As part of the program Standpoints, Concepts, Debates: Art Criticism in the Second Half of the 20th Century in Serbia and Yugoslavia, 

the Association of Art Critics AICA Serbia brings attention to the wide-ranging intellectual and professional contributions of Oto Bihalji-Merin — a writer and journalist, editor and publisher, active member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Communist Party of Germany, art critic, theorist, and art historian, as well as founder and member of the organizing committees of numerous institutions and juries for many prestigious domestic and international events.

In dialogue with archival materials from the Oto Bihalji-Merin Salon—presented as part of the recent exhibition I Had to Be Present, curated by Senka Latinović and Miroslav Karić (Milica Zorić and Rodoljub Čolaković Legacy Collection)—members of AICA Serbia critically analyzed the conceptual and materialist impacts of Bihalji-Merin’s work. These analyses explore his cultural policy activities, his interwar involvement in both local and international contexts with an emphasis on anti-fascist engagement, his views on the sovereignty and authenticity of modern art through a synthesis of tradition and modernity, and his writings on medieval, naïve, and marginal art, as well as on non-European artistic traditions.