EXHIBITIONS – Foster + Svensson branding agency

The Thread of Time exhibition by Nataša Šarić

Vladimir von Bergdorff — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 19:00:12 +0000

The National Museum of Pančevo, on Saturday, March 8, officially opened the exhibition “The Thread of Time” by Nataša Šarić, a famous Serbian fashion designer. The exhibition, with the support of the City of Pančevo, was previously presented in Versailles, Paris. The Thread of Time has now arrived in Serbia, at the National Museum of Pančevo, and will last until March 15.

The exhibition itself did not have a classic opening, addresses, or access, but a gathering in the friendly atmosphere of the Museum, where guests could share impressions and enjoy art, fashion, and an audio-visual experience.

The Thread of Time exhibition is truly unique, a combination of fashion, geometry, and electrical engineering inspired by the visions and discoveries of scientist Nikola Tesla. Through form, texture, and dynamic contrasts, energy revives Tesla’s genius in contemporary design.

Nataša is a true avant-garde fashion designer who manages to tame various materials from light ones like cotton, lace, silk, to heavy ones like tweed, fabric, rubber, metal, and add jewelry in the form of accessories that are carefully sewn into unique wardrobe masterpieces.

Invitation for Nataša Šarić art exhibition at National Museum of Pančevo.

More than a tribute, this is a dialogue between science and art with an eye to the future.

Nataša Šarić has received numerous recognitions and awards for her work in Serbia and abroad, including the award from the Tesla Foundation Serbia and the Tesla Science Foundation from Philadelphia, USA, for exceptional contribution and promotion of the character, work, and vision of scientist Nikola Tesla in 2016.

The exhibition will be open until March 15.

People culture at Foster + Svensson

At Foster + Svensson we nurture and foster creativity and work-life balance. We believe that people get most of ideas outside of work, while being inspired at any place. Most of the ideas are coming out during open discussions too, which are human, more appealing and have greater impact than the one imposed. Therefore we foster friendly environment at work, so we allow our employees to explore client brands and products more deeply, than just getting the brief from them. From point of being creatively amazed, to point of being punctual towards client. Free to wonder, yet disciplined in work.

We also highlight the importance of constant informing and educating ourselves, either by upgrading formal education, or by workshops, trainings, conferences accessing and reading high quality literature, visiting museums, galleries, exhibitions, theatres, and events. That is why we encourage people at Foster + Svensson to read books, magazines and articles about art, design, architecture, history, people, photography, popular culture, lifestyle, travel, graphics, decorative arts, science, and technology, but also to educate and update ourselves on client industries, latest trends, reports, and news. Such information we collect, we use for upgrading ourselves in a process of constant exploration and learning, where we set future foundations in the industry we work.

ABOUT FOSTER + SVENSSON

Foster + Svensson is an award-winning European branding, communications, and advertising agency with heritage back in 1860 and incorporated in 2013 in Serbia, who put forward well-considered contemporary design, digital and innovation. Operating worldwide as part of Fosterova grupa, Foster + Svensson is positioned as professional services company, providing broad range of services and solutions in area of marketing. Having bold experience and specialized skills in more than 20 industries, agency provides services to all company sizes. People at Foster + Svensson design brands, use digital technology, data, and strategy to create contemporary visual identities, services, and experiences to help corporate clients improve their performance and manage sustainable business value for stakeholders. Foster + Svensson design and drive innovation to improve the way world works and lives. Agency approach is to be precise, punctual, and reliable to its clients, where it ran more than 2000 projects while working for major companies to be found in Fortune Global 500 and top-tier companies, such as HVB Bank, UniCredit Bank, Telenor Group, Ericsson, Apple, Vodafone Group, A1 Telekom Austria Group, RTS, Samsung, Cheil, Huawei, Hisense, Ahold Delhaize, Procter & Gamble, Richter Gedeon, AstraZeneca, Banca Intesa, Raiffeisen Bank, Mastercard, Inditex, Zara, Renault Group. Work culture and ethics includes business excellence and delivery of outperforming results.

Foster + Svensson is one of the founders of MAI Marina Abramović Institute.

UniCredit presents Uni Sonos at Milan Design Week 2024

Vladimir von Bergdorff — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 10:39:16 +0000

A project that stems from UniCredit’s ongoing commitment to supporting women’s empowerment and an important collaboration combining design and culture. Uni Sonos is formed in partnership with the Arena di Verona and Studiopepe, an international design studio led by two women. Featuring a never-before-seen collection of stunning costumes of Aida and female figures created for the 100th Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2023 by Stefano Poda, an installation that merges music and architecture, the worlds of finance, art and design bringing them together.

This landmark collaboration is derived from the concept of “Uni Sono”, where voices with different timbres and characters unite to resonate with the same frequency and pitch, reflecting UniCredit and Studiopepe’s shared values of unity, support, and togetherness. Uni Sonos is born of two institutions working together who are a natural fit with each other, as Studiopepe’s extraordinary and innovative approach to design aligns perfectly with UniCredit’s commitment to excellence, being forward-thinking, and acting for change.

The project also attests UniCredit’s well-established partnership with Fondazione Arena di Verona, the only Italian opera foundation directed by a woman, Cecilia Gasdia (currently in her second term). Uni Sonos showcases the very peak of female creativity and culture in a unique setting that mirrors the iconic Arena di Verona, with contemporary amphitheater-shaped structures that serve as both a stage for performances and a communal gathering space. Its inviting, curved forms encourage exploration and the pleasure of discovery. The Auditorium will also host discussions, uniting thought leaders and innovators to delve into topics related to Italian culture, societal trends, and aspirational design.

Photo credits © UniCredit Group.

Milan Design Week 2024

Andrea Orcel, UniCredit Group CEO, said: “UniCredit is proud to make its debut at Milan Design Week 2024, a renowned and historic event, as well as a symbol of Italian and international creative capacity. Uni Sonos fully represents UniCredit’s belief in women’s empowerment, equity, and inclusion, thanks to installations and performances that represent the cutting edge of design by Italy’s most innovative women designers. We are proud to collaborate with Studiopepe, celebrating a partnership that provides a platform to showcase the work of these young women designers. This event testifies that inclusive and sustainable growth, driving communities to progress, and unlocking the potential of our clients and people, are all at the heart of our daily commitment to all our stakeholders”.

The event is open to the public.

Location: UniCredit Building, Via Borromei 5, 20123 Milan, Italy.

Dates: From April 15 to 21 daily from 10:00 AM to 20:00 PM with two daily performances at 17:30 PM and 19:00 PM.

Talks:
Women & Design – Tuesday, 16 April at 18:00 PM
Economics of Art & Culture and Women Empowerment – Friday, 19 April at 18:00 PM
The Female Characters of the Opera – Saturdat, 20 April at 18:00 PM

Since 1994 UniCredit has been a Major Partner of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival, the most spectacular opera festival in the world. Conscious of culture’s value as an engine of social and economic development, we have been supporting this Italian excellence for more than 25 years. In line with our purpose of Empowering Communitities to Progress, we believe that building strong relationships with our key stakeholders creates long-term value and collective growth.

UniCredit is a pan-European commercial bank with a unique service offering in Italy, Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of UnCredit Bank is to empower communities to progress, delivering the best-in-class for all stakeholders, unlocking the potential of its clients and people across Europe. UniCredit Bank serves over 15 million customers worldwide. Digitalization and commitment to ESG principles are key enablers for the services of UniCredit. They help to deliver excellence to stakeholders and create a sustainable future for its clients, communities, and people.

People culture at Foster + Svensson

This is the very reason why we always recommend visiting a museum, gallery, and specially Milan Design Week 2024 in Italy.

Published by UniCredit Group.
Article written and copyright © UniCredit Group.
Photos credits and copyright © UniCredit Group.

ABOUT FOSTER + SVENSSON

Foster + Svensson in one of the founders of MAI Marina Abramović Institute.

Provocative performance artist Abramović returns to Amsterdam

Vladimir von Bergdorff — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 10:57:39 +0000

Performance art pioneer Marina Abramović turns to the Dutch television interviewer sitting next to her and tells him to take his clothes off. And he obliges.

“I’m still shaking. But when Marina Abramović tells you to take off your clothes, you do it,” Max Terpstra, 25, a journalist for the NPO1 television channel said as the interview ended.

Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum of modern art is hosting a retrospective exhibition featuring around 60 of the boundary-pushing works of Abramović, regarded as one of the world’s foremost avant-garde performing artists. From mid March 2024, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of Abramović (77), whose career spans five decades since she emerged from her birth city of Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in the 1970s, moving to Amsterdam and New York.

The edgy exhibition, simply titled “Marina Abramović”, features famous works including the 1974 “Rhythm 0” and a re-performance of the provocative 1977 work “Imponderabilia”. In “Imponderabilia”, visitors have to squeeze between two naked performers, one male, the other female, to enter into the exhibit. Another work, called “Luminosity”, features a naked woman suspended on a bicycle seat against a wall.

“Four Crosses: The Good” (2019), “The Current” (2017), “The Artist is Present” (2010), “The Hero” (2021). Photo credits © Marina Abramović archives.

In “Rhythm 0” seen on video at the Stedelijk Museum, Abramović sat motionless on a chair for six hours, while the audience could select from 72 objects to be “used” on her in any way they liked. The objects included flowers, honey and grapes, but also knives, a scalpel, scissors and a gun. At the time, the self-proclaimed “grandmother of performance art” emerged from the experience almost naked, crying and bleeding, with rose thorns embedded in her stomach. One man even pointed a loaded gun at her.

Her work often challenged the boundaries of human endurance with her mind and body paying a toll. “But it was worth every minute. I would never change a thing,” Abramović told AFP in an interview.

Beautiful things

Abramović Amsterdam exhibition represents a homecoming for her, said Stedelijk Museum director Rein Wolfs. Marina Abramović holds a Dutch passport, has a bank account here and even maintains a bicycle in Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum said.

“Marina has a lot of history here. Some of her most important works started to come out during that period, so she is very much linked to Amsterdam,” Wolfs told AFP. It was here she first met and later lived with her closest collaborator, the late Frank Uwe Laysiepen, better known as “Ulay”.

“Amsterdam is full of memories and beautiful things. It is so emotional for me to come back,” Abramović told AFP a few days ahead of the opening of her exhibition. “I was really attracted by the human aspect here. The freedom to be able to say whatever you want,” she said. “But everything is going backwards these days,” she lamented.

“It’s not just Amsterdam, not just Holland, but the entire world. All that political correctness in so many ways really restricts the freedom of artists,” she said, adding: “It’s so difficult to find the right kind of balance”.

Dressed in her trademark black dress, fingernails painted bright red and walking with a cane, Marina Abramović reflected on her work. Asked about telling a journalist to disrobe during an interview, Abramović said it was not part of performance art, but a response to a comment he made about nudity in her work.

“You know, this young kid was talking about nudity. He was looking at ‘Luminosity’ with this naked woman on the wall, saying he was very uneasy with it… afraid of his own nudity. I said, it’s OK. You’re now with me. We do exactly the things we are afraid of. Can you take your clothes off and get rid of your fear right here?” she said.

“That was the weirdest interview of my life,” said NPO1 journalist Terpstra. “I am a huge fan of Abramović, but what she just did there was next level.”

The largest retrospective of her work ever held in the Netherlands

Over 60 key works spanning five decades trace the development of the prolific oeuvre of the pioneer of performance art, from her early work, created in former Yugoslavia and in Amsterdam, to the pioneering performances with her partner Ulay and works from her solo practice, in which she is still active today.

The survey features photos, videos, sculptures, and live reperformances of four iconic performances that will be staged in the Netherlands for the first time: Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), Imponderabilia (work with Ulay) (1977), Luminosity (1997) and The House with the Ocean View (2002). As a visitor, you are invited to take part in two performances: Work Relation (work with Ulay) (1978) and Counting the Rice from the Abramović Method.

THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT FORMS OF ART, PERFORMANCE IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT, THE MOST IMMATERIAL, AND THE MOST REAL. — Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović has been a prominent figure in performance and body art since the 1970s and is considered one of the most important founders of this art form. She brought performance art from its experimental beginnings into the mainstream. Using her body as her medium, Abramović consistently tests her mental and physical endurance. Together with artist Ulay, whom she met in Amsterdam in 1975 and became her partner, she caused an international sensation with long-durational performances that pushed their boundaries to the limit. In her later solo work, she focuses on spirituality and creating an exchange of energy between herself and the audience.

There are daily performances in the exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from 10:30AM to 17:00PM. The performances will be reperformed at different times, sometimes for hours or days at a time, by performers trained in the Abramović Method. The live performances can be both intimate and confrontational.

The exhibition Marina Abramović is organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The exhibition is curated by Karen Archey and Nina Folkersma at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and Andrea Tarsia at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

The exhibition is generously supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Blockbusterfonds, the benefactors of the Marina Abramović Circle, Fonds 21, the benefactors of the Stedelijk Museum Fonds and the Mondriaan Fund, and sponsored by ABN AMRO Bank. Marina Abramović work can be seen at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) until July 14, 2024.

People culture at Foster + Svensson

This is the very reason why we always recommend visiting a museum, gallery, and specially exhibition of Marina Abramović at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Published by France 24 and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Article written and copyright © ANM, AFP, France 24, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Photos credits and copyright © Marina Abramović – Four Crosses: The Evil (positive), 2019 (detail). Courtesy of the Marina Abramović Archives, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Foster + Svensson.

ABOUT FOSTER + SVENSSON

Foster + Svensson in one of the founders of MAI Marina Abramović Institute.