The devil took my dinner.

Come on, I said, let me (this Saturday) critically take a look - as the DPS would say - at the Montenegrin exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - Biennale in Venice (La 19. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura) - certainly not at the Montenegrin pavilion, please, brothers and sisters, media workers - certainly not at the Montenegrin pavilion - mainly because Montenegro does not have (its) pavilion in Venice - Serbia, on the other hand, has (its) pavilion in Venice, because after the separation of the state union of Serbia & Montenegro - Serbia was assigned the role of successor (legal heir or titular of the state union) - so that pavilion in Đardini (Biennale Garden) - which, by the way, was built back in 1938, during the Karađorđević era, according to the design of an Italian architect Bren Del Giudice (Brenno Del Giudice - remind me to tell you a story about that pavilion sometime) - belonged to our brotherly Republic of Serbia - and now it is adorned with the official title "Pavilion of Serbia" - or "Serbian Pavilion", affectionately - so we (when I say - we - it does not refer so much to the Prime Minister Spajić, how much for the state of Montenegro) - we don't have a pavilion in Venice - we have an exhibition, please - and in a rented space.

When I mentioned the state of Montenegro - I almost wanted to add the phrase "and seven beards" - but in the meantime, I was strongly suggested, from a high position - almost from the highest position - that such behavior (in public space) is not appropriate - and that it does not serve my honor - just as "Montenegro - our mother" or "Montenegro - glory to her and mercy" do not serve my honor - just the opposite - because, allegedly, it directly points to the shameful reservations I have towards the state of Montenegro - and towards the current regime - and especially towards the Serbian Orthodox Church - because "glory to her and mercy" - is exclusively related to St. Basil - glory to him and mercy - and it is shameful to use that phrase in any other context.

So, the Montenegrin exhibition at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale opened on May 8th - and I must immediately state, not without the usual dose of disbelief, that I had not noticed, in the meantime, that someone - someone who understands these matters better than me - had taken a critical view of that exhibition.

And since, at this moment, I know absolutely nothing about it - about that rented space and that exhibition in that space - except that it was opened at one point - whatever that means - I poked around a bit (ah, my curiosity will kill me - instead of getting some work done while I'm still young that will reward me with real benefits - as the DPS would say) - and after a while I asked myself the following question: is it possible that there are photos on the Internet from the opening of the Montenegro exhibition - these are exterior photos - the opening ceremony was held on one of those famous Venetian squares (it used to be field - in Venetian - which would mean "field" or "field" - but rather a square - piazza, or piazzetta or piazzale) - but there is absolutely not a single photo of the interior of the Montenegrin pavilion...

That fact intrigued me so much - the devil took my dinner, so to speak - that I searched heaven and earth, up and down - in search of visual material about the specific Montenegrin exhibition - in that rented space, in that meadow...

On the Flickr page of the Government of Montenegro (flickr.com/photos/vladacg/albums/) - where the team s photos - absolutely everything - related to the official activities of the of the Government - there is no mention of the opening of the Montenegrin exhibition at this year's Architecture Biennale in Venice - there is not a single thumbnail - regardless of the fact that (at least) one minister attended the opening - the minister Radunovic (and not Sladunović - or Sladunjavi, God forbid - because in the meantime I got slapped for giving nicknames (derogatory and ugly, they say) to high-ranking state officials and deserving citizens) - the Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property - who also had the honor of ceremonially opening the exhibition - and (at least) one minister - Mrs. Kordic - Minister of Tourism...

And I almost gave Mrs. Kordić the nickname Kordelija - or Cordelia - in Italian - and not Корделия - in Russian...

OK, I apologize, it won't happen again...

***

Finally, after countless adventures, I came across an Instagram profile titled simply - montenegropavilion (instagram.com/montenegropavilion/) - where I learned about the aforementioned interior - and the exhibition itself - and ed the exhibition catalogue - all neatly, in PDF format - with the remark that the review by Mr. Veljko Radulović published in the catalog - modest in scope, but rich in content.

“The fusion of diverse influences that characterizes the work itself,” exclaims Radulović, “is reflected in the catalogue (! - op.a.) in the form of various textual forms: from official texts of the Commissioner (...what was her name, I miss you, God... - op.a.) and curator, through a poetic consideration of the concept of the work written by one of the authors, professional scientific and popular essays, to the author's personal insights into the process itself. A special creative contribution is made by the unique dictionary, inspired by the famous lexicon Rema Kolhasa prepared for the book “S, M, L, XL”, which grows out of the project as a kind of structural matrix”.

“S, M, L, XL” is that lexicon - there is no lexicon prepared for a book - a book is a lexicon - and that lexicon was published back in 1997 - which is to say that, in the meantime, a lot has happened - there was, for example - “Content” - by the same author - in 2003 - with the remark that you had the opportunity to find out about both of those books on the ninth page of Art Vijesti - that was about twenty years ago...

And let me just it that, at first glance, I am very pleased with the Montenegrin exhibition at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale - I am very pleased - well done guys! - congratulations! - a deep bow! - even the guys from Designboom (designboom.com) dedicated an entire paragraph (four and a half lines) to the Montenegrin exhibition - which means that there will be no shortage of praises at this point - in one of the next issues - just give me some time to study all of this - and maybe even rush to Venice to check the whole thing out in person - if my dear sponsors have an ear, so to speak, for such a selfless endeavor...

( Borislav Vukićević )