Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
Revolution Now&Forever, VN Gallery and SC Gallery, Zagreb, May 9th – 19th 2012
By: Milena Milojević
The word revolution seems to be a worn-out word – it has practically become banal due to its over-usage. It has become the prey of thriving consumerism and of the commercial industry, causing it to be neutralized to the point that it has become void of any subversive content. From the Arab Spring and student and workers’ protests, to the “Occupy Wall Street” protests and the economic crisis in Greece. The above-mentioned not only deny today’s atrophy of the idea of revolution, but they also emphasize the demand for a central change in the neoliberal capitalist movement which is, without a doubt, in a crisis itself.
The Third Belgrade, Belgrade
By: Bojan Krištofić
Big city suburbs in the post-socialist Balkans are deteriorated and messy which presents, along with all the flaws of unplanned urbanisation, a sort of an oasis of slower rhythm opposite to rushed and loud city centres. Where huge blocks of buildings disappear and fast motorways run over slow and muddy rivers, it is still possible to sit down and think; to do something sensible for your community and for yourself, here far away from all the noise and fanfares – to make your own nest, quite literally. Last spring, in Belgrade’s suburbs, an unusual art association used this opportunity, which city’s urban planning calls the Third Belgrade. They chose the northern bank of Danube, Pančevački path, to create their own ‘’mental and physical space for art’’ and to discover possibility of utopia in contemporary post-transition, capitalist, post-modern social context. They opened their own gallery, work and living space.
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.
Metamorfoze paradigmi, Alen Aligrudić, predstavljanje umetničkih radova, Rex, Beograd, 17. april 2012.
By: Milena Milojević
English version will be available soon.
T-HT Award@msu.hr, MCA Zagreb, February 24th – March 25th, 2012
By: Bojan Krištofić
On March 25th, the fifth exhibition competition “T-HT Award” ended with the ceremonial awards at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. In recent years, this award has become one of the representative festivals of modern art in Croatia, due to both the continuous quality of the artwork exhibited, as well as the generous financial awards given to the “best” exhibitors, secured by the Croatian Telecom sponsorship who is the co-organizer of the exhibit. Among the 40 works of art exhibited (there were 249 applicants), the professional committee awarded the first prize to Damir Bartol Indos for his sound installation and performance in On the Origins of Shaftophone Man, while the second prize was awarded to Renata Poljak for her video The Directing of an Actor / The Directing of Belief. The third prize was awarded to Luiza Margan for her spatial installation in Outside of the Role. The People’s Choice Award was given to Stjepan Sandrk, who was voted for by an anonymous vote, and he captured the audience with his oil on canvas titled Martina Grlic watches the “Signing of the declaration of western Herzegovina and Popovo Field Merging With the Republic of Croatia” by Lovro Artukovic. In general, the exhibit set-up was not based on a specific theme, nor was it based on a medium form or age group, and it thus exhibited a heterogeneous collection of artwork by different generations, whose thematic and aesthetic interests varied from modern art practices as achieved in “new” media, to playing around with traditional art media such as paintings and sculptures, whose limits the artists tended to push. On the one hand, video artwork and spatial and sound installations prevailed, while on the other hand oils on canvas in which a noticeable return to figuration as a clear expression of social critique or the artist’s most intimate preoccupations could be seen. Certain works of art however, fall into neither of these two broad categories, but it is interesting that awards weren’t given to such exceptions, and it can be said that the artwork that was rewarded was a representation of the exhibition as a whole.
Thus, the work of Renata Poljak falls into the category of video exhibits that were thematically determined by critiques of social and political structures of power, whose overall influence is analyzed and taken apart by artists. The second-prize artist put together cadres from the Yugoslavian film Bosko Buha (“Bosko the Flea”) (1978), which tells stories of propaganda about the youngest hero of the NOB (People Liberation Movement) who died in 1943, directed by Branko Bauer, along with interview recordings with Ivan Kujundzic, the actor who played Bosko Buha in Bauer’s film, whom she interviewed herself. While watching this relatively short video (roughly 15 minutes), the viewer quickly realizes that the interview with Kujundzic is set up, planned, and directed, which is stressed with the opposition of recording recourses in cadres where the interviewee utters completely contradictory political views. Scenes from the old Partisan film are brought in opposition with modern statically directed recordings in which, in one instance, Kujundzic expresses his attachment and loyalty to the former republic and the political project KPJ (Yugoslav Communist Party), while a moment later, he speaks of the latter with repulsion, stating that he is proud to later have partaken in the Croatian-Serbian civil war. Since the viewer cannot objectively establish Kujundzic’s sincerity, the video becomes a strong and convincing comment regarding the role of film and television, as well as that of video art itself in its “directing of beliefs,” that is, in mass articulation and in the distribution of dubious modern ideologies, a post-modern combination of political influence from the past that has been prevailing in the regional transitional society since the break-up of Yugoslavia until today.
In contrast to Renata Poljak’s video is a completely different video by Damir Ocka titled We Saw Nothing But the Uniform Blue of the Sky, which is a good example of the other group of video art in this exhibition. The latter does not directly reference a political context, but instead deals with a kind of lyrical research regarding the artist’s subconscious, and intuitively reacts to social and spatial changes. At first, the artist was inspired by an ethnic minority in Burma who witnessed the survival of the tsunami caused by the earthquake in 2004. This witness stressed that his people remained unharmed by the catastrophe (unlike the Burmese boatmen), due to the fact that the boatmen “did not know how to look.” At first, Ocko reacted literally, and wrote a poem about this event, while his next step was to have a person with speech problems (significant stutter) read it, and in this way to obtain a portion of the sound material for his future video. In the video itself, black and white images of human and animal activity on a spacious sandy beach are intertwined, along with recordings of the artist’s luminous installations in yellow. While watching the black and white cadres, we hear the almost incomprehensible poem recital, and while watching the colour cadres, we hear fragments of noise that are coordinated with changes in light in the video recording, which is also rhythmically organized in accordance with the speed of recitation. By doing this, the artist builds a complex meaningful whole, which is dedicated to the obstacles that our senses, speech organs, and finally our intellect place in the way of a more full and unique perception of the world, especially in this modern age when fragmentation is stronger and quicker, and we are constantly being bombarded with relevant information. Similar to Werner Herzog’s early feature-length films (Fata Morgana, 1971), Ocko aims at clearing the viewer’s perspective of reality through the installation of concrete and abstract scenes, through recordings of landscapes and pure luminous effects, thus presenting the world as a “blank slate,” a meaningfully neutral spatial and temporal frame, which man has yet to (though he doesn’t have to) divide into a coherent thought system. The artist’s approach towards lyrics is stressed in a modern way – both the written as well as the recited accounts of the poem attempt to warn about the objective limits of language in the utterance of both human intimacy, as well as its role in the overall turmoil in nature. Unlike Renata Poljak’s video, Ocko’s video does not stimulate our rational mechanism, but instead influences the subconscious in a subliminal manner, and stimulates our intuitive reactions and meditative reveries in the darkness of the projection room, which can last as long as several consecutive viewings.
Thus, we have discussed two representative works of art in regards to the dominant media of expression at the exhibit – the video, among which one had been rewarded, which, in a way, confirms the power and vitality of the overall video production that was exhibited. It is remarkable, however, that the people’s choice award was given to the artist who exhibited his oil on canvas, because this piece of art, whose title was rather pretentious, did not manage to hide the fact that it referred to a pun that had already been exhausted, which does not justify the enormous effort put into the production of this painting. The painting draws its aesthetic and reflexive strength solely from Artukovic’s exceptional work, to the tiniest details depicted in Sandrkov’s intervention, which however, seems to be flawed. The fact that the audience chose precisely this artwork as their favourite, shows that it is still not sensible enough to accept braver and more radical modern art practices. In the case of this exhibit, the public clearly assessed that a painting that was based on the vocational model and that was a symbol of the traditional fine art skill, was worth more than modern media research and the virtuoso usage of digital media, which is, one must admit, in contrast to the concept of the entire exhibition.
This year’s exhibition competition is without a doubt one of the most significant festivals of modern art in Croatia. Thanks to the high production budget, among other things, it is very much followed by the media, and is presented as a prestigious social event to the broad public. The exhibition is also very useful for the Museum itself, because the newest artwork by domestic artists can be bought, which shows that the Museum of Modern Art somewhat follows current artistic trends. Finally, it is also an opportunity for artists to obtain a relatively large financial award and to better promote their artwork. The exhibition organizers, however, did not earn enough and didn’t stress the educational role of the exhibition, for which there is great potential; in situations when steps such as these are clearly necessary for the quality education of the broad public and of various generations, which, in the long-run, must become true participants of the museum’s program. In the future, this is definitely going to be an important task for such large and ambitious exhibition shows.
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.