POETICS
JESA
DENEGRI, the art critic
The Energy of Work And the Energy of Behavior
On the domestic cultural map of the 90's,
Vrsac has placed itself on the prestigious position of the specially
active setting; this prestige is not the consequence of some and
by someone planned policy of decentralization and demetropolisation
of culture, but on the contrary the result of extreme daily enthusiastic
efforts of a few individuals connected on the ground of their
age and ideas, who are concerned with different areas of activities.
At one point their interests and contributions met in the materialized
products of "Kosava" magazine, "Aurora" agency,
Center for the contemporary culture "Konkordija" which
is, among many other performances, the initiator and organizer
of the Biennial of the Young in the artistic environment of the
present Yugoslavia. One person who is in the sole center of all
the mentioned initiatives is Zivko Grozdanic.
Grozdanic will say for himself that he is the exotic product of
the prewar Olympic painters' scene of Sarajevo, gathered around
the Yugoslav Documents and The Bell group, and which had the character
of serious art incident, in spite of the irregularities in occurrences.
From that Sarajevo scene, Grozdanic brought along not only the
academic education, but (what will prove to be more far-reaching
regarding his cultural strategy) the vocation of the promoter
and animator of artistic life, which he will endeavor to put in
practice on his return to Vrsac in 1991, in his new (actually
his former) living environment. Regarding his method of work,
Grozdanic is the typical off studio artist, that is the artist
who doesn't have either the possibility or need for the continuous
and constant work in the studio; on the contrary his work is directed
towards the realization of individual projects and exhibitions
in site, so that after the end of the enterprise the objects could
be dismantled or even abandoned without much regret. The method
of his work can therefore seem to be left over to instantaneous
and ad hoc made decisions, improvisations following the modified,
ready-made principle, nevertheless, there is a certain constant
system in this seemingly anti-system, which travestied in various
outer appearances of the most of the objects and installations,
is hidden somewhere the sole ground of the artist's general conception.
The simultaneous application of improvised and systematic procedures
in Grozdanic's work, is actually the consequence of his starting
education in the spirit of no canonically grasped postulates of
the analytical approach to the disciplines of painting and drawing,
which would be overcome and definitely abandoned as the mode of
expression at the beginning of the 80's, but the trace of that
experience would still remain in the way of Grozdanic's artistic
thinking and in the most of his later realizations. Most of that
realizations of the last decade are gathered in the cycle of Allegories
1993-97,for which appearances, the author himself would say that
"each of them is apparently solid, conceptual, bare, but
at the same time emotional and poetic." Every work of Grozdanic
is indeed fundamentally conceptual, what in his case means, that
it functions as the opposition of two abstract notions of adverse
presages (on the principle of conflict-reconciliation); further
his works are bare, because the materials of which the objects
are made, are given as they are, without hiding or further embellishing;
finally his works are emotional and poetic because they are starting
off a certain personal story, often even autobiographic so that
why the author chooses for the title of this cycle the term allegories.
Such works -the author expresses more precisely- "demonstrate
fundamental principle, the contrast of two elements in which one
of the elements is always allegoric interactive supplement."
That fundamental principle (mental image) of the contrast of two
opposed elements is manifested in the concrete plastic form as
the contrast of different substances and their specific properties;
contrast which is perceived visually and by the sense of feeling
as physical (soft-hard, sharp-blunt, breakable-resisting etc.)
or as of space (lying-upright, supported-fixed etc.), finally
that contrast produces allegoric and symbolical effect of the
meanings, which is referred to the meanings of the emotional,
psychological and existential conditions (and abstract terms connected
to them) such as tension, strain, insecurity, uncertainty, uncomformation,
relentlessness, danger, fatalism….
The energy of work and energy of conduct in different enterprises
of the same person- that could, in short, be fundamental motto
for the way of Grozdanic's participation on the artistic and cultural
scene of the smaller (Vrsac) and broader (Yugoslav) environment
in which this manifold engaged author (he is more than just a
painter) operates during the last decade. The energy of work in
this case arises from the tension which these objects are made
and in which the tension is reflected reversaly. The energy of
conduct arises from the activity of the public participation in
the life of the environment, which Grozdanic expresses by numerous
enterprises, which make him a necessary image of the artist who
doesn't wait passively on what will befall him, but wants to influence
everything concerning himself as the contribution to his own understanding
of art and as the contribution to his own place in art.
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JOVAN DESPOTOVIC
Zivko Grozdanic Gera, Objects and Installations, Konkordija
Web site "Allegory" Aurora
Bull testicles in blood
Early this year Zivko Grozdanic Gera, a tireless Vrsac artist, constantly
active in many fields and, above all that, always pursuing a never-ending
creative adventure, organized a great solo exhibition of his objects
at the gallery of Konkordija. Recently, he has also made a presentation
of his new web site.
For almost a whole decade Kokordija has attracted attention of the
art audience and critics due to its distinct activity, which enlisted
this gallery among the most important exhibit halls in today' s
Yugoslavia. Though magnificent in its size and special for its room
arrangement, this exhibit hall (which had been a highscool before
being taken over by the National Museum) was dead until Zivko Grozdanic
has rented it. Then he brought it back to life in a way so exclusive
that we could without any exaggeration say that some of the most
important exhibitions took place there. Those exhibitions will certainly
become of historical importance, being recorded in memory as well
as on paper, as the epitomes of the art in the nineties (which has
already been emphasized by Jesa Denegri in his book "The nineties
- themes in Serbian Art"). Let us just remind ourselves of
the three Yugoslav Biennials of Young Artists that took place at
the gallery of Konkordija; they were the unique occasions to show
the works of the best artists belonging to the young generation.
Then, we must mention numerous solo exhibitions (by Dragomir Ugren,
Mirjana Pavlovic, Milan Blanusa and many others), as well as the
original projects by the critics (several by Svetlana Mladenov,
for instance, or one by Jesa Denegri and Misa Suvakovic called "Transgressive
forms", etc.). As the art manager of Konkordija, Grozdanic
was, in fact, the only real "spiritus moves", working
as a programs creator, organizer, financial executive, publisher
and performing all other sorts of activities related to exhibiting.
Early in 2000 at Konkordija he finally opened his solo exhibition,
which occupied all the rooms (there is a total of seven rooms of
monumental dimensions that exceed in size almost all other exhibit
halls in today' s Yugoslavia). The exhibition was named "Bull
testicles in blood" after the two exhibited installations of
the same title. One of them consisted of red barrels attached to
a wall and marked by labels telling the content of the barrels -
raw material used to make a famous delicacy - and, accompanying
this work as the legend, there was a recipe for preparing that particular
meal. Another work actually consisted of three separate identical
segments occupying three different rooms; they resembled tables
covered with real bull testicles in authentic animal blood. Those
tables produce double effect: at first, their brutal display of
authentic animal organs scattered about in real blood reminds us
of a slaughterhouse where those animals are being butchered and
cut up. Then, they also remind us of kitchen tables at which they
are to be prepared for making a popular and delicious meal. That
drastic general visual effect, being not artificial but literal,
along with the terrible stench of the decaying organic matter, provokes
very intense emotional and intellectual reactions of the audience
unaccustomed to meet such displays at galleries (they would naturally
find highly aesthetic works of art there). It also causes a certain
inner revolt, which is in a clash with a regular feeling one gets
at eating a barbecue made of those organs.
In the largest room of Konkordija Grozdanic exhibited two more works:
he made an arrangement of several overturned, specially made concrete
moulds with long iron handles out of which a substance resembling
pitch was leaking, spreading on the gallery floor. Another work
called "The Spades" was also installed on a wall: it consisted
of about fifty little spades hammered straight into the black painted
wall which consequently suffered considerable material damage. Both
works affect the audience by their enormous energies and again by
the violence of visual display, which is highly atypical for the
form and content of standard gallery art to which average exhibition-goers
are accustomed and which they expect to find.
That exactly is one of the most important aims set by this author.
Throughout his art career he went not only through the period of
getting academic education (he graduated from the Art academy of
Sarajevo as a painter), but also through a phase existing on the
division line between analytical and primary painting of the eighties.
Having returned to his native Vrsac in the early nineties, at the
starting point of Yugoslav wars and the dramatic collapse of the
state, Grozdanic has fundamentally changed his creative attitude,
which has from then on been branching into several directions, as
it is to be explained later.
Let us for another moment return to the exhibition at Konkordija.
Two more works were displayed there in the two remaining rooms -
"A Public Fountain Proposal" and "The Barricades".
Even though those works were far more aesthetic, they were as well
as the other objects combined with the violence of visual display.
"A Public Fountain Proposal" was, in fact, a square installation
having on each of its four walls the same-looking washbasins resembling
the sinks that could once been found in the yards of old houses.
But they all had one additional element as well: there was a white
cloth soaked with blood in every one of them. In a futuristic and
symbolic way, washing one's hands or, in this case, washing the
bloodstained cloths represents the forthcoming repentance of our
distant and near, individual and collective historical sins so abundant
in our old as well as more recent history. And the (ideological)
barricades put so energetically up to prevent this repentance can
neither be obstacles to nor excuses for that. Grozdanic' s barricades
were made of sacks filled with ground cocoa beans (used in food
industry for making chocolate) which due to inadequate storage conditions
started getting mouldy, producing a mixture of smells - pleasant
and unpleasant as well. Their sweet aroma was becoming more and
more suppressed by the disagreeable odour of decay and rot. Thus,
once again, we can notice Grozdanic' s twofold and allusive intention:
he wants to provoke pleasant and good feelings along with the feelings
of nausea and disgust.
Those who own personal computers and have access to the Internet
may visit Grozdanic' s newly made web site called "The Allegories"
at www.gera.vrsac.com. For the time being, only the period between
1994 and 1999 has been covered, but there is an abundance of illustration,
biographical data and texts on Grozdanic' s work to browse through.
The number of artists using this means of global communication constantly
increases. The necessity for doing so reflects itself (especially
in works such are those by Grozdanic) through the specific features
of these works - they are changeable and unstable, and after being
exhibited they cease to exist as finished and complete works of
art. Thus it has proved as necessary to preserve them in a way similar
to digital recordings; nowadays web sites are the most convenient
means (similarly to photo or video archives in conceptual art) to
do that. One great advantage of a web site is its flexibility (it
can continually be altered and completed); another is its accessibility
to an unlimited number of users - individuals as well as institutions
interested in art activities.
This review of the current work of Zivko Grozdanic Gera would be
incomplete without paying due attention to his actions in many other
fields closely related to art. They have some features of local
work in global circumstances and of global range, and are characteristic
of the art in the nineties. Throughout this period Grozdanic has
proved himself to be very competent as an organizer of Vrsac art
life by gathering together practically all the important and worthy
artists who currently live and work there, for example Zvonimir
and Slobodan Santrac, Milan Blanusa, Vesna Tokin, Milan Pavlovic
and many others. Besides, he is one of the founders of their famous
local cultural magazine "Kosava" that has by far gone
out of its local borders. In a word, Zivko Grozdanic Gera is one
of the key figures, if not the most important one, who initialized
and realized what is now known as Vrsac cultural initiative. This
versatile active participant and creator of cultural and art life
is almost a renaissance character. It is not so only because of
his artwork but also because of all his other activities carried
away in numerous institutions (the National Museum, Konkordija,
the gallery Aurora), through projects (Kosava magazine) and through
organization of Yugoslav art events. He is the type of man who has
the time, energy, and certainly knowledge and talent to fill all
the fields of his work with his unique enthusiasm which puts him
among those artists and authors who managed to mark the times they
lived in in many significant ways.
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