Over four decades of work in public service and private practice, Svetlana Kana Radević designed hotels, anti-fascist monuments, residential architecture, public spaces, and participated in the development of urban plans. She combined her refined understanding of a modernized local construction industry with traditional masonry techniques.

She was the youngest laureate—and the only woman—to receive the prestigious Yugoslav architecture award Borba for the design of Hotel Podgorica. After completing her master's studies in the class of Professor Louis Kahn, where she was admitted as a Fulbright Scholar in 1972–1973 at the University of Pennsylvania, she began doctoral studies in architecture, becoming one of the first women to achieve this in North America. Kana spent about a decade working between the USA, Yugoslavia, and Japan, collaborating with Kisho Kurokawa in Tokyo and developing her own practice in Podgorica. The fact that she established and built her practice in Titograd (now Podgorica), while simultaneously being active in the architectural centers of her time such as Tokyo and Philadelphia, proves how unfounded the dichotomy is between the Euro-American center on one hand and the so-called periphery of developing countries on the other—a dichotomy that has largely defined the canon of modern architecture as we know it today.

Kana’s body of work also includes material that reveals how meticulously she crafted her gender-sensitive public image. Her archive—consisting of previously unexhibited original drawings, correspondence, photographs, and other documents—shows how precisely Kana constructed the identity of a confident and self-aware woman, cosmopolitan, and intellectual. She emphasized her femininity and gender identity as a way to boldly claim her place in the male-dominated world of Yugoslav architecture. Exhibited for the first time, Kana’s works bear witness to the sharpness of her vision as a socialist architect in the eyes of the public. Her legacy challenges numerous stereotypes about postwar geopolitical divides, gender norms in professional practice, and architectural production—mapping out emancipatory trajectories of architectural design rooted in socialist Southeast Europe.

Thanks to the trust of Kana’s family, led by Tamara Goliš, the exhibition is organized by the APSS Institute and the company Strategist, under the patronage of the President of Montenegro and with the support of the Capital City of Podgorica and the Secretariat for Culture.

Curators:
Dijana Vučinić, Curator
Anna Kats, Curator
Ana Dobrašinović, Curatorial Associate
Katarina Milačić, Marketing and Communications Manager
Luka Bošković, Graphic Designer
Marija Raspopović, Marketing and Communications Associate

Catalogue Text Author: Dr. Tatjana Koprivica

Collaborators:
Dea Đebrić, Lazar Betić, Milica Bubanja, Stepan Jevtić, Jovan Đukanović

Proofreading: Dragana Erjavšek

We would like to thank the exhibition sponsors:
Savana, Bemax, CEDIS, Uniprom, Glosarij, Zetagradnja, EPCG, Hipotekarna Banka, Metropolis, CGES, Artemide.

As well as the many individuals, institutions, and partners who made their archives and documents available for the exhibition, including: Pobjeda, Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), the National Museum of Montenegro, the Museum of Yugoslavia, Public Institution Museums and Galleries, the Municipality of Mojkovac, Lovćeninvest, the Montenegrin Cinematheque, and the State Archives of Montenegro, as well as our colleague Slobodan Bobo Mitrović, photographer Duško Miljanić, and photographer Lazar Pejović.