Curatorial Concept
In collaboration with artist Slobodan Stošić
Artwork: Welcome Mat – Double Bottom
As part of the festival Welcome to the Neighbourhood 11 – The Machine of New Narratives, the artwork by Slobodan Stošić explores the notion of semi-public or liminal spaces. This year’s festival continues a broader, multi-year research strategy examining public, semi-public, and private spaces within the community of Novo Naselje. The central curatorial question asks whether such liminal spaces, often overlooked or underutilised, can serve as meaningful points of encounter and collective reflection.
In the context of a neighbourhood, we have been working in for over a decade, the concept of liminal space challenges ownership, access, and community responsibility. These are spaces that appear to belong to no one, though they are technically part of private property. The moment permission is sought to use these spaces, they lose their liminal quality, transforming into regulated and claimed areas. Stošić’s work critically examines whether there is such a thing as “nobody’s land” that truly belongs to everyone. How does a community relate to spaces shared among its members yet tied to specific groups?
Double Bottom
In collaboration with artist Slobodan Stošić, the artwork Double Bottom examines liminal spaces through the symbolism of a doormat as a metaphor for collective narratives, social transformations, and individual responsibilities within a community. This work reflects on how public–private spaces, often marginalised or forgotten, can become active sites for reflection on history, identity, and the community’s relationship with its past.
Based on a curatorial strategy that explores the intersections of public, private, and semi-public spaces, the work problematises liminal spaces as zones of ambiguity. The doormat placed in front of a building’s entrance symbolically extends the threshold outward, emphasising the boundary between shared and individual, public and intimate. This raises the question: Can liminal spaces, often neglected, transform into places of encounter, critical reflection, and shared responsibility?
The doormat inscribed with the word monument functions as a dual sign. On one hand, it is an everyday object – functional and banal. On the other hand, labelled as a “monument,” it creates a conceptual shift: it becomes a symbol of memory, a space for collective meaning, and a site of social questioning. By stepping onto the mat, residents take on the role of active participants in the narrative of this space, while simultaneously challenging the notion of monuments as static, infallible symbols.
As the work suggests, monuments often do not represent universal truths but are instead political instruments – selective narratives that rarely promote reconciliation or inclusivity. In this context, Double Bottom highlights the contentiousness of contemporary monuments in the post-Yugoslav space – from revisionism to ethnic exclusivity. Instead of grandiose structures, this work employs an everyday object – a doormat – to provoke reflection on what memory means, who defines it, and how communities actively use or neglect it.
With all its implicit meanings, the doormat raises questions: Which spaces truly belong to the community? What histories do we carry on our shoes, and can we wash them away before entering our intimate spaces? In this way, the work functions as a “monument of denial,” exposing the fragility of institutional and collective narratives while simultaneously opening space for “parallel existences and multiple truths.”
Slobodan Stošić’s Response
Stošić’s work responds to the curatorial framework by investigating the boundary between the symbolic and the practical, the collective and the individual. By placing the doormat in front of buildings in Novo Naselje, the work intervenes in the everyday lives of the community, intertwining artistic intervention with the daily experiences of its residents. The doormat becomes a link between spatial reality and abstract contemplation of history and responsibility.
While traditional monuments aim for monumentality, Stošić’s doormat is functional and seemingly trivial. However, its power lies precisely in its everyday nature. It poses the question: Does the responsibility for collective memory transfer to every individual who steps on the doormat? Does standing on a “monument” automatically make one part of its narrative? In this way, Double Bottom goes beyond problematising historical monuments and directly involves the community in the process of memory and accountability.
Conclusion
Double Bottom is not merely an artwork but a tool for activating the community and its spaces through everyday actions, such as wiping shoes or stepping on a doormat. Through a subtle interplay of symbolism and functionality, the work reveals the ambiguity of contemporary narratives – the boundary between acceptance and denial, collective guilt and personal responsibility. The doormat becomes a site for reflection and a symbolic marker, reminding the community that the boundaries between “theirs” and “ours,” past and present, public and private are never fixed but constantly subject to questioning and negotiation.
Curatorial text by Tatjana Mateša