The Society of Peaceful Coexistence, Belgrade
2011
lithographies (100 x 70 cm each), plexiglass, light sculpture: 12 neon boxes, metal construction. The work is in the collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, MoCA, Belgrade, Serbia. Dimensions of the installation change according to settings.
Exhibitions/Venues:
- Irena Lagator Pejović: The Society of Unlimited Responsibility, Museum of Contemporary Art,Belgrade, Serbia, 2012. Texts: Stevan Vuković & Simona Ognjanovic; Maja Ćirić Curators: Una Popovic and Dejan Sretenovic. Photo: Museum of Contemporary Art: Saša Reljić, Milan Kralj, Ivan Petrović, Irena Lagator.
- Irena Lagator Pejović: Società a responsabilità limitata (S.r.l.). Limited Responsibility Society (L.L.C.), Villa Pacchiani, Santa Croce sull´Arno (PI), Italy. Curated by: Ilaria Mariotti, 2012.
- Mythologies, Phest 2017, Monopoly Italy, curated by Roberto Lacarbonara, 2017.
- Reflections of Our Time: MoCA Acquisitions 1993-2019, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia, 2020.

The installation Society of Peaceful Coexistence consists of nine identical algraphy prints fixed between Plexiglas surfaces, installed as a network system. They visualize a large number of rotating human pictograms, which are visible only following a closer look. This multitude, which coexists peacefully, emanates the idea of a democratic horizon, connectedness, solidarity and sharing.

This graphic surface on which a society coexists peacefully is illuminated from the back. The metal structure to which the illumination is attached is left visible and aims to make perceivable the construction elements of the installation as well as to raise questions about the constructive factors of a possible Society of Peaceful Coexistence. Light contributes to the atmosphere of the whole and the impression of it as inhabited, alive, sensitized and, according to Sloterdijk, a spherological space of understanding and care between people as well as toward the non-human life.

The prints have been made using the technique of algraphy, a process similar to lithography, but using aluminum as the support. As applied here, the technique is particularly well-suited to the content, given that it allows for reproducibility, but from the other hand also for critical awareness of the extractive behavior of humans toward lived and natural environment.

The humanoid pictograms of this work reside in the sphere of peaceful co-existence (one of the principles of the Non-aligned Movement). What is the kind of space that makes such co-existence possible? What kind of politics is going on in this society that manages to sustain it? Is politics of peaceful coexistence possible? How do we understand collectivity and by what means do we constitute it? What forms our common destiny on the planet? - those are some of the questions this installation raises.