Pavle Banović

This project centers on Vjeran Merlinka, a prominent cultural figure and the first person to publicly come out as trans in former Yugoslavia. She lived in Belgrade and worked at the Kalemegdan Planetarium, where she created art. Merlinka included her personal surroundings in her art, which she called her “Concrete Nest.” She was also a sex worker, author of two books, and actress. Due to the rising nationalist movement, queer life in former Yugoslavia came under increasing pressure in the 1990s. This culminated in 2003 with the murder of Merlinka, a crime that was never prosecuted.
Her artistic legacy remained overlooked until 2024, when the demolition of her home began. However, a group of cultural workers, Marija Iva Gocić, Leah Rivka Lapiower, Sara Pantović, Chloé Sassi, and myself, Pavle Banović, managed to preserve important artifacts from it. 
“M is for Merlinka” brings together documentary and archival photographs I made during the exploration of Merlinka's legacy, as well as an editorial photoshoot done together with Ilija Nestorović, Otis Vogl-Ferheim and Tanasije – with the aim of honoring her story and exploring her significance for contemporary queer culture.

Biography

Pavle Banović, b. 1998 in Belgrade (RS); lives and works in Vienna (AT). They exhibited and collaborated with institutions in Belgrade, Ljubljana, New York, Vienna, and Novi Sad, among others. Banović is the 2023 recipient of the YVAA Award for Serbia, as well as a participant in the 2024 Futures Photography Programme, nominated by Organ Vida. They were a member of the young artistic collective The Applause Institute, as well as of the project D.U.O - Society of Joint Responsibility. Banović's current project “M is for Merlinka” was supported by the Students' Union at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.