In Trance We Trust

The artistic photo publication In Trance We Trust is the result of a twelve-year collaboration between conceptual artist Nenad Racković and photographer Srđan Veljović, which lasted from 2003 to 2014. Their communication, that is, a kind of dialogue, consisted in the translation of Nenad Racković's bodily, performative practices into the medium of Srđan Veljović's artistic photography. Their cooperation started spontaneously and developed gradually.
Racković's extroversion gained momentum in the presence of the camera. From Srđan's side, there were attempts to understand the content, a kind of text performed by the body that spilled over every space in which the body would be, and possessed it. Over time, the written content grew and each new encounter brought a new layer of meaning. The story developed organically, naturally. By myself. No unnecessary agreements. Almost no agreement at all. Like in some kind of trance. Over time, the structure became more complex. Life unfolded and mediumistic interventions, scattered in time and space, took hold of the epoch, piece by piece.

"Racković, as a para-artistic personality and a semi-mythological being, is woven into the narrative of this environment to such an extent (as she is also woven into it) that after so many years of coexistence, it is not quite easy to determine who influenced whom more. Like a medium through which the past and the present constantly flow and communicate, traces and signposts to a simultaneously old and modern Belgrade pass through it and are revealed both in stories and in sensibility. The decadence of the eighties, the disappointments and violence of the hard nineties, the liminal 2000s. And there is no doubt that he is a true representative of former "outlaws" from the rules, who do not look up to role models and idols, if they even have them. Those who deviate from measured behavior and fulfilling social norms purely for the sake of fulfilling them." states Teodora Jeremić, one of the authors of the texts accompanying this publication.

The publication abounds in photo-material accompanied by the statements of the authors themselves - Racković and Veljović, and expert interpretations of prominent art theorists and connoisseurs of the modern and contemporary conceptual art scene - Miško Šuvaković and Jerko Denegri, as well as a contribution by the young art historian Teodora Jeremić. On the occasion of the release of the publication, an exhibition of the same name was held at the Gallery of New Visual Arts (NGVU), curated by Miroslav Karić and Jelena Janković.