The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS) has existed for 102 years. However, whether they will continue in that direction depends on the number of people present at the annual Assembly scheduled for Wednesday. According to the law, if the annual Assembly is not held by December 31 of this year, there is a legal possibility of liquidating ULUS in APR.
It is planned that the Assembly will be held via Zoom. Why is there a fear that they will not have a quorum, that painters, sculptors, graphic artists - members of probably the most representative art association in Serbia - will risk the closure of ULUS? There are two reasons.
The first is past experience: after the last ULUS Assembly held on December 28, 2019, the next one did not have a quorum, and there was none during the two attempts to hold it this year.
The second is the stratification among the membership, caused by the management crisis in the association.
It all started in December 2013 at the repeated extraordinary election Assembly, when it was decided that Mirjana Denkov Mraović is no longer at the head of the Management Board. Less than three months after that, Denkov Mraović filed a lawsuit against that decision, considering it null and void because there was not the required number of members for convening the Assembly as provided by the Statute, and all the members who advocated that it be replaced were not fully entitled because they did not pay membership fee, which is a necessary condition for membership.
In December 2016, the First Municipal Court issued a verdict in favor of Mirjana Denkov Mraović, and last year that verdict became final and enforceable.
In the meantime, at the aforementioned Annual Assembly in December 2019, Vahida Ramujkić, Martin Erdeš, Marija Kauzlarić, Dragana B. Stevanović, Gradimir Rajković, Radivoje Marković, Milica Rakić, Miloš Đorđević and Vojislav Klačar were elected to the ULUS Management Board. The majority of members of the Assembly voted for them.
Referring to that verdict, Denkov Mraović considers himself to believe that all the activities of the new administration became null and void by the court verdict, accusing it of disrespecting the court, and the new administration believes that the will of the majority of the members by which it was elected is more authoritative than the court decision.
It is not known which of these two administrations convened the latest annual Assembly for Wednesday. At the end of the call, whose title sounds admonishing and alarming - "Let's prevent the shutdown of ULUS - Join the Assembly on December 29", it says only: Your ULUS.
The Annual Assembly is convened by the Management Board. One of the reasons why the signature of the invitation is generic is, possibly, the fact that it is not clear which of the two administrations is really the administration of ULUS: the one that received that title by a court decision, or the one from 2019, chosen by the will of the membership.
Based on informal conversations with a few members, the main complaint of the agenda offered for the Assembly on Wednesday is that not one of its points indicates that the crisis with the management of the association will be resolved - it is only intended to supplement the existing administrative bodies and bodies. This expectation is based on what was said at the media conference held this November, which was called by the replaced management from 2013, and which was also attended by the new Board of Directors.
It is interesting that at that time, both of them, in front of the journalists, concluded that the electoral assembly was necessary, that it was the only way to restore prestige and legitimacy to ULUS. In fact, by denying each other's legality and accusing them of a lack of will for an agreement, they have shown that they are not up to solving this fundamental problem of ULUS.
Those who scheduled the annual Assembly obviously do not think that an election should have been organized first, that is, that in such changed circumstances, the quorum was not in question.
