The visual arts week of the Kaleidoscope of Culture and the exhibition Lasting Values – The Artwork Collection of DDOR open their gates on Friday
The Gallery of Matica srpska hosted a press conference where the program of the fourth segment, dedicated to visual art, within the legacy program arch of the Kaleidoscope of Culture, was announced. The said segment will begin on Friday, September 24th on Gallery square at 8:22 P.M. On the same occasion, the opening of the special exhibition titled Lasting Values – The Artwork Collection of DDOR was also announced, where a selection of eighty artworks from a collection comprised of nearly 400 works and created over five decades, will be displayed. The grand opening of the exhibition will take place at 06:00 P.M., also on Friday September 24th, with free entrance for all visitors.
Speakers at the press conference included Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, PhD, director of the Gallery of Matica srpska, Giorgio Ambrogio Marchegiani, Chairman of the Executive Board of DDOR, as well as Nemanja Milenković, director of the foundation „Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture“.
“The artwork collection of DDOR was created in real-time, in collaboration with artists who were actively creating at a certain time and, as such, it reflects the particular moment and the art scene of the given period. With the exhibition Lasting Values – The Artwork Collection of DDOR, our intention was to illustrate the values cherished by DDOR through artworks divided into four segments. The first segment of the exhibition is comprised of a selection of landscapes and scenery titled Rural and Urban Ambiances as a Stronghold, whereas the second segment consists of Scenes as the Starting Points for Artistic Explorations. The third one includes various themes brought together under the title Mythology, History, Fantasy, Melancholy. The idea of people as pillars of the company is visible even today in the last segment of the exhibition titled Bearers of Ideals“, said Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, director of the Gallery of Matica srpska.
“Our exhibition manifests our values – long-lasting, continuous and dedicated care for values. On a daily basis, those are the values of our clients and in the long run, the noble values which enrich the society we live and work in with works of culture and art. This is the reason why our goal is to create and support lasting values. Tijana and the Gallery of Matica srpska team have been and still are irreplaceable allies in this endeavor of ours, especially in our intention to make DDOR’s collection available to the public. We are particularly proud of the fact that this collection was put together over several decades. By purchasing artworks directly from artists, our company has strongly supported them and their work. All of this becomes even more significant today, as Novi Sad approaches the year of “European Capital of Culture”, the project which is also sponsored by DDOR, therefore we have gathered today to announce the week dedicated to visual arts”, said Giorgio Ambrogio Marchegiani, Chairman of the Executive Board of DDOR.
„In the Kaleidoscope’s culture of togetherness, which includes cultural institutions, the non-institutional scene, freelance artists, as well as citizens, we in fact obtain a fifth ally in the form of business companies, and there is no one better for the job than DDOR, which represents an important part of Novi Sad’s identity. Programs on Gallery square, which start off the visual arts week of the Kaleidoscope of Culture, represent a pilot project which will indicate how this legacy program arch will function even once the year of the title European Capital of Culture is over“, said Nemanja Milenković, director of the foundation „Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture“.
The exhibition Lasting Values – The Artwork Collection of DDOR consists of eighty artworks selected from a much vaster collection of DDOR which includes nearly four hundred works, meticulously collected under the roof of this company for more than five decades. This exhibition includes the work of sixty-five artists belonging to different generations, ranging from those who took their first steps into the world of art between the two world wars, to those who started creating art in the course of the last decade of the 20th century and continue to do so during the first two decades of the 21st century. The exhibition is a product of the long-standing and fruitful cooperation between the Gallery of Matica srpska and DDOR, spanning several years and including various projects of preservation and presentation of cultural heritage. It represents another segment of their partnership, confirmed by the Protocol on cooperation which the two institutions signed.
The Kaleidoscope of Culture is one of the most relevant program arches of the European Capital of Culture which marks the end of summer in Novi Sad. In the course of five weeks, it promotes five different arts – architecture, literature, performance, visual and applied arts. Events take place across the city at unusual locations, which helps bring culture closer to everyone and promotes the culture of togetherness by connecting cultural institutions, non-government organizations, artists and citizens, as well as socially responsible companies. The Kaleidoscope of Culture is also a legacy project, which will remain part of the city even once the year 2022, the year of the title, is over. This year’s visual arts week of the Kaleidoscope of Culture (from 24.09. to 30.09.) will be opened on Gallery Square, a place which traditionally belongs to visual art and which will in the future be transformed into a space for fostering existing and creating new lasting values. DDOR is the official insurance provider for the project „Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture“, and for the program arch of the Kaleidoscope of Culture.