I am still deeply moved by all the people who gathered at Slavija Square in Belgrade last night. Once again. Despite the passage of time and all the sacrifices made along the way, the nucleus of change has not lost its pulse. If anything, it seems to be beating with ever-growing energy.
The first time we gathered at Slavia Square, I imagined all of us as interconnected synapses, transmitting a frequency of awakening through a living network. Inspired by Nikola Tesla’s vision, I translated the powerful energy of that movement, my emotions and fascination with this unfolding phenomenon onto canvas. That is how my painting Living Grid, Wireless Transmission of Consciousness came to life.
But last night, Slavija moved me all over again. It became, once again, a nucleus of shared meaning.
What fascinated me was not simply the extraordinary number of people, but the invisible dimension of what was unfolding. The feeling of being part of a movement whose power comes precisely from the fact that it does not require everyone to become the same.
Instead, it allows each person to become more fully conscious of what we can contribute.
Perhaps the most important phenomenon is not the transmission of identical thoughts, but the possibility that unique conscious individuals can recognize shared meaning without surrendering our individuality.
Thousands of people cannot experience the same moment in exactly the same way. Each carries an inner world that no other person can fully access. Yet through communication, empathy, recognition, and shared action, something new becomes possible. Individual experiences begin to contribute to a collective reality. Not because everyone becomes the same, but because our differences can participate in a shared purpose.
Recently, I have been exploring the work of Federico Faggin, who proposes the idea of One, a fundamental unity of consciousness expressed through individual conscious entities. I find this particularly compelling as a philosophical possibility. It offers another way to contemplate a question that has accompanied my artistic practice for years:
What if individuality and unity are two dimensions of the same living reality?
Through this perspective, “Living Grid” becomes more than an image of energetic transmission. It becomes a meditation on conscious participation, freedom, and the creative possibilities that emerge through our relationships.
When Awareness Becomes Action
Since the gatherings that first inspired “Living Grid”, I have continued observing how the desire for change has spread through Belgrade and beyond. As Serbia approaches another period of important political decisions, I find myself returning to this painting with renewed curiosity and hope. What moves me most is the growing willingness of people to question what they have long accepted, to recognize what truly matters to them, and to participate in shaping their shared future.
The painting began with a particular gathering, in a particular city, at a particular moment. Yet the questions it raised have continued to evolve:
How does an individual experience become a shared understanding?
What allows courage to travel from one person to another?
How does a society begin to change when more people recognize their ability to think independently and act together?
I no longer feel the need to imagine consciousness literally traveling through human nervous systems as electricity travels through a conductor.
The metaphor remains powerful, but the human reality may be even more remarkable. One person recognizes something meaningful and chooses to act. Another witnesses that action, reflects upon it, and makes a choice of their own. Through conversations, relationships, experiences, and shared responsibility, new possibilities emerge.
The network grows because each individual remains capable of choosing, understanding, and creating.
This is the living grid I now recognize more clearly. A network that grows stronger through freedom rather than conformity. Through mutual understanding rather than control. Through participation rather than passive agreement.
And perhaps this is where the idea of a new civilizational awakening begins to acquire its deepest meaning. Not in the expectation that everyone will think alike, but in the possibility of building a society where conscious individuals can contribute to something greater than themselves.
From Shared Meaning to Conscious Transformation
I deeply hope that this is the moment that marks the beginning of the end of outdated political and institutional systems, opening fertile ground for a new social order rooted in values that honor human dignity and make life truly worth living.
But we all know that transformation does not happen simply because people have gathered. It begins when we return to our everyday lives; when we start seeing a familiar situation differently; when a conversation changes. When we choose a response we would not have chosen before. When that choice is repeated, until a new way of perceiving and acting gradually becomes part of how we live.
That is when a shared moment becomes a lasting change. When the meaning we recognized together begins to shape the lives we live individually. And when those individual changes gradually become the foundation of a different society.
Here’s to the beginning of a new era for us all! Cheers!
BelA | Living Grid, Wireless Transmission of Consciousness
I first explored the origins of this painting in my earlier essay, The Living Grid: From Liberated Energy to Collective Resonance.