ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS SAŠA MARKOVIĆ MIKROB…

Exhibition: Goodbye Underground: Saša Marković Mikrob, Salon of Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Belgrade| February 27 – March 18, 2012

By: Ana Bogdanović

For Saša Marković Mikrob (1959-2010), also known as the Mexican, the Groom, Bamboo and Ganesh, we can safely say, without any exaggeration, that he enjoys a cult status on Belgrade’s art and cultural scene in the recent decades. Through active and very specific involvement in the domain of visual art, journalism and authentic social activism, he has left a varied and comprehensive opus that has been reverently explored in this homage exhibition Goodbye Underground: Saša Marković Mikrob, at the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. Drawings, masks, fanzines, photo booth materials, documents of his performances, actions and exhibitions, as well as video works, CD covers and installations are all on display in a precise, measured and communicative concept by Dejan Sretenović, the curator. 

Stepping onto the art scene as an already established author, after his first show in 1992 in Srećna Gallery SKC (Student Culture Centre), Saša Marković Mikrob became one of its forerunners and an unavoidable name in almost every significant  retrospective and project during the last decade of the 20^th century, both in local and regional context. Although he was an autodidact, even his first art projects with the photo booth, organised in cycles with unusual titles: TU DUE, Political Parties, Post-political Era: Religious Sects, State Secrets&Private Companies, etc., demonstrate a very serious, careful and socially-aware approach to art.

Saša Marković’s practice is based on author’s captivating personality, appearances and performances in the media and for the public who are extremely narrative in character. Introduction to the exhibition at the MCA Salon presents a note, found posthumously, that best describes Mikrob’s approach to art: art has to be narrative, accessible to all, fun and funny, consistent, locally-oriented and cheaply produced. These simple guidelines are seemingly very naive for the conditions required by the market and social emancipation in the art production, increasingly present in the local milieu since the 90’s onwards. Having a strong impact on the visitor and therefore predefining to a certain degree, the understanding of the works on display, the creative principles represent only one of many readings of Mikrob’s opus.

It appears almost impossible to explore in a single review the complex story that Mikrob, with his honest dedication to society, recorded, collected and reflected in his work, relating to the convoluted aspects of a local reality, inspired by fragments of everyday life of people he met during his busy meanderings through various locations and social classes. The works on display at the Salon are products of twenty years worth of work, from the mid 80’s until the end of the first decade of the 21^st century. Quoting and discovering details from the cultural, artistic, personal and popular iconography of Mikrob’s works, especially the numerous masks, are part of the artistic ritual – as an element of action where the author puts people in the photo booth or performs while wearing a mask in public spaces of different towns; as an exchange of goods for other products (newspapers, for example) and services; as a backbone of a story he is telling to the audience during his show and performance; and as a special gift to participants in a given process.

Based on author’s lucid and sharp interpretation of surroundings, the works presented at the MSU Salon, although they seem funny at first, through further contextualisation, actually offer raw and infrequently painful commentary on individual and social reality. In particular, drawings and posters with the development of political parties’ mythologies in Serbia from the early 90’s or those who advertise new life in the morning of October 4, 2000, more precisely, it sheds irony on the causes and consequences of changes that have been happening in our society for decades, and very unsuccessfully at that.

Evidently social involvement of Mikrob’s commentary is fun and flows subtly on an intimate, micro level, in a dialogue between the artist and the observer. Since each artifact – whether a mask, drawing, photo booth collage or video footage – is also a testament to author’s big life performance, the observer participates in it as well. In this direct link between the narrator and the listener lies the crucial element to understanding Mikrob’s work. Formally diverse and thoughtful comments really reflect the symptoms and the characteristics of their audience who act as students for this contemporary kind of ancient street philosopher, which can be felt best in his joint video project with Milica Tomić that fittingly concludes the whole show.

Proving yet again that art encompasses a much more complex area than reproduction of past or current social happenings and their one-sided criticism in the context of a gallery, Mikrob’s works provide the experience of the near past, but not as a reminder of the generally well known collective events, but through interesting, intimate and friendly encounters that every community’s creative energy relies on.

Saša Marković Mikrob dedicated and directed his art to people, streets and small narratives from his surroundings, wherever he may have roamed: in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Koper, Nottingham, Prague, Mostar, Zaječar or a village in south-eastern Serbia. Due to his great contribution in different spheres of cultural and social life, which has been minutely reconstructed in the Museum’s Salon, it is no wonder that he is floating around again above the visitors of the Goodbye Underground show, like “the good spirit of Belgrade” that he is.