Vida Knežević

Vida Knežević is an art historian, curator and art critic. She is a co-founder of Kontekst collective, whose work represents the process of connecting critical theory and practice, artistic production with broader social context. In 2014 she co-founded the educational project and the online magazine Masina.rs, where she works as co-editor and author exploring the relationship between contemporary art, critical theory of culture, economy, politics and activism. In 2019. she completed her PhD thesis entitled ‘Theory and Practice of the Critical Left in Yugoslav Culture (Yugoslav Art Between the Two World Wars and the Revolutionary Social Movement)’. She was teaching at the College of Fine Arts and Design, Belgrade, on the courses of Art History and Theory of Contemporary Art and Culture, and was a lecturer in Curatorial Studies at the University of Arts, Belgrade, in the frame of the MAIPR Program - MA in International Performance Research.

She has curated numerous projects and exhibitions in the field of curatorial, artistic and activist practices such as: ‘Critical Machine - Education, Organization and Social Critique’ (2014 – ongoing); ‘We Have Built Cities for You - An Exhibition on the Contradictions of Yugoslav Socialism’ (2017-2018); ‘Unexpected Encounters’ (2013); ‘About Solidarity’ (2013); ‘Permanent Art Class. Re-performance of the Unknown’ (2012); ‘From Creative Work to a Creative City’ (2011); ‘Urban Machines and Spaces of Struggle’ (2010); ‘Without Borders? Some Critical Reflections on the European and Global State of Borders’ (2009); ‘Young Visual Artists Awards’ (2008); ‘EXCEPTION: Contemporary Art Scene from Prishtina’ (2007/2008); ‘Sex, Work and Society’ (2006/2007); etc. She was assistant curator at the 49th October Salon ‘Citizen Artist, Citizen Artist, Contextual Art Practices”’, 2008.

She is currently is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of the Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia (NKSS), a member of the Association of Art Critics AICA - Serbian section, as well as a member of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS). She is the winner of the ‘Lazar Trifunović’ Award for 2024, for critical thought and critical views on contemporary fine and visual art, expressed in written forms and electronic media, for the author's text published in the accompanying catalog of the exhibition ‘Kun: Artist-Worker-Fighter’, in the SANU Gallery.

Last updated 31 Mar 2025

Vida Knežević

Mass Student Protests in Serbia: The possibility of different social relations

Art at Work – At the Crossroads between Utopianism and (In)Dependence

Realize! Resist! React! – Performance and Politics in the 1990s in the Post-Yugoslav Context