Dejan Kaludjerovic

Exhibition opening Monday, 10th of September 2007. at 8 PM

“….If we take the perspective of this scene as our departure point in looking at the new series of paintings Can I change my career for a little fun?, we are instantly struck by a major change in the paradigm that has taken over the past 20 years. In this case, it can be reduced to the following: while it was possible earlier for an advertisement depicting a boy pushing a carrot into the mouth of a little girl to appear without any fear of censorship, this was not the case with a cartoon in which an eye torn out of a small beaver left a slimy trail or an explosion ripped out the intestines of a sweet little squirrel.

Nowadays everything has been turned topsy-turvy. The present day sees itself as far less “naïve”. We think that we know much more about ourselves and about children. We are conscious that innocent motifs hide terrible sexual perversions and that the presentation of explicit violence always and only a “show” that, so people think, has no link with reality. As we have pointed out, the paintings of Kaludjerović asks no questions in this regard. What they do primarily is to confront us with the change in the paradigm and with the as yet unexplained relationship between “pretend“ violence and real violence.

Not one of our views of the universal commercial exploitation of children can remain the same after we have seen the works of Kaludjerović. On the other hand, these paintings are not the result of any didactic intention on the part of the artist. On the contrary, they are themselves deeply enmeshed in a world governed by our inability to play a direct part in it and hence to change it. It is precisely the closeness of these paintings that disturb us."

from the text of Branislav Dimitrijevic

Dejan Kaludjerovic
CAN I CHANGE MY CAREER FOR A LITTLE FUN?
Ort: Salon Of The Museum Of Contemporary Art, Belgrad