…The art engaged us. It is not us who engage art. First understanding, than valuation…
Stage masker – vigmaker, Art Historian (MA), Curator, Director of the Museum of Applied Art.
Origin from the Hertzegovina, born in Mostar, lived in Bileća, moved to Belgrade in case of the father’s command as a militarry person, she graduated Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy, Unoiversity of Belgrade (MA). After completing her one year volunteer practice at the National Museum of Serbia, she passed exams, defended habilitation and received the title of Curator. She continued her professional practice by independently founding a gallery, which she ran for 8 years as an art director, after which she initiated the establishment of an art association of which she is one of the founders. She initiated and realized several author’s projects, regional and international, large number of author’s solo and group exhibitions. A numerous of her author’s texts have been published in professional magazines and publications. She was the selector of numerous international exhibitions, she was the judge of award-winninig exhibitions, initiated and moderated several panels, expert guidance through exhibitions. Author of numerous exhibition settings. She is the author of the documentary series Woman about a Woman, directed by Boris Miljković, and co-author of the documentary film Mediala: Once upon the time, produced by national TV (RTS 3). Her author’s projects have been supported several times by funds from the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Secretariat of the City of Belgrade, as well as IPA funds of the European Union. Mother of two grown children. It advocates for the improvement of the standards of contemporary artistic and curatorial practices, with a focus on young generations and the issue of the female gender.
Since October 2021, she leads the Museum of Applied Art in the capacity of director. She is actively engaged in curatorial and programming activities together with management in order to organize museum activities and encourage various forms of cooperation. The focus of the strategy is on colaboration between the institutional and non-institutional, the public and private sectors. She is a commissioner and curator of several projects that represent the Republic of Serbia at international manifestations, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture: Triennale of Design and Architecture in Milan (2022), Biennale of Design in London and Prague Quadrennial of Scenic Design (2023), Art Biennale in Malta (2024) and Biennale of Architecture in Venice (2025). She presided the Council of the Biennale of Architecture in Venice for 2023. She is a member of the Council of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade.
Her previous work has been covered by numerous and different media sources, at the regional and international level. Her biography can be found in the publication Successful people in Serbia, published by An Oxford Worldwide Press Publication.
Personally
About my interest in art
If I were to make a division in my current work and practice, I would say that as a curator I am most
interested in contemporary art, its existence in relation to space and time. I compare space with the
experience of man, with notions of freedom and shaping, openness and closedness, and I look at
time through continuity. Art has to be a reflection of the time we live in, because the artist is part of
our time, the moment we live and we share together, something like witnesses. With my curatorial
practice of revitalizing old spaces with contemporary art, I strive to revive something already created
in the past and thus merge the time epochs. Special part of the activities I dedicate to women in contemporary cretivity and the female identity in culture and society
About art
Art is an expression of an active relationship between a sensibility of a person and their need for
expression. This means it has to be a reflection of time and space. I believe the sense are an integral
part of the interaction between the artist and the observer. That is way the touch with the essential
being is necessary. It is not enjoyment but recognition. Art is a matter of spirituality, that is of the
touch with the truth. In one of its shapes it follows the established and formed truth, and in another
it follows the tendency to discover its own truth, but always in the immediate contact with the truth.
The difference in creation is in the experience of truth. On top of it comes the mastery, as another
step of the creation process. Specificums, delicateness, recognising of intuitive moments in individual
expressions lead to trust. An individual in relation to the society, an individual in relation to the
collective through the theory of experience.
Contact
Gordana Tomić
" WONDERFUL HUMANITARIAN ACTION, tomorrow, Friday, December 15, 2017 at 6pm in the Old Captain's Art Gallery in Zemun. Visitors bring gifts for children without parental care and receive signed reproductions of prints by our eminent artists. Every honor to Biljana Jotic at the organization, see you there ...! "
Foundation "Blue"
"The Foundation “Blue” would like to thank everyone who visited the exhibition yesterday and attended the excellent guided tour through the exhibition of art historian Biljana Jotic."
Natalija Miladinović
"At the opening of the exhibition" Art on Paper ", Art meeting within NOA FEST of course nothing without our Biljana Jotić"
Vesna Todorović
"One great exhibition takes place in the showroom of the National Library of Serbia, with the smirk of a museum, although contemporary artists are represented, mostly of the younger generation - don't miss this sweet moment! The author of this idea and curator is my dear colleague, Biljana Jotić "