From 22 October 2018 to 22 November 2018, four (4) artists, Bojan Josic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Depy Antoniou (Greece), Martina Lapica (Bulgaria) and Kiril T. Konstantin (North Macedonia), met in Novi Sad, and did their artistic research on the events of World War II (Novi Sad Raid), by exploring personal narratives, audiovisual archives, printed materials, letters, journals and testimonies from the period 1941-1945 in Vojvodina. They also examined these historical sources in combination with contemporary art practices and through establishing contacts with the contemporary cultural scene of Novi Sad.
The artists had the opportunity to witness the signs of the past themselves, by visiting the most important memorials and monuments of the January Raid (21-23 January 1942) and of the Partisans: “The Family”, by the sculptor Jovan Soldatoviæ (built in 1971 and classified as immovable cultural heritage spot of great significance), and “The Freedom” (Spomenik “Sloboda”) by Sreten Stojanoviæ on Mount Fruška Gora (built in 1951 to honour the fallen soldiers of World War II).
It is worth noting that during the art residency, Vojvodina Civic Center organised lectures and workshops on political art, the role and the responsibility of the artist, and the importance of artworks adopting a critical stance towards historical events. In addition, the artists opened their studio to the locals, chatted with the visitors, and informed them about their works, and their stylistic approaches and processes.
On 15 January 2019, Vojvodina Civic Center opened the multimedia exhibition EHO77 at Svilara – Kulturna Stanica, presenting the artworks that were created during this art residency. The exhibition consisted of four conceptually different works that were interrelated, complementing each other, thus creating a variety of perspectives of one of the most traumatic events in the history of Novi Sad.