Bogdanka Poznanović was an artist who showed great innovation through her artistic practice and social activity. In addition to creative work, she also dealt with the affirmation of intermedia art. She introduced new media into her work, collaborating with some of the most influential artists, curators and critics of the global art scene.
She was one of the first artists who engaged in actions in public space, mail-art, artists’ books, installations and video art.
Bogdanka Poznanović studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. Her artistic practice was initially close to Art informel, but she quickly turned to New Art Practice, interdisciplinary works and new media.
The life and work of Bogdanka Poznanović were significantly marked by pedagogical practice. She founded the Visual Studio for Intermedia Research, in which video art has been primarily researched and created since 1980. Bogdanka Poznanović was the first professor of new media and video art at an art academy or faculty in the former Yugoslavia.
The Feedback letter-box, information-decision-action project was realised by Bogdanka Poznanović through 1973 and 1974. In it, she invited 35 artists worldwide to send her a record of their mailboxes. She exhibited the collected answers as a work of art. Poznanović writes about this project, which has the characteristics of mail art, in the Delo magazine: “The practice of mail art often overcomes the depressive isolation of creators, conditioned by the manipulative-commercial relations of artists and social structure. In this interaction process, messages are continually circulating, which are realised by various unpretentious techniques, so creative activity is expressed in one of the most democratic forms. […] Postal regulations, format, weight, stamps, addresses, dates, and mail carriers are involved in the communication process and structure of the mail item, and they also have a significant function. […] Dynamics, processuality and flexibility are essential features of this type of activity that exists in the planetary space and contributes to modifying modern socio-cultural structures.
The Heart-object action was carried out by Bogdanka Poznanović on September 20, 1970, in Novi Sad. It lasted until September 29 and was set in the Salon of the Youth Tribune. In styrofoam, she made a heart 2 × 2 meters high and 20 cm thick, which she wrapped in red cloth and installed a metronome that beat 80 beats per minute. Four people carried the Heart object from the old Novi Sad bridge to the Youth Tribune at the Catholic Gate with the desire to create a procession behind it. By introducing a ludistic element into the urban situation, she invites viewers to participate in that action. She explores the relationship of the art object in the outdoor and gallery space. After crossing the city, the Heart-object was placed in the Salon of the Youth Tribune.