On the occasion of marking 185 years of work and existence, within the framework of the "Father Momo" project supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia - Directorate for cooperation with the diaspora and Serbs in the region, SPD "Jedinstvo" yesterday in the concert hall of the School for Elementary and Secondary Music Education "Vida Matjan" organized an evening dedicated to the palace from the words of Goran Petrović. 

As said by prof. of Serbian language and literature at Kotor Gymnasium Ljinjana Čolan, "Our fellow citizen Gorn Petrović, not by territorial affiliation, but by the love we felt near him".

 We remind you that the big literary event of this year's International Belgrade Book Fair was Goran Petrović's new book "Palace", published posthumously by Laguna. This novel, which Petrović completed during his lifetime, is also a new "flow" in the delta novel, which began with the novels "Papir" and "Ikonostas".

 Prof. Ljiljana Čolan said: "Kotor is Goran's, because for the last 20 years Kotor has been the finest porcelain cup that Goran made in the temple of his inner being." As a Society, we are proud that he celebrated with us the 180th anniversary of our existence, in October 2019. Then he revealed to us the origin of a wonderful story called "The Void". We had no idea that this story would later be woven into the memorial book "Father Momo". Goran, as if he sensed and permanently recorded a great void that appeared in our city, in our church, but not in our thoughts and hearts. That's why this evening is the memory of two great souls who were buried in some olive leaf, in some pomegranate seed, in that magical plant from the Dražin garden, and they are here with us". 

Goran's presence in Kotor, she continued, has its own tradition. 

"We remember a series of literary discussions conducted within the program "On the trail of Danilo Kiš" organized by the Brotherhood of Orthodox Youth Sveti Luka in 2006 with the help of the now blessed archpriest Stavrophor Momčilo Krivokapić, our father Mom. Namely, Prof. Aleksandar Jerkov and three professors of literature, designed events with the then most famous and most widely read followers of Kish's poetics. One of them was Goran Petrović, the most imaginative, noble knight of Serbian literature who settled in the imaginary spaces of our medieval city. 

Goran, our NEIGHBOR (and that is also the title of one of his short story collections), is present in houses on this side and on the other side of the bay. Under the ceilings that are peeling or not, in old captain's houses or modern villas, arranged like apartments, life stories similar to those from Goran's collection of short stories "Differences" are realized. From different angles of observation, and sometimes impersonal everyday life, is a world of dreams that is the same in its aspiration to touch eternity. We read about how everyday life can be transformed into a world of imagination in the book of short prose "Tips for an easier life". In that book, you will also find out "where is the best place to look at the sun", from which side of the bay, from which house... You may be guessing the advice: "You can certainly do this from the window of the apartment, or from the park, but it is best if you do it from the place where you were a child." From a child's perspective, everything is clearer and more beautiful, sides are irrelevant. The purest light. And childhood hides both dark and light patches of our existence. 

Thanks to the words, perhaps those that are in the necklace of one of the heroines of Goran's story, any kind of physical limitation is overcome. The man-island needs contact with surrounding stories (a collection of short stories "Island and surrounding stories") in order to cope with his loneliness and alienation. "The world has eaten away its edges", all that remained was the division into dream and reality, and existence in that space "between reality and dream" (that is, "neither in heaven nor on earth, but on a branch of clouds"). What kind of ship sails through that space? Can the captain steer her or does she take him where she wants, sometimes even to the bottom of the sea?

We may have found the answers in the novels "Atlas described by the sky", "Siege of the Church of the Holy Savior", "Trifle with a lucky hand", then in the dramatic texts "Scaffold" and "Matica". (The "Scaffold" was not only performed in Orašac, but also in Kotor at an academy in Svetosavka). We expect and continue to search for answers, staring at some new reading of the same text, some new "inner courtyard". But also in the new novels that are in front of us: "Paper", "Ikonostas", "Palace". 

The writer himself talks about the possibilities of touching the act of writing and the act of reading, in different places. Sometimes that touch is an organized literary evening, and sometimes it takes place during a chance meeting between the creator and the reader, not only in the Moscow subway (between two stations, underground while the writer was watching his reader with a book in his hands, and the latter didn't even know it). but also at the Kotor market on Saturdays, whenever Goran is there was in Kotor. 

Readers, in Goran's prose, which is a "poetic conception of the world" (Ana Ristović), do not think literature, but feel it. 

Goran listened to classical music while writing. 

The sounds of Brahms's Third Symphony, which echoes from the gramophone of an old resident of Vrnjačka spa, an invalid, are just as audible as the trembling of a snowflake. In the latest novel "Palace", when describing the snow, Vivaldi's winter can be heard... Professor Rajna Dragićević, an excellent lexicologist and connoisseur of our language, found 30 names for snow in dictionaries... and Goran has about 9 in Vlk's record. ..and each one is a picture for itself. 

"The measure of our current existence depends on the right attitude towards both the past and the future - Goran Petrović". 

We look through Goran's windows and build our palaces of experience.

The proto-master (the one who has an idea, and who implements that idea into action) imagined the novel delta, on which he worked for 23 years, as he says: "I didn't think it would be of such a scope or so branched out, but the manuscript, the text and the very idea actually began to behave like water. You can't get hold of it at all, something keeps leaking through your fingers. You put down the other hand, it digs into the other hand, into the third. It seemed to me that literature and human stories behaved like water. After all, it also takes a separate form for each of us. It requires not only a literary work and the one who wrote and compiled it, but also the one into whose hands it went." Goran Petrović respected his reader, and in his imaginary worlds there are no technically known storytelling models. Goran was himself, he did not deceive the reader with what he learned, he gave him the true self, found in every grass, in every flower, in a fish (perhaps the bonito that revealed to him the secrets of building a new palace in Sicily, which he quickly returned into the Danube to reach the Black Sea and the salt water as soon as possible. He did not look back Protomaster Peter, who wondered why the fish was returning to the water, and not getting ready for dinner. They didn't know that Peter had returned the fish to the water the majority is mostly prevented by the fact that they are convinced that their lives consist only of everyday duties." 

Goran told us that he decided that the delta novel (a novel that is not only water, but also what it threw out and applied) has a broad time span of 500 years (the first four books belong to the medieval cycle, then come two or three that take place in the 18th century, and all the others will take place in 20th and 21st centuries), and that it has a territorial breadth. 

"Mostly it will take place in Serbia, but "Papir" is almost entirely taking place in Italy, "Ikonostas" for the most part in Greece and Serbia. Some others will take place in unnamed cities at sea, some will take place even across the continent..." 

"Palace" is the third story, a new flow of the delta novel, chronologically it is the time that preceded the time of action in "Ikonostas". Wandering Protomaster Petar builds a palace in Constantinople, Venice and Syracuse, and he came to the despot's capital with recommendations to build his court.

Palaces are being built, and the PAPER with which Goran titled his opening speech at SAN, November 7, 2018 (the miracle of coincidence), represents a subconscious resistance to the acceleration and noise of this world. With the novel Papir Goran, he brought us back to the past, to look for peace and quiet in it, to bow down to holy icons and to serve the unextinguished candle in our hearts and minds," said Prof. Cholan. 

Professor Dr. Aleksandar Jerkov from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade spoke about the poetics of Goran Petrović. He said that it is a great classic of Serbian literature whose works will be studied as a canon. Goran Petrović managed to push the boundaries of writing with his work. From the novel "Atlas described by the sky" to "The Siege of the Church of the Saviour", no one had more imagination and power of expression in Serbian literature, and no one began to write a more beautiful, rounded, convincing sentence than Goran Petrović. Wherever you open his book you will find something that seems like a lyrical pearl, a poetic expression, something that awakens in you an instinctive reaction of approval.

Goran received awards from writers who dedicated their lives to writing, his creative way of writing is unique. And his readers are inviolable. 

Sanja Milić, editor of RTS' cultural and artistic program, spoke about the Mediterranean spirit of Goran's novels, as well as her interviews with him, both on radio and on television. She spoke about Goran's modesty and willingness to pay attention to everyone, to express respect to each interlocutor, to make shows interesting and joyful.

Sanja Milić also dramatized his story "The Virgin and Other Visions" for the drama program of Radio Belgrade. 

At last night's dinner dedicated to the palace, excerpts from Goran Petrović's latest novel "The Palace" were read. 

Elena Simović, a student in the third grade of the Kotor Gymnasium, read a passage from "The Papers" in which Goran describes the "beautiful death" of the master of stained glass, revealing the secret of death, which is the greatest secret to mortals. And somehow he knew many other secrets and communicated them to those who had ears to hear.

The musical number, Semyon's "Bulgarian Suite", was played by Vuk Đakonović, a student in the first grade of the secondary music school.

                                                                                     ABOUT THE WRITER

Goran Petrović (Kraljevo, 1961 - Belgrade, 2024)) published a book of short prose Advice for a better life (1989), a novel Atlas described by the sky (1993), a collection of short stories Island and surrounding stories (1996), a novel Siege of the Church of Saint Savior (1997) ), the novel Sitničarnica "Kod srečne ruče" (2000). ljuspa (2010), a book of selected family stories (2011), the dramatic text Matica (2011) and the book of selected stories The Inner Courtyard (2018).

Petrović's novels and story collections were published in over one hundred and thirty editions, of which sixty editions were translated into French, Russian, Spanish, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Polish, Ukrainian, Macedonian, English, Dutch, Arabic and Persian. About twenty of his stories are represented in anthologies of Serbian stories in the country and abroad.

Some of Petrović's works have been adapted for theater, television and radio: Siege of the Church of Saint Savior (dramatization and direction by Kokan Mladenović), National Theater Sombor, 2002; Scaffolding (according to his own text), production of the National Theater in Belgrade (directed by Kokan Mladenović), Orašac, 2004; radio drama The Virgin and Other Visions (dramatization by Sanja Milić, directed by Nađa Janjetović), Radio Belgrade Drama Program, 2007; television film Bližnji (according to his own script, directed by Miško Milojević), RTS drama program, 2008; radio-drama Above five dilapidated pots (dramatization and direction by Strahinja Mlađenović), Drama program of Radio Novi Sad, 2011; Matica (based on his own dramatic text, directed by Rahim Burhan), Atelier 212, 2011.

Goran Petrović is the winner of several literary awards. In addition to the literary scholarship of the Borislav Pekić Fund, more important awards are: "Prosvetina", "Meša Selimović", Nino's award for the novel of the year, "Vitalova", "Račanska charter", the award of the National Library of Serbia for the most read book of the year, "Borisav Stanković", " Svetozar Ćorović", "Ivo Andrić" award for short story, "Laza Kostić", award for dramatic text "Kočić's Book", "Knez Lazar's Golden Cross", "Veljkova's Dove" for the entire story-telling work, the Grand Prize "Ivo Andrić" for the entire literary creativity, "Stanislav Lem", "Grigorije Božović", "The Golden Book of Matica Srpska" ... He was a member of the Serbian Literary Society and the Serbian PEN Center. He was elected a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts on November 8, 2018.