The ninth edition of the art+science festival was closed at the Jevremovac Botanical Garden, where visitors had the opportunity to explore the challenges of human impact and technological progress on nature and ecosystems from 25 September to 31 October 2024. Through various multimedia installations, video works, performances, workshops, and debates, the festival fostered dialogue on critical issues concerning environmental protection and the responsibility we hold toward biodiversity.
Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, the Botanical Garden became both a stage and an exhibition space for artistic projects which blend science and art. The festival featured the Interlacing exhibition, showcasing 12 innovative installations by artists from both Serbia and abroad, allowing the audience to enjoy a unique experience of art integrated into the Jevremovac environment. The festival was structured around six thematic weeks, each exploring different aspects of the climate and social crises. Artists and scientists provided diverse responses to the challenges we face as a species through a series of lectures, performances, panel discussions, and other programmes featured throughout the festival.
Dobrivoje Lale Erić, CPN’s head of the art+science programme, emphasized that the programme's role was to connect science and art, enabling the creation of interdisciplinary works that resonate with the world and time we live in.
Dobrivoje Lale Erić, head of the art+science programme:
The longest and, it seems to all of us, best edition of the festival so far, highlighted the values, knowledge and tradition of botany and biological sciences in Serbia. However, the primary focus remained on the serious consequences of climate change and environmental degradation, which we are now facing daily. As the installations and exhibits are being dismantled and packed, and as we slowly depart "Jevremovac," preparations are already under way for the next, jubilee edition—the tenth art+science festival! Since 2014, the Center has been bringing together relevant players at the intersection of science and art, with the first art+science exhibition held at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade in April 2016. In celebration of this programme and the jubilee, the entire year of 2025 will be marked by numerous art+science events, which we will announce by the end of this year.
On the final day of the festival, Thursday, 31 October, the programme "Plant Records: A Poetic Walk Through the Botanical Garden" was held. The artistic performance and poetry dedicated to climate-related topics launched a unique dialogue about nature and the time we live in. During the one-hour walk, four experts in different fields—artist Vladimir Bjeličić, climatologist Vladimir Đurđević, poet Ljiljana Ilić, and researcher-gardener Petar Laušević—shared their observations about the plant world, reflecting on contemporary society, work and leisure, as well as the challenges brought by climate change and global geopolitical situation.
The 2024 art+science festival was part of the CPN's initiatives under the European Digital Deal project. This project, led by Ars Electronica from Linz, is supported by the EU's Creative Europe programme, involving 13 partners from 11 European countries.
For more information, please visit https://artandscience.rs/en/
