Secondary Architecture, 2013/14
found wood, metal, 360 x 305 x 230 cm
architect: Boban Mladenović
production: Treći Beograd, Proart Org, Goethe Institut (Belgrade) and Memorijal Nadežda Petrović (Čačak)
curator: Selman Trtovac (Belgrade), Dejan Sretenović (Čačak)
video: Nebojša Vasić, Vesna Grba
photos: Nebojša Vasić and Milenko Savović
First SECONDARY ARCHITECTURE project was produced in the framework of Urban Incubator – a large scale art/architectural event of Goethe Institute that took place from March till November 2013 in Belgrade. Instead of making a sculpture of secondary raw material in the shape of a house, Nikolić joined forces with self-taught Roma ‘architect’ Boban Mladenović in order to build an ordinary slam house and place it at the gallery Magacin in Belgrade. A real slam house dislocated from its natural environment and placed in the gallery invited gallery visitors to think not only about the work of art, but about the social context as well. Second SECONDARY ARCHITECTURE project was produced in the framework of 27th Nadežda Petrović Memorial in Čačak in September 2014. Concept was the same but the result is always different due to the different material found.
Boban Mladenović is living, with his family, in one such house in one of the many non-hygienic, slam settlements on the outskirts of Belgrade. He is well known in his community as the best builder, building houses and shacks for all his relatives and neighbors with secondary raw materials which he collects on the streets.
Several videos made by Nebojša Vasić and Vesna Grba were part of the work exhibited at both galleries. Two different time-lapse movies about the process of building a house were played to the audience inside the houses, on an old (second-hand) TVs. Short documentary video was played outside the houses, explaining the context of the project. At the moment, a long documentary movie about the ‘secondary architecture’ (architecture from found/used materials) is in postproduction.
During the exhibition at the gallery Magacin, a panel discussion about slam architecture was organized. The panelists included the most important Serbian architects, urbanists and artists dealing with the subject, as well as members of Roma community in Belgrade.