Confessional is a discursive and visual structure conceived by Aleksa Jovanović and Jelena Vojvodić, probing the complex relationships between artistic expression, institutional mechanisms, and digital self-reflection. Its first iteration, Confessional 1.0, was realized in the Flu_openLAB space in 2022. In this initial segment, the artists created a space that hovered between introspective confession and public exposure, exploring the inherent contradictions of artistic existence in the contemporary age.
Social presence appears here as a digital ritual, generating a new mode of artistic introspection, where every recorded statement reflects a tension between authenticity and constructed representation. Positioned on the threshold between witness and actor, the artists embodied a state of simultaneous vulnerability and control. Confessional 1.0 revealed a paradigm of uncertainty within the field of art — a tension between the desire for change and the absence of a clear direction in which such action could be channeled. Focused on the space of consciousness of young artists based in Belgrade, Confessional continues to explore new local contexts, questioning the diversity of thought around artistic dynamics.
Confessional 2.0 Confessional 2.0 opens a new instance of unease, where the artistic confessional becomes a hermetic space of re-examination. What does it mean to be seen — and to see and hear in return? The camera is not a neutral observer, but an entity that shapes perception, demanding a response even before the question is posed. In this context, the artist becomes both the subject and the object of their own uncertainty, and the act of speaking becomes a gesture not devoid of consequence.
Confessional 2.0 Confessional 2.0 is a process of deconstruction, disintegration, and reconstruction — a continuous descent into the internal and external conflicts of the artistic subject. It amplifies the dissonance between artistic expression and the mechanisms of its social perception. This artistic inquiry does not aim for adaptation, but rather for the radicalization of dissonance — a refusal to align with the time and space in which it unfolds. Does the artistic act today retain the power of emancipation, or has it become merely a simulacrum of critical thinking, one that never escapes the boundaries of its own representation? The artistic confessional inevitably raises the question: are we witnesses to a moment of truth, or participants in an ongoing performance of concealment?
