AN ARTIST – A VICTIM OR A PROVOCATEUR?

Slaven Tolj: Srđ je naš (Srđ is Ours), Galerija P74, Ljubljana, June 2 – 29, 2012.

By: Žana Vukičević

The fight against corruption, the dissatisfaction with the processes of privatization, the burgeoning of capitalism, as well as the resistance against drastic social stratification as their direct and inevitable consequence are commonplace in a modern democratic society. The phenomena caused by the existence of such negative factors are present and appear almost on a daily basis in the form of public protests, demonstrations, petitions, and similar kinds of civil actions. Nonetheless, almost as a rule, all attempts at rebellion of this kind take place on the principle of the unbalance of forces between the people wanting change and thus standing up together and the rigid structures comprising of financial and political power figures whose influence in decision-making by far surpasses the local context of a certain problem.

The topic of social activism, the awakening of individual awareness, the necessity of common and insistent opposition to the imposition of systems of value and repression on the side of all strata of government, made its way to the center of Slaven Tolj’s interest. This Croatian artist’s exhibition called Srđ je naš opened at the beginning of June in Galerija P74 in Ljubljana. As an artist, a curator, and the director of the Art Workshop “Lazareti” ever since the end of the 1980s, Tolj is one of the forerunners and main representatives of the independent cultural scene in Dubrovnik. In his work, he first and foremost deals with the issues concerning his hometown, and this time he dedicated his work to the key problem of the city’s survival and future development.

Srđ je naš is a joint initiative organized by the Art Workshop “Lazareti” with Slaven Tolj as its leader and other non-governmental organizations from Dubrovnik and Zagreb, and it was started as an act of resistance against the implementation of urban planning policy for the hill of Srđ above Dubrovnik. This area of some 350 ha, along with a number of locations in other parts of Croatia, is supposed to be turned into a golf course, which led to the adoption of the Golf Act. The media campaign that started several years ago has been presenting this project to the public as a chance for better future and the prosperity of the city, which is sanctified by the city’s officials. However, the civil initiative points out that actually this is a project in which public good is turned into a private interest exclusively, because in the background of the plan propagating the construction of a golf course lies a real estate business worth 1.2 billion euros. Given that Srđ is the only area available for the city’s expansion, the building of a luxury complex would permanently determine Dubrovnik’s future as an elite hotspot without any benefits for the local population. As part of the Srđ je naš initiative, series of public meetings and actions were organized, and the organizers even founded a daily newspaper of the same title whose goal is to inform the local population and encourage people to actively engage in the struggle against corruption and to be able to decide on their own future.

Turning public’s attention to the community’s social and political problems or opening important questions that are reluctantly talked about as part of an artistic action imagined as a provocation, which brings a certain dose of risk, are an important characteristic of Slaven Tolj’s work. It is also necessary to mention an incident that recently took place at Revelin, a popular Dubrovnik nightclub, where during a The Beat Fleet’s concert, the owner of the club and its guards attacked the artist and kicked him out of the club. The media gave considerable amount of space to the detailed account of the assault, which supposedly happened after the band members came out on stage wearing T-shirts with the Srđ je naš sign on them. On the other hand, the club’s management declines that the incident ever took place.

The need of media attention and sensationalism, in whose context this event should be examined, is evident in the structure of the exhibition. Besides the documentation providing a presentation of the Srđ je naš initiative (a map of the city with the mark of the disputed location inscribed in it, three issues of the mentioned daily newspaper, photos of the fort with the investor’s flag, and the citation: “Since time immemorial, the one who had the flag ruled over the city.”), a short video was shown. This was a segment from the world-known series “The Game of Thrones”, whose second season was in part filmed in Dubrovnik. In a brutal scene of murder, Tolj appears as one of the extras and has his throat cut by a sword, while on the gallery’s wall there is an ironic and ambiguous sign from one of his earlier performances: “I’m dangerous, kill me in front of my children’s eyes.”

The perception of the artist as a victim, as someone ready to sacrifice himself for higher goals and ideals, which is (either accidentally or intentionally) provoked by a particular kind of public behavior, is only additionally highlighted by this video. Even though this symbolic plane of perception is functional with regards to the initiative that gave name to the whole project, it nonetheless reveals the difficulty of the relationship between individual and group actions started with the same idea. Seen as a whole, one gets the impression that Slaven Tolj more comes forwards as an individual and an artists than an activist, which surpasses and exceeds the initial idea of a collective social movement.