The Centre for Visual Culture

The Centre for Visual Culture at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade was established already in the mid-1970s out of the museum’s educational department. At that time, the Centre’s programmes were guided by the methodology of permanent education and grounded in an ideological conviction regarding the social role of the arts. The main aim of the Centre was “education through art”, and its activities comprised of a series of public seminars and lectures, held both inside the Museum and also in cooperation with schools, faculties, factories and public companies, with the goal to reach broadest public. 

Today, the profile and the role of the Centre had to be adjusted to the actual socio-political situation, but also to recent developments in art practices. The new strategy of the Centre was intended to continue local as well as international cooperation with educational institutions and professionals of various profiles and to create a platform for all of the contributors: an open laboratory where they could discuss issues surrounding contemporary art and its social function in relation to the contemporary art system and socio-political context that frames it.

The Centre is thus oriented towards both research on annually or biennially suggested topics developed and profiled by the engaged team, and towards education through public presentations and talks by team members and guest experts of the program. Above all, the idea of this working methodology was to create a melting pot for individual or group production, wherein research or artistic projects would critically address the issues suggested with the general topic of the Centre.