CONTEXTUAL PRACTICES WITHIN THE ROOMATE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROJECT

Text topic: Context in Arts and Media

Text author: Маида Груден и Мара Прохаска Марковић

The text examines contextual practices through the example of The Roommate Artist in Residence Project launched by the Visual Arts Department of Students’ City Cultural Centre and performed at Students’ City (New Belgrade student campus) in late 2014. While taking into consideration the local context and specificities, the text reveals the key aspects and strategies of participatory art applied within a specific project, namely: research and work with community, shedding light on a specific social problem, placing emphasis on the creative process and unforeseeability of the outcome of the art process, appropriation of methods and forms of everyday life communication in art projects, delegated performance. The problems of students residing at Students’ City, no longer aparent for becoming habitual, were seen in a new perspective and attained transparency through the analysis of art activities of the internationally performing artist Aleksandar Jestrović or Jamesdean, the first participant to the The Roommate Artist in Residence Project. The text inevitably links the reflection of micro-context experiences with the examination of changes and courses developing in a broader social and historical context.