing internet platform.
The choice of Zajecar as the venue for the Summer School is interesting in many ways because it offers various contents and motives within the narrow and wider city core, from the general division into urban-rural and urban-natural, to cultural and historical references, with special respect to the archaeological site of Gamzigrad. This allows the works of art to have a universality of themes while referring to the specificities of the region and historical contexts.

Course leader

Prof. Marko Stojanovic, Composer, Faculty of Music
Prof. Aleksandar Mladenovic, Painter, Faculty of Fine Arts
Prof. Slavisa Savic, Graphic design, Faculty of Applied Arts
Prof. Aleksandar Kostic, Photography, Faculty of Drama
University of Arts Belgr

Target group

1. Immersive Soundart workshop
Music workshop
students of art faculties from the country and abroad

2. Beehive art, graffiti in the palace
Fine Arts Workshop
students of fine arts applied arts, and design from the country and abroad

3. Souvenirs from Zajecar and its surroundings
Design workshop
primarily students of fine arts, applied arts, and design from the country and abroad; following are students of industrial design, sculpture, and graphic design

4. Scenes of Truth and Deception
Photography workshop
primarily students of artistic fields from the domain of film and photography (photographers, cameramen, directors, editors, set designers, costume designers, animators, creators of generated images, creators of special visual effects, etc.), but also dance, choreography, pantomime, acting and theater directing

Course aim

The goal is for students to freely experiment in the creation of new artistic forms, from contemporary practices, inspired by the tradition and cultural heritage of Eastern Serbia. Another goal is to acquaint students, especially foreign ones, with this region's cultural and historical heritage. Through the sublimation of tradition and a modern approach to art, the workshops will open new horizons for the participating young artists as well as the local population.
As art finds its unexpected ways and young artists their inspiration in towering heights, we decided to call the Summer Art School of the University of the Arts 2023 ArtSalto.

Fee info

EUR 160: The student participation fee €160 covers tuition.
All other expenses – course costs, venue costs, room & board (double rooms, 3 meals per day) for the entire one-week stay, as well as organized bus transportation from Belgrade to Zaječar (venue) – are covered by the Summer Art School.