Gordana Kuč

— born in 1970 in Ivangrad, she earned her Bachelor’s (1993) and Master’s (2002) degrees in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje. She is currently a PhD candidate in New Media at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade. A member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro since 1994, her practice spans painting, drawing, installations, objects, collages, and their hybrid combinations. She has exhibited widely in solo and group shows across Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, France, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Egypt, China, and beyond (Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Skopje, Belgrade, London, Paris, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Utrecht, Cairo, Beijing). A recipient of numerous awards, her works reside in museums, galleries, and private collections. Alongside her artistic practice, she has served as an advisor and curator for Montenegro’s Ministry of Culture and the Center for Contemporary Art of Montenegro.

Striving to diverge from traditional thought and artistic expression, I choose themes, models, and techniques with limited mainstream application and underrecognized potential. Alternative paths, alongside independence from galleries, media, and accolades, create a platform for research aimed at personal and collective emancipation and freedom. I explore themes along the axis of identity–gender–sexuality in relation to space and time, shaped through installations, objects, and collages using diverse materials, media, and languages.

In my early career, I sought to reimagine the gallery space as an unpredictable, unrepeatable artwork, a plastic-visual whole that, through synergy with artistic intervention, expands its original intent. I aimed for the viewer to assume an active role, experiencing the work anew while actualizing it through their presence. One such interactive installation was Travel Notes (1997)1, created for the Cetinje Biennale of Contemporary Art. Viewers walked through a spiral of drawings, leaving footprints in sand/soil integral to the work. Later pieces like Diaries on Display (2004)23, Intervals (2006), The Time is Now, and Intervals II (2010)4 continued this dialogue.

For years, my research fixated on materials embodying temporal transience, using mold and dust from my studio as primary mediums, tracing time’s imprint on art itself. This inquiry persisted until 2015, paralleling my daughter’s maturation into womanhood, when new personal experiences redirected my focus to the complexities of female sexual autonomy. Confronting my own crises as a mother and woman, I turned to themes of identity formation and female experience within specific cultural contexts. My work critiques deeply patriarchal societies where intergenerational transmission of “appropriate” models of femininity and sexuality perpetuates shame and repression. The realization that I, too, risked imposing learned behavioral patterns onto my daughter sparked works like I Am Someone Else (2017)5, New Connections (2020)6, How We Become What We Are Not (2022)8, Shaped by the Other, You Can Be Anything You Want (2023), and On the Path to Freedom (2024)9. These pieces grapple with questions: What distinguishes womanhood from femininity? Where does transformation begin? Does societal pressure aim to modify or erase us? Do I permit myself to inhabit womanhood fully?

To realize these ideas, I employ mass-produced feminine objects: erotic clothing, corsets, stockings, lingerie, artificial nails, and items from adult shops—foregrounding selection and recombination over traditional craftsmanship. By displaying forms of discomfort and intimacy deemed taboo or shameful in patriarchal frameworks, and through acts of personal identification, I critique sociocultural norms that demand transformation and collective emancipation.


Text written in collaboration with Ana Ivanović.

1Image: Gordana Kuc, Travel Notes, 1997, Plavi dvorac, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and Plavi dvorac, Cetinje

2Image: Gordana Kuc, Diaries on Display, 2004, Cetinje Biennale, Bogdanov kraj Old Prison, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and the Cetinje Biennale, Bogdanov kraj Old Prison

3Image: Gordana Kuc, Diaries on Display, 2004, Cetinje Biennale, Bogdanov kraj Old Prison, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and the Cetinje Biennale, Bogdanov kraj Old Prison

4Image: Gordana Kuc, Intervals II, 2010, CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje

5Image: Gordana Kuc, I Am Someone Else, 2017, CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje

6Image: Gordana Kuc, New Connections, 2020, perforated black scarves, CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje. Courtesy of the artist and CGU Miodrag Dado Duric, Cetinje
(Note: Fixed "MIodrag" → "Miodrag")

7Image: Gordana Kuc, How We Become What We Are Not, 2022. Courtesy of the artist

8Image: Gordana Kuc, On the Path to Freedom, 2024, paper, acrylic, plastic, 40x30x10cm. Courtesy of the artist

9Image: Gordana Kuc, NonEmergence, 2013. Courtesy of the artist

10Image: Gordana Kuc, Return Paths, 2018, Modern Gallery, Podgorica. Courtesy of the artist and the Modern Gallery, Podgorica