The exhibition “Femina Balcanica: Mater, Matrona, Augusta, Dea. Woman on the Balkans in Antiquity” of the National Museum Serbia, was opened in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Wednesday, February 14th, 2024, starting at 6 p.m. The exhibition was opened as part of the Statehood Day program, which was coordinated this year by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, with the idea of opening significant exhibitions on this day in a large number of museum institutions in Belgrade, Novi Sad and the interior of Serbia, as part of a unique program. On this occasion, in each of these museum institutions, one minister from the Government of the Republic of Serbia attended the opening. Dubravka Đedović Handanović, Minister of Mining and Energy, came to the National Museum of Kraljevo, who was welcomed by Predrag Terzić, PhD, Mayor of Kraljevo and Darko Gučanin, Director of the National Museum Kraljevo. On that occasion, the guest viewed the permanent exhibition of the National Museum Kraljevo and the exhibition that is about to open.
At the beginning of the opening protocol of the exhibition “Femina Balcanica: Mater, Matrona, Augusta, Dea. Woman on the Balkans in Antiquity” addressed the audience, Darko Gučanin, director of the National Museum Kraljevo, and greeted the guests and the audience. After that, he referred to two historical events that are related to the Day of Serbian Statehood: the First Serbian Uprising in Orašac near Topola, on Sretenje 1904, which started the liberation of the country and the formation of the modern Serbian state, as well as the adoption of the first constitution on the same day in 1835, called the Constitution of Sretenje, which was written by Dimitrije Davidović, the secretary of Prince Miloš Obrenović, and which was adopted at the Grand National Assembly in Kragujevac.
After that, Vera Krstić, museum advisor and head of the Department of Archaeology of the National Museum of Serbia, spoke about the concept of the archaeological exhibition “Femina Balcanica”, which deals with the position of women in the Balkans in the Hellenistic and Roman ages, as well as the five main roles in which we meet her: a woman as a mother and mistress of the house, dedicated to the survival of the family, a woman in society and the public as a wife, a woman as Augusta – the mother of the emperor, which was reflected in the influence of imperial art on the artistic representations of women, as well as women priests of mostly female deities. Talking about femininity, beauty and social status, women in Roman fortifications, possible professional scopes, women in the household or political life, the exhibition aims to introduce the audience to the circumstances in earlier eras, encouraging reflection on the perception of roles and relationships both in past times and in the current age.
The exhibition was opened by Dubravka Đedović Handanović, Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia, who spoke about this year’s concept of celebrating the Statehood Day, about the 18 cultural institutions participating in it. She pointed out that we are proud to be able to present topics ranging from the position of women in ancient times, through the Cyrillic alphabet and our medieval churches and monasteries, through great reformers, such as Vuk Karadžić and Dositej Obradović, but also ruling families and institutions, to works of art by Nadežda Petrović and Sava Šumanovića. She underlined that the Serbian people cannot boast of a large number on a European and world scale, but it is a great nation when you look at its history and culture, and especially the sacrifices it made in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hence, Sretenje, as the Day of Serbian Statehood, combines the two most important struggles, namely the struggle for freedom and the struggle to create one’s own state.