Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
Memory Module of the 52nd International Theatre Festival MESS Sarajevo, Dejan Vekić, Danilo Krstanović, Zoran Kanlić: Reality of War, Contemporary Art Gallery Java, 7th April — 21st April, 2012
By: Slađana Golijanin
Memory Module is an off-programme of International Theatre Festival MESS that has been taking place for 16 years in Sarajevo. This project presents art that symbolises occupation of capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 1992 to 1995. During the past few years, this concept has extended to war experiences taking place today, like in Egypt or Syria, with emphasis on how to read and interpret these conflicts. Most importantly, it serves as a reminder of the past in order to face it on a psychological level through reconstruction, reading and interpretation.
Many performances, movies and exhibitions took place as part of this year’s project, among which is photography exhibition by Dejan Vekić, Danilo Krstanović and Zoran Kanlić, titled Reality of War. Exhibition is set in Contemporary Art Gallery Java and it contains around 30 photographs taken during the occupation. Topic is not their only connection, but also artists’ reaction to provocation, disjointed ‘’normality’’, absurdity that takes place here and now. They are also connected by the artists’ need to capture moments full of various meanings, conditions and thoughts. They captured places and people that still have some strength left in them, sending out a message of hope and faith in a better future.
Dejan Vekić presented two billboards of small format photographs , in colour and a few big black and white photographs. He already exhibited some of them as part of JustLikeSarajevo exhibition, in January this year in the same gallery. He insists on physically and symbolically ruined institutions of a civilisation and broken communications between people. He takes photos of authentic locations and gives special attention to ruined buildings that were once institutions of the Republic, ruined and stopped trains and other vehicles, deserted, lifeless places and corridors that were dug out and that lead nowhere. Pointing out these ruined objects in relation with which cultural identity and civilisation flow of a community are usually defined by, the artist directs to their new reading in context of enabling normal life for people trapped in that moment. In the photographs that show personal destinies, he creates a certain counterpoint, emphasising stuffiness and numbness of an urban community, that was perfectly balanced before the war (when looking at it from this point of view). One of Vekić’s photographs shows two men, who despite the rainy weather and armed forces, drag each other on a cart to carry a tank of water.
Unlike the other two authors, Danilo Krstanović’s colour photographs capture confronted images of suffering from the line of war operations and elements of fun and happiness. One photograph shows three half-naked girls in bathing suits sitting on an UNHCR van, with their backs turned to the observer. This is Krstanović’s way of emphasizing Eros and Thanatos in time of war, when urge for life and aggressive urge for death and destruction overlap. Death instinct makes people act dangerously and take risks, including going to war. At the same time, urge and will for life and enjoying inhuman acts become even more expressed than in time of peace, i.e. normal circumstances. This photograph is a testimony to sublimation of two urges into one entity; they are inseparable even under destructive circumstances. Another photograph shows a grenade hole through which an old man stares back at Krstanović, presenting lust for life and, at the same time, fear of it. This man is dirty and shabby and he is staring at the photographer with hope and with his mouth half-open, as if he is about to ask for help. He has not given up and he still wants to live.
Zoran Kanlić uses wider frames to present confusion and suffering of his fellow citizens. His black and white photographs show people with painful experience of war (that is still going on) which is carved into their faces. A portrait of a man shows his painful moves, in a moment when he holds a cigarette with stiff fingers, bringing it close to his bowed head. Even though he lives in terrible circumstances, this man is well-dressed and he keeps himself neat and presentable, but he smokes his cigarette with a cramp on his face. Regardless of his immaculate looks, his facial expression reveals his inner deterioration. Emptiness caused by his inner uneasiness is evident on his dry, wrinkled face, with no sign of a smile and with a stiff, sad look in his eyes. There is also a photograph that caught a well-dressed girl and her immense grief. Her eyes seem lifeless as she stares into nothing and sees nothing and no one. Confrontation of external and internal, facing opposites, create an oval effect, which creates a sense of drama in the photograph. These photographs create tension in the observer, too. Although difficult, painful and full of grief, faces and movements of these people express hope that is still in them. Kanlić suggests freedom of spirit, possibility of individual choice. Man with the cigarette decided to light it, as well as the girl who decided to dress nicely, to put on make-up and a hat. Artist suggests that even the worst circumstances, as much as they influence a man’s inner self, cannot subdue it completely. His survival instinct is not destroyed, or that of the people on his photographs, because all of them and despite everything, show that they are alive.
Dejan Vekić, Danilo Krstanović and Zoran Kanlić emphasized different participants of war to make observers reflect on the subject. Their photographs suggest various meanings and their interpretation depends on every individual. What all photographs have in common are implications of creating art under risky circumstances. Photographers worked in an extraordinary environment, risking their lives every day. These photographs present the atmosphere of Sarajevo under occupation with the drama of its citizens, but also the resistance in which they were created. These photographs confirm freedom of art and, more importantly, that art can stand against forces of war.
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.