Like fresh air after the rain, O3one greets the artists from Kraljevo!
And not just the artists here with us, printed in the catalog and showcased in the exhibition, but all the artists, the people who think, who work, who create there, facing each day with the questions we all face, those of us who do this work we all do—just as they do, the women and men who make their city the capital in their hearts, and in doing so, make Kraljevo the capital in Belgrade today—which is not easy.
And it’s not easy because Belgrade takes everything, by the force of being the biggest. Belgrade tries to make itself seem important, better than all others, an end in itself, a capital by its well-known parameters. But you from Kraljevo know that this would not be possible for Belgrade, precisely because you exist. You make it so great.
Could it have been the biggest by itself? Bigger than who? More expensive than who? Dirtier than who? Better than who? If you know, let us know!
Without Kraljevo tonight, today, tomorrow morning, there would be no measure for Belgrade.
These women—artists, these men—artists, workers, experts, conspirators of their crafts and their knowledge, this talented and intelligent world knows and feels how hard it is, in fact, to not be a capital, and at the same time, how hard it is to be secondary, second, almost there, despite everything, by a hair, or just on the verge.
Since all of this is simply not true, we refresh Belgrade with Kraljevo today, and tomorrow with Kragujevac, Zrenjanin, or Smederevo, to show both Belgrade and Kraljevo how important they are and how they can’t exist without each other.
O3one is not an excess; it always smells and rushes after the rain, after every rain, refreshing, bringing, cheering, and ventilating.
Today, that rain is from Kraljevo.
Let it be heard.
Without all of us together, and the rain and the storms and the songs, there is nothing. So let’s listen and see the visual poetry from Kraljevo, in the heart of Belgrade’s Dorćol.
One poet (who wasn’t from Belgrade, but from Niš, and today we think he was one of our best) said something that, with a little luck, we can paraphrase in our story:
Let’s wish the artists from Kraljevo a good stage, a good thought, and a good poem, so that we don’t have to listen to the storm.
O3one will definitely be here, don’t worry.
Boris Miljković