The thirty-third Žiča Spiritual Assembly “Transfiguration 2024” was officially opened in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Friday, August 16th, 2024, starting at 8 p.m. Nemanja Trifunović, curator of the National Museum Kraljevo, as the of conference protocol of the ceremony, greeted the dignitaries, guests and audience and on that occasion looked back on the history of the Žica spiritual assembly “Transfiguration”, after which he gave the floor to the mayor of Kraljevo Predrag Terzić, PhD.
On this occasion, Terzić greeted everyone present and pointed out that Kraljevo has been the centre of Serbian poetry for thirty-three years during the Žica Spiritual Assembly. He also emphasized the importance of the scientific gathering “Publications in the Development of Society and State IV: Public Word of Public Figures”, which the National Museum Kraljevo has been organizing for four years, with the help of the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade and the Institute for Political Studies from Belgrade, and which is slowly becoming traditional. Thanks to Ljubodrag P. Ristić, retired senior scientific associate at the Balkan Studies Institute of SASA, then professor Zoran Mirković, dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, Miša Stojadinović, director of the Institute for Political Studies in Belgrade, as well as Milomir Stepić, PhD, scientific advisor of the same institute, we managed to gather in Kraljevo Serbian scientific the elite.
Darko Gučanin, director of the National Museum Kraljevo, then pointed out that the Museum hosts the exhibitions of two exceptional cultural institutions, which certainly belong to the most important in our national framework. We are talking about the National Museum of Serbia, the central museum institution, and the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, the parent gallery institution, with which the National Museum Kraljevo is cooperating for the first time in an exhibition exchange. On this occasion, he expressed great respect and gratitude for the presence of Bojana Borić Brešković, MA, director of the National Museum of Serbia and Snežana Mišić, PhD, museum advisor, deputy director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad.
The exhibition “Cities: A Certain View. From the Collection of Graphics by Foreign Authors of the National Museum of Serbia”, by Dragana Kovačić, PhD, was opened by Bojana Borić Brešković, MA, director of the National Museum of Serbia, who expressed her satisfaction that her institution is once again a guest at the National Museum Kraljevo, within the framework of the Žica Spiritual Assembly. She pointed out that the exhibition, through graphics and views of European cities, represents the city as a key place where modern culture and art began and developed dramatically and rapidly, first at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, and then from the 19th to the 20th century.The authors of the exhibited works moved in an expressive sense through cleared spaces, using the artistic style and language that previous generations have verified and adopted. These are the authors of the so-called middle current in artistic trends. That is why their representation of the city is “certain”, and there are no turning points in the story. In it, two ways of understanding the city separated by a century are confronted, and their works show how the image of the city has changed, without major breaks and drama.
Snežana Mišić, PhD, deputy director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, opened the exhibition “Inspired by Italy”, authored by Stanislava Jovanović Mindić, which is dedicated to Serbian-Italian cultural and artistic ties, i.e. Serbian artists who are role models and incentives for their creativity found in the artistic tradition of Italy during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with copies of paintings based on the works of the Italian masters of painting Parmigianino, Guido Reni and Pompeo Batoni, the exhibition also includes paintings and drawings depicting the cities, people and heritage of Italy, as well as graphic sheets by foreign artists based on the works of Raphael, Titian, Anibal Caracci. Over 30 works of art by artists such as Novak Radonić, Aksenti Marodić, Jeftimij Popović, Pavle Simić, Dimitrije Petrović, Nadežda Petrović, Vasa Eškićević and others testify to how Serbian painters saw and experienced Italy, but also how the attitude towards Italian art contributed to shaping individual works of art. At the end of the ceremonial opening, Nemanja Trifunović invited the audience to follow the programs of the Žiča Spiritual Assembly, which will last until August 19th, when the „Žiča Chrysobull” will be handed over to the poet Miroslav Cera Mihailović in the dining room of the Žiča Monastery.