Upcycling and environmental protection take the spotlight in the “Transparentno: Don’t Buy – Create!” exhibition organized by Young Researchers of Serbia. Held from 25 to 27 November 2025 at the N.EON Gallery in Belgrade, the exhibition showcased how discarded materials can be transformed into inspiring works of contemporary art, promoting sustainability and responsible resource use. The exhibition’s digital catalogue is now available.
The second edition of the exhibition “Transparent: Don’t Buy – Create!” brought together professional artists, students, and authors from various creative fields, who demonstrated through their works that discarded materials do not mark the end of a cycle, but rather the beginning of a new narrative.
Through glass, metal, textiles, and combinations of different materials, upcycling art became a medium for reflecting on responsible resource use, sustainability, and personal responsibility toward nature.
The exhibition served as a meeting point of art and ecology—a space where aesthetics and message go hand in hand, and creativity becomes a tool for raising awareness about environmental protection and the reuse of resources we often take for granted. Each story and each artwork confirms that upcycling is not only an artistic practice, but also a call for a more conscious relationship with the world we share.
The published digital catalogue brings together all the exhibited works and allows the dialogue initiated in the gallery to continue beyond its walls. It presents diverse and original approaches to upcycling, from subtle material interventions to bold combinations of textures and forms, inviting us to re-examine our own habits, our relationship with consumption, and the traces we leave in nature.
The exhibition, featuring selected submissions, “Transparent” are part of the broader campaign of the same name, implemented by Young Researchers of Serbia with the support of Sweden, aiming to encourage behavioral change and a more responsible attitude toward the environment through art, education, and public dialogue.
We thank all the artists and visitors whose participation helped ensure that upcycling is recognized not only as an artistic practice, but also as a powerful message of a sustainable future.
The digital catalogue of the exhibition “Transparentno: Don’t Buy – Create!” is available for download here:
