The exhibition “Thresholds” (Mileva: Decoding)
The exhibition “Thresholds”, by PhD Monika Bilbija, is part of the multimedia event “Mileva: Decoding”, which will be held at Čeličana, in Distrikt, marking 150 years since the birth of Mileva Marić Einstein. “Mileva: Decoding” will ceremonially open Čeličana as a newly restored space in Distrikt, and, through its multimedia character, once again affirm the UNESCO title Novi Sad received in 2023 as a City of Media Arts.
The exhibition “Thresholds” opens on 20 December at 19:30 and will remain on view until 5 January 2026.
Admission is free.
The exhibition “Thresholds” will be presented as part of the multimedia event “Mileva: Decoding” on 20 December at 7:30 PM and 21 December at 9:00 PM. After the event, the exhibition will remain open to the public until 5 January 2026.
Admission is free.
Exhibition opening hours:
20 December / from 7:30 PM / *within the multimedia event “Mileva: Decoding”
21 December / from 9:00 PM / *within the multimedia event “Mileva: Decoding”
22–30 December / from 4 PM to 8 PM
31 December – 2 January / closed
3–5 January / from 4 PM to 8 PM
Author’s statement:
The exhibition “Thresholds” arose from the need to see Mileva Marić beyond the roles that history and mythology have assigned to her – beyond the image of the brilliant woman in the shadow, beyond the narrative of the victim, beyond the recognition she was denied. Instead of placing Mileva yet again within biographical frames, the intention was to open a space in which her life can be experienced: as movement through the inner and outer boundaries that shape every human being. All of us.
The starting point was not the reconstruction of her time, but what time does to a person: the pressure of expectations, the weight of decisions, the strength of devotion, the fragility of relationships, the struggle of the body, and finally – perseverance. Mileva is, in this sense, a universal figure: a woman balancing genius and social norms, love and work, motherhood and science, dreams and constraints. For this reason, the exhibition does not aim to reconstruct her biography, but to create a space through which the audience moves, encountering what Mileva carried within herself.
The labyrinth of six rooms is designed as a topography of inner states – a space where the wall becomes a metaphor, and the obstacle a way to understand emotion. The walls are deliberately low, only one metre high: the visitor can see others, and be seen. This exposure evokes vulnerability, but also the fact that many of Mileva’s struggles unfolded under the watchful eyes of others. Moving through the labyrinth requires bending, crawling, squeezing through, climbing – all of which symbolically speak to the effort that cannot be seen when reading biographies, but is felt when life demands persistence.
On the left side of the labyrinth are stories of relationships, devotion, emotional dynamics, marriage and its tensions; the right side speaks of the limits of the body – of what is not chosen, but overcome. The conclusion brings together interdisciplinary voices – psychologists, historians, philosophers, psychotherapists – who help the visitor connect the personal with the universal, the individual with the social. Their interpretations are not judgements, but invitations to reflect: on the dreams that carry us, on the dreams we abandon, on the moments when we do not give up even on the edge.
Visually, the exhibition rests on a black-and-white, minimal space – a labyrinth without ornamentation – allowing emotion to become the only thing the visitor truly “sees”. And precisely there, in that starkness, a second layer of the exhibition opens: what is woven into the walls and fissures. Voices, images, colours, rhythms, sounds, tactile materials – all those fragments that seep through the cracks are organic, bearing life, subjectivity, intimacy, immediacy, uniqueness. The space is dead. The experience is alive.
“Thresholds” is not (only) an exhibition about Mileva. It is a mirror in which each person may recognise fragments of themselves – their fears, choices, dreams, thresholds. Through the body, sound, light and silence, the audience becomes a participant, and the space becomes a phenomenological-performative-affective framework in which we confront what we often avoid admitting to ourselves: On what basis do we make decisions? What does it mean to be a good parent? A good partner? How do we balance private and professional roles? What does it mean to be devoted? How do we face loss, injustice, illness, misunderstanding? Where do we draw boundaries between ourselves and others? What do we do when dreams collide with reality? And with expectations?
If the visitor slows down, even for a moment, pauses, breathes more deeply, feels weight or relief – the exhibition has fulfilled its purpose. For Mileva’s story is not confined to the past. It continues in every question we ask ourselves while walking through this labyrinth.