Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
Nikola Džafo: Painting: The Second Time Among the Painters | Gallery Nova, Belgrade | December 22, 2011 – January 31, 2012
By: Ana Bogdanović
Rabbit the Mayor, rabbit Christ the Saviour on the cross, rabbit the executioner, vengeful warrior, rabbit that ate the museum – in art, unlike other public and private spheres, anything is possible. Therefore, artists often believe that their profession, more than any other, has the potential to change the world. The revolutionary and emancipatory character of art, which has survived many disheartening episodes of modern and contemporary society since the vanguard, is strongly rooted in the beliefs of the Novi Sad artist Nikola Džafo. His exhibition in the Gallery Nova, where the main part is played by the rabbits, offered another reason to ask ourselves whether art really possesses the power to actively affect socio-political reality.
Painting: The Second Time among the Painters includes various stages of this artist’s work. On the one hand, there are the works from the 80’s, when the young Džafo, as a continuation of the German expressionist tradition, was intensely involved with painting to comment on the current social atmosphere. Anticipating the catastrophe of the 90’s, this Kirchnerian engagement produced works of tense composition, with dominating horrific and ruthless figures of soldiers, sailors and citizens above frail nudes of young and mostly very erotic women. Sadistic impulse is present in this period, resolved in the realism of the 90’s. This is when Džafo decides to quit painting and put ethics over aesthethics, beginning a more radical artistic practice. Exhibition, actions and performances make him a trademark figure in the Led Art movement during the 90’s, when he establishes a very eminent position on the local art scene.
In mid-90’s, along with the well known topics, the rabbit also jumps in – as a motive, figure, protagonist, metaphor and myth, he appears either individually or in groups, more and more often as a witness, syndrome and lightmotive of his numerous artistic considerations. The meanings are mostly attached to the causes of current social problems and their politically powerful actors (rabbit the politician, the mayor, the rabbit that ate the museum). Even today, after almost twenty years of abstinence from painting, the rabbit is still the protagonist. The series of paintings, next to the older works, follows the fights, suffering and executions of the pink and blue long-eared creatures, in a funny and mysterious way. In the cycle which takes the patterns of common religious paintings of the life of Jesus Christ (e.g. Taking down from the cross), but also saints (Salome with the head of John the Baptist), bunnies embody social stereotypes and popular so-called traditional values. Their mutual fighting is represented almost grotesquely – on the verge between parody and sarcasm, making the viewer laugh, they are entertaining rather than awkward and accusatory which is the case with the older, disturbing and brutal comments on the life in the 80’s. The rabbit humouresque very fittingly functions as the reflection of the arrogant present, which is much more subverted by a good joke than any kind of serious critique.
If we read the creative stages of this artist in the context of relation between art and its socio-political surroundings, we will notice significant shifts. Very honest and anxious warning for the future of society is expressed in his early paintings, then turns into radical, bold and direct criticism in artistic activism which leaves the gallery walls and goes into the streets during the nineties. Returning to painting, a much less vicarious repertoire of a carefully constructed auto ironic artistic and social mythology is set in place in the shape of the rabbit, where the artist seems to have given up on curing reality. In this and many other cases, time has shown that art, unfortunately, cannot change the world. It can, however, anticipate, react and toy with what our social, political and cultural environment is, which Džafo has successfully managed for years. This is the only way to let art provide the space where we can always allow ourselves to think, at least for a moment, despite this rabbit and that rabbit, that we can change the world asking new questions and experiencing new things, unlike all the other spheres in which everything is a given.
Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
OSMI I SEDMI PUTNIK, Aleksandar Bjelogrlić, Citadela, Agora, Zrenjanin, 201
By: Dalibor Plečić
English version will be available soon.
Stjepan Gulin, Paz’te sad, paz’te sad (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Authors: Ivana Ančić
Igor Marojević, Kroz glavu (Dosije, Beograd, 2012.)
Author: Dalibor Plečić
Damir Miloš, Pisa. Povratak (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Author: Morena Livaković
POLITIČKE I DRUŠTVENE KONSTRUKCIJE IDENTITETA U VIDEO-PERFORMANSIMA NA BEOGRADSKOJ SCENI 1970-ih
Esej Vladimira Bjeličića
Esej u celini možete pročitati na portalu SEEcult.org
Esej Tihane Bertek
Od promatrača do sudionika
GALERIJA KAPELICA I POST-JUGOSLAVENSKI BODY ART (1995–2010)
Esej – Bojan Krištofić
Esej o radovima Šejle Kamerić, Maje Bajević i Nebojše Šerića Shobe
Piše: Slađana Golijanin
ESEJ – Razvaline socijalizma kao inspiracija za muzejske eksponate Mrđana Bajića i skulpturalne dosetke Ivana Fijolića
By: Milena Milojević
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Gostujuća izvedba šibenskog HNK, Pir malograđana, prema tekstu mladog Bertolda Brechta (napisan 1919.) izvedena je po sljedećoj formuli: na Danima satire u satiričkom kazalištu Kerempuh gledamo satiričan komad. Prema reakcijama publike, bila je uspješna, ali teško se oteti dojmu da je smijeh bio formulaično zagarantiran, jer bi takav instruirani moment humora trebao zauzdati spontani smijeh. Je li se možda radilo o “malograđanskom” humoru?
Glumice i to, KNAP, Zagreb, premijera 12.5.2012.
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Glumice i to, nova predstava u zagrebačkom KNAP-u, neobičan su kazališni ‘slučaj’. Naime, predstavu su, dramaturški i režijski osmislile te, naravno, glumački ostvarile četiri mlade glumice. U trenutačnoj opće-društvenoj, pa tako i kazališnoj situaciji, kojom prijete olovni pojmovi poput recesije, prekarijata i outsourcinga (nedavno su najavljena i otpuštanja “hladnopogonskih” glumaca), one su, kako piše u najavi “nezaposlene i pune entuzijazma, odlučile su preuzeti stvar u svoje ruke i napraviti hit!”. Očito sklone postdramskom pristupu izvedbi koji se, između ostalog, bazira na ekipnoj work-in-progress metodi, izvedbenoj anti-iluziji i autoreferencijalnosti, glumice/autorice su se “trgnule” i napravile parodiju o tome kako rade predstavu, po ironičnom ključu: kad ne ide pravljenje predstave treba napraviti predstavu o tome kako se ne može raditi predstava.
“Nije život biciklo”, Biljana Srbljanović, režija: Anselm Veber, Produkcija: Šaušpilhaus Bohum, Nemačka; Sterijino pozorje 2012, selekcija Nacionalne drame i pozorišta
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Grebanje, ili kako se ubila moja baka“, Tanja Šljivar, režija: Selma Spahić, Bosansko narodno pozorište Zenica/Bitef teatar-Hartefakt (Beograd), premijera: 7. septembar 2012. (Zenica), 11. oktobar 2012. (Beograd)
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Sluga dvaju gospodara“, Karlo Goldoni, režija: Boris Liješević, Grad teatar Budva/Srpsko narodno pozorište Novi Sad/Narodno pozorište „Toša Jovanović“ Zrenjanin, premijera: 27. jul 2012.
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.