Dragan Petrović's 'Happy People' at MOCAB Belgrade

The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (MOCAB) is presenting 'Happy People', a solo exhibition of Serbian photographer Dragan Petrović, running until February 11, 2019. Born in Belgrade in 1958, Petrović's photographic work from the early 1980s to the late 1990s offers a social and anthropological mapping of Serbian society through depictions of traditional ceremonies and popular gatherings. His images capture a Dionysian, unmediated reality, allowing viewers to enter an otherworldly, subversive domain. Petrović's gaze strips away ethical connotations, focusing on faces distorted by ecstasy, even in Balkan settings. The viewer feels present and even a protagonist in these festivities, sharing their emotions—this is the artistic drive of a photographer who proposes avant-garde through everyday life. The life impulse in his photos carries a deeper reflective component than ordinary reportage, though Petrović has worked as a commercial photographer for over thirty years. His first solo shows were in the 1990s at the Happy Gallery of the Student Cultural Center in Belgrade. He founded and edited the fanzine 'Photographer' and published in the magazine 'L'Impossible'. He authored the photobook 'Photography' (2000). From 1998 to 2003, he served as assistant professor in the Photography Department at Braća Karić, Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade.