Art and the Idea of Statehood exhibition opens

BELGRADE - An exhibition titled Art and the Idea of Statehood opened at the National Museum in Belgrade on Thursday to mark the great Serbian national holiday Sretenje.

The exhibition by art historian Evgenija Blanusa features works of art that are indirectly but creatively related to the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire on February 15, 1804 and to events that were crucial to the creation of the Serbian state.

The exhibition was opened by Minister of Culture Ivan Tasovac, who said that just one out of many uprisings in Serbia has been named "The Serbian Revolution" because, alongside Djordje Karadjordje Petrovic, it involved great reformists, enlighteners, diplomats, writers and poets.

"Serbia's cultural rise and the growing thirst for education throughout the 19th century shaped the idea of the Serbian state," the minister said.

The Museum's Acting Director Bojana Boric Breskovic said that the works of art displayed at the exhibition as historical testaments to the crucial events of that era were a result of Romantic enthusiasm and a strong feeling of national identity.

"This exhibition contributes to the well-grounded idea that the state and its culture are inseparably linked and that no state propaganda is better than what a country's art is saying," Breskovic said.

The exhibition features portraits of the protagonists of Serbia's liberation and the establishment of an independent state of Serbia, of the most meritorious fighters, military officers and strategists, such as Karadjordje and Prince Milos Obrenovic.

Also included are portraits of figures who contributed to this as diplomats, creators of state institutions, officials and ideological leaders - Ilija Garasanin...