Award Ceremony - Belgrade, Serbia 2025
REPORT OF THE JURY FOR THE PRIZE OF THE 90TH ULUS SPRING EXHIBITION 2024
At the 90th ULUS Spring Exhibition held from May 16 to June 19, 2024 in the Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion, 86 exhibitors participated, selected according to a competition to which 190 artists applied. The exhibition encompassed a wide range of generations and individual artistic poetics, which represents the specific quality of revue-designed exhibitions, such as the Spring Exhibition traditionally is.The jury for the 2024 Spring Exhibition Award was composed of Marija Ristić, art historian and curator, Milena Putnik, artist, representative of the ULUS Board of Directors, and Slobodan Dane Stojanović, artist, representative of the ULUS Art Council. Bearing in mind the experience of previous editions of the Spring Exhibition, where the concept of exhibiting individual works of artists was reexamined, as well as the (justified) criticism of the awarding procedure itself, this year's jury decided to see the awarding in a more favorable light, as another opportunity to affirm art as a living stream and as an expression of responsibility towards the participants of the exhibition, the public and its role, and certainly without pretensions to infallibility, universality and excessive importance of awarding.The jury unanimously decided to award the Award of the 90th Spring Exhibition to the artist Jelena Paunković for the work entitled No. 23. The meticulously painted living plant life in the technique of oil on canvas reveals to the attentive observer a small world "worth talking about". Considering preserving the ability to see beauty as a great task that we should all give ourselves, the artist claims that "it is the responsibility of the artist-man to be honest and gentle, even when criticizing." Today's destructive way of life causes a strong need for change, which requires us to look at the usual roles and everyday life in a new way, as well as to take concrete actions towards establishing a close relationship with nature, the earth, plants. Asking herself what kind of land we want to leave to our descendants, the artist says: "The picture shows not only young and lush plants, but also those plants that take on a new role, which will become fertile land for new generations." In the exhibited work of Jelena Paunković (1995), we can see a thoughtful and experienced attitude combined with a masterful and technically flawless execution of the painting, which is why the jury singles out this work, responding to the call to always re-examine art and its role, in accordance with spring and Springtime.