TRACES IN THE WOOD

Exhibition author: Marija Bujić

November 6 is the date when the Museum of Applied Art traditionally organizes, on the day of its foundation, different representative and important thematic exhibitions from various avenues of professional research. This year the attention was directed to period furniture viewed through the techniques of its decoration, such as carving, intarsia, painting, marquetry, veneer etc. and displayed at the exhibition called Traces in the Wood.

The main exhibits come from the collection of wardrobes, otherwise rarely displayed due to their size and the space they require. The collection of cabinet-tabernacles has a particular importance owing to their extraordinary execution and skillful decoration, but also because of their origin and the fact that they belonged to eminent Belgrade families. Beside this collection, there are other pieces of furniture and objects of interior decoration whose beauty intensifies the noble quality of the wood.

The displayed exhibits were made between the fifteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century and come from diverse geographic areas, from Prizren to Rome and Paris , over Germany and Austria to Belgrade and beyond.

The visual experience is complemented by specific sound effects and scents that recreate the atmosphere of bygone days and offer the audience a complete experience. We expect that the citizens of Belgrade will be interested in this exhibition of period furniture, as suggested by the results of a poll conducted last year among the visitors when furniture ranked first among the offered thematic exhibitions.

The Author of the exhibition, Marija Bujić, Senior Curator of the MAA, has also prepared a guide-catalogue. Its brief but fastidious text helps the visitors to get information on the exhibition in a simple and easy way.