Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
37th Split Salon, November 4 – December 4, 2011, Diocletian’s Palace, Split
By Anita Kojundžić
When the Uzor company from Split declared bankruptcy in February 2011, we witnessed another fall of a once successful business. In early June, since the material conditions to continue its operations ceased to exist, all the employees (and all of them female), were made redundant. Frustrated by another victim of conversion and privatisation à la croate, a crowd of people tried to sympathise with the workers, by organising public actions that were followed by the media, but it all ended exactly where it started – it was nothing more than a symbolic gesture of support from a small group of people.
To watch these events and not to be able to do something about it, has to be frustrating for anyone, not only because we fear it may soon happen to us and others around us, but also because we feel helpless and not in control of our own destiny. But, how do you deal with it if you are an artist? Is the responsibility of the artist compared to that of a “regular“ citizen greater and does he or she, therefore, have a duty to react and get involved? Naturally, that depends on individual sensibility, but a growing number of engaged artists demonstrate how it is becoming increasingly difficult to close oneself inside the microcosm of a studio and create esthetic objects outside the context of the ebullient reality.
Split artist Boris Šitum felt a calling or he was called out, so he performed an art action called Match Ball precisely at the scene of the crime – the roof terrace of the Uzor building. As an independent artist, member and president of the contemporary art association Kvart (Neighbourhood), he has established a recognizable pattern of reactions to current events, exhibiting his works in everyday spaces, outside the institutional framework, very often in the Trstenik burough (where the Uzor building is located). The video which documents this artistic action is part of the 37th Split Salon, from November 4 to December 4, in the basement of the Diocletian’s Palace.
Dressed as a tennis player, wearing all white, with the Uzor logo on the back, Šitum went to the top of the building in a hearbeat and used balls with the same logo to throw at the workers and passers-by. Although we could observe the symbolism of tennis as an elite, gentrified sport that has nothing to do with bleak everyday life, the connection between the white sport and Uzor is a lot more direct, since the last owner of the company was a tennis player, Bruno Orešar. He first came into the spotlight during the 90’s, while playing tennis with president Tuđman, then later with business maleficience that followed the process of privatisation. He represents the paradigm of an entrepreneur who got hold of successful businesses and by systematic negotiation of harmful deals, selling property and irresponsible management, in combination with the capitalist patent of making loss national, and privatising profits, ran those companies into the ground. The phrase “operation was a success, but the patient died”, says it all – their every move was a match point in the game of destroying public property.
On the one hand, the artist plays with elements of the theatre of the apsurd, because he reveals the tragedy of human existence in a brutally banal and witty way, pointing out the apsurdities of modern society and the relations within a complex social network (sports – high level politics – entrepreneurship – war exploitation). As a means of expression, he also uses kitsch, especially towards the end when the performance culminates in him taking off his shirt and throwing it into the audience, to the thrill of the gathered ball boys. On the other hand, he takes on another identity in an almost shamanistic ritual, releasing at least some of the pent-up energy with every ball he throws, reminding us of Joseph Beuys and his idea of energy transformation. This work, along with some of his previous works, follows the trail of Beuys’ philosophy, which perceives human creativity as the only possibility to be free, socially, historically and anthropologically. Moreover, he went as far as to believe that only by being free and creating, can we become human. This is all happening through intrapersonal dialogue and this is how art can serve as a means of political action, and Beuys’s main point of acting artistically always focused on human dignity. Finally, both of them think the responsibility of the artist is essential. Regarding this work in the context of the 37th Split Salon, which confronts exhibition and lying, the video fits if we interpret art cynically, saying how it is helpless compared to politics and entrepreneurship, and that this performance is another gesture of support from a small part of the public.
One of the mottos of this year’s Salon Man can be reasonable, the citizen cannot (Jacques Rencière) opens the question of mutual responsibility as a consequence of capitalist consumerist indoctrination and addiction to debt. Did everyone else as well, by naively believing the stories and the fairy tales in the 1990’s, closing their eyes, ears and mouths as long as it did not concern them directly, contribute to the present state of affairs by passively watching? Whatever the case may be, artists, including Boris Šitum, ask the inappropriate questions at least on a symbolic level and provide answers that many people may not want to hear.
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.