Solo photography exhibition by Stefan Djordjevic
Belgrade Youth Center Gallery
From September 24 to October 11, 2019
Juvenile photo exhibition was created, as a series of documentary photos, in the course of 2014 and 2015 in correctional center for minors in Krusevac, Serbia. During these two years, Stefan Djordjevic stayed in this institution several times in the role of cinematographer, working on the project of the same name (Juvenile, 2016) directed by Jovan Todorovic.
The correctional home in Krusevac is an institution that has a role in the execution of criminal sanctions in suppressing juvenile delinquency. It accommodates minors, the so-called wards, (sometimes of legal age due to having served the sentence) because of a wide variety of crimes committed – from petty theft to murder.
Through a series of photos and videos, Stefan Djordjevic recorded their days, but also their attitude towards photography as a medium. Through their behavior in relation to the camera, the ideological concepts that define them can be read. They do not perceive photography as a form of artistic expression or as an object that has the power to record a moment and serve as evidence of a time, but as an act that allows them to feel important. That’s why in the moments of their release, the main motive and starting point of the author was a document – a narrative built on their everyday life and relationship with people from the outside world.
By placing this exhibition right in the Youth Center (Dom omladine, dom means home), Stefan Djordjevic directly problematizes the concept of home: the characters in his photographs, now from one home, are also temporarily moved to the Youth Center Belgrade – from the margins to the center. The phenomenon of home persists as the overarching idea of this series of photographs, raising an undoubted identity question – where and what is home, as well as whether home for the young people in these photographs is the same as what we, visitors to the exhibition space, call home.
Such transparent and layered engagement, which treats the actors with patience and understanding, is rarely seen in contemporary exhibition activity. This is precisely why Stefan Djordjevic’s theme is confirmed as universal.
