Biljana Jotić (née Samardžić), originally from Herzegovina, was born in Mostar (1977). She completed the 7^th grade of primary school in Bileća, and due to her father’s military service, she moved to Belgrade in 1989, where she continued her education and life. Jotić graduated in Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade (MA). During her tumultuous student years (the 1996/97 protests and the 1999 NATO bombing), she volunteered in the Department of Art History library. After graduating, she continued her volunteer practice at the National Museum in Belgrade on the Digitization of Museum Collections Project, as well as at the Vatroslav Lisinski Secondary School of Music. She defended her habilitation and received the title of curator. As an entrepreneur in culture, she founded a gallery dedicated to contemporary creativity and young people (BeoArt-LiveArt, 2006-2015), which she ran as artistic director for 9 years. She is one of the founders of an association that deals with project activities with a focus on young people and women (BeoArt Contemporary 2016-). She is a member of ULUPUDS. Since 2021, she has been the acting director of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, and the Museum director from 2023.

Jotić is the mother of two grown children. She advocates for improving the standards of contemporary artistic and curatorial practices, with a focus on younger generations and the issue of women. Her author’s projects have been supported several times by the funds of the Secretariat of the City of Belgrade, the Ministry of Culture and Information and EU IPA Funds.

As an independent curator, Jotić has realized over 20 solo and over 30 group exhibitions dedicated to young artists, both regionally and internationally. She initiated and realized more than 5 author’s projects, regional and international, independently or in cooperation with civil organizations and public institutions. She has been the selector of more than 10 collective exhibitions, events and festivals, judging several award-winning exhibitions, and initiating and moderating several panels on current topics about contemporary artistic and curatorial practices. More than 30 of her catalog author’s texts were published, as well as texts for the professional magazine for contemporary visual art and spatial communication, Art Life. In addition, she has opened numerous solo and group exhibitions, held more than 10 expert guides through exhibitions and is the author of more than 20 exhibition settings. She has also initiated and realized several art events with a wider program solution, Art Meetings, as well as holding open classes with pupils and students, multimedia workshops, humanitarian events and auctions of contemporary art, as well as ART tours through contemporary visual art.

She has initiated and realized regional research dedicated to female identities in contemporary visual art. A documentary film was made about her co-authored exhibition “The Mediala: Once Upon a Time,” broadcast on the national frequency of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS 3, Cultural Palette). Also, her author’s documentary series “A Woman About a Woman” directed by Boris Miljković was broadcast on the same channel.

            Her past work has been covered by numerous media sources, from television, radio and print media to new forms of Internet portals. Over 10 interviews have been published. She has had more than 20 guest appearances on various TV and radio programs, news programs and those specialized in art and culture.

            In the capacity of acting director, then the director of the Museum of Applied Art, she has actively participated in all program and other activities of the Museum, as well as in the organization and realization of domestic, regional and international exhibitions and projects. She initiated several inter-museum and inter-sectoral collaborations. She advocates cooperation between the civil and institutional, private and public sectors.

            As Commissioner and Curator, Jotić has realized the presentation of the Republic of Serbia at the 23^rd International Exhibition of the Triennale in Milan in 2022; then at the 4^th International Exhibition of the Design Biennale in London (Somerset House); the Prague Quadrennial in 2023 (along with Tatjana Dadić–Dinulović), as well as being the president of the Council for the 18^th International Exhibition of the Biennale of Architecture in Venice in 2023, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

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