How do cultural workers live, and what do they dream about? We asked Adrijana Gvozdenović and Nela Gligorović

When I met Adrijana Gvozdenović for the first time, it was the beginning of an experimental research project led by Kurziv/kulturpunkt.hr a bit more than a year ago. We got to know each other in a Zoom meeting, where we started discussing ‘anomalies’. We naturally got into conversations about being different versus being part of something, and how this sense of belonging can change within the art world. Neither did I know who Adrijana was, nor did I ever hear of her alter-ego Adrian Lister before that. But through these conversations, I understood that we share a suspicion towards self-proclaimed peculiarities as well as an urge to reflect on how to actually exchange knowledge without showing off.

Hearing about the exhibition in Podgorica made me curious about how she would use a solo show for her practice which avoids many of the categorizations of artistic practices, and which usually involves collaboration and collectivity. I cannot say that it came as a surprise that even this moment of presentation turned into something that activates the audience, provides space for learning, and – ultimately – also transgresses separations between traditional roles in the museum, curator and artist.

When meeting to talk about the exhibition in Podgorica, it was the first time since discussing ‘anomalies’ that we met online again, but also the first time that we only focused on Adrijana’s artistic practice. There was a lot to unpack, especially about the trajectory from her alter-ego Adrian Lister towards the idea of a so-called workers’ club, which turns the museum into a place for gatherings.

Maximilian Lehner: How did your workers’ club find its way into the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro?

Adrijana Gvozdenović: There was an open call for the representation in Biennale for curators and artists together. So Nela approached me with the idea of applying together to it. Initially, there was my long-term work Who is Adrian Lister? at the core of the project.

Maximilian: Since you put the question already: Who is Adrian Lister?

Adrijana: When I moved to Belgium for my studies, I translated a text for my CV, and the automatic translation made “Adrian Lister” out of my name. So, I started to ask “Who is Adrian Lister?” and made short performances out of it for several years. After my studies, there was a break in using this persona, and I only began to work with Adrian Lister as a tool when I was asked to participate in exhibitions dealing with identity or national representation. That’s also how Nela and I met. She invited me in 2021 to present Adrian Lister in Montenegro, within an exhibition dealing with the post-Yugoslav intellectual cultural space. It was also at a time when I had to move from Belgium back to Montenegro, like going to exile in my own country, so it was an interesting moment for Adrian Lister. 

Nele Gligorović: Our collaboration began within the exhibition Marginalia of the Common (Marginalije zajedničkog), or how to read ‘yugoslavism’ in contemporary artistic practices. The exhibition emerged as a gravitating program of a regional initiative on a common language and the survival of the Yugoslav cultural space, despite state systems, borders, territories, and other political dictates. By questioning issues of identity, language, migration, institutions, and labor in art, Adrijana’s research Who is Adrian Lister?  was the ideal choice of a contemporary Yugoslav, a migrant, and a cultural worker in Belgium. Since then, we have been talking, sharing tools, experiences, materials, and knowledge…

Photo: Anja Marković

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