Topčiderka

As a part of 9 SOLO EXHIBITIONS joint project at Cultural centre of Belgrade, 2025.

Topčiderka, nickel-plated metal, 255 x 40 cm, 2025 
Duboki potok, UV print on alubond, 110 x 73 cm, 2025

 

Excerpts from the text about Topčiderka by Senka Ristivojević

The destiny of the Topčider River is the story of a complex character, our heroine the Topčiderka. It is created as a number of different brooks, the largest of which being the Deep Brook, are joined together in the vicinity of the Railway Station “Ripanj Tunnel” on the Belgrade-Niš railway. With its entire length of 31 kilometres, the Topčiderka entirely remains on the territory of the City of Belgrade, and near Ada Ciganlija, it flows into the Čukarica Backwater of the River Sava. It runs through different landscapes and washes away what is better forgotten. At the place of its origin and during its course through less urbanised zones, this is tame water, like a forest fairy, protector of nature and woods. Trees, fern and rock are reflected in it. Entering populated areas and passing the industrial zones on the outskirts of the big city, the river changes its character. In a couple of places, the river course has been completely covered, and what once used to be a natural river flow is now turned into a collector of wastewater.

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Using the sheet metal, Nina draws the entire course of the Topčider River, also keeping the segments covered with concrete in the industrial zone. The sheet is then immersed in nickel, materialising the most hazardous threat for the living world in this river. Nickel is among the most toxic metals, and if its concentration is increased, it can be very hazardous for health. It gets into rivers mainly by being washed away from the ground, where it occurs due to the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, and through the release of industrial waste, as well as from the air, when fossil fuels are burnt.

Nina’s environmental research is inseparable from studying media and the manners in which images are created. Almost always, the artist starts from a photograph. Then she separates different layers of the image, cleaning and highlighting the essence, which results in abstract forms and drawings which she then transposes into a different medium. Natural landscape gats its counterpart in space. In the photograph titled The Deep Brook, taken at the place of origin of the Topčider River, we see our heroine in her full glory, leaves reflected on her surface, in contrast with the nickel-plated contour of the river course. The dystopian images and apocalyptic scenarios are on display in the field, in the valley of the Topčider River. Nina Ivanović offers us an opportunity to peer into the rupture of the Topčider River’s course, nickel-plated and shiny, and see our own reflection in it, as a suggestion of the cause and the solution.

 

 

Thank you to the Dr. Jelena Pejović and Dr. Marko Joksimović for research assistance.