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CITY ART2SIT ON
August 2008 – Concrete benches of unusual shapes and colors, designed by several artists from Belgrade, are now
placed on the plateau in front of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute at Kalemegdan, in Student Park, and
along the Sava River waterfront.
Thanks to the Telenor Foundation, this unique city furniture was presented as part of the closing exhibition at the
Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF) Art2SitON. Artistic benches at the city’s busiest locations will remain permanently
available to the people of Belgrade. While relaxing and sitting comfortably, the citizens can also use broadband
Telenor Internet for free.
As the main sponsor of the exhibition and the golden sponsor of BELEF, the Telenor Foundation, with its partner on
the project – the Kiosk Contemporary Art Platform, helped decorate the city with creative solutions by visual artists
Igor Štanglicki, Žana Poliakov, Mladen Hrvanović, Stefan Ikonić, and Aleksandar Denić. They each designed one
bench, which was cast in ten differently painted copies. Some of the artists are also involved in the Foundation’s
related Start Up the City project, which involves painting murals in cities across Serbia.
This central exhibition at BELEF rounded up the festival’s main idea and objective - to change the appearance of
the city through art and to leave a permanent trace on daily paths of passers-by. The benches will be regularly
maintained by public utility company “Zelenilo Beograd”, and renovated each year during BELEF.
“The Art2SitOn project personifies BELEF’s core strategy by addressing the issue of how to transform an annual event
into a permanent cultural and artistic intervention by locating new places for cultural events, designing art at various
sites around the city, changing its infrastructure. This turns an artistic intervention into permanent public artwork
with a clear function in the everyday life of the citizens,” says Dorijan Kolundžija, the Art Director of BELEF 08.
Through art projects such as Art2SitOn, Belgrade joins many European cities where similar concepts have been tried
out with great success.
50 Corporate Responsibility