On the edge

The exhibition ‘On the edge’ is part of the author project THE REGIONAL – THE UNIVERSAL that was launched in 1997. The project includes expert conferences and exhibitions which examine the issues of the relationship between the regional and the universal, the local and the global, the individual and the common etc. Researches conducted in the scope of this project aim to find the universal in the artistic language of authors who come from certain regions and smaller geographic zones, such as Serbia and Montenegro, Vojvodina, as well as to determine their position in the European and world culture. This project also identifies distinctive features and authenticity of individual poetics and art productions in a certain region and their contribution to the European and world art practice.

Four exhibitions and five expert conferences have been organised so far. Artists, art historians, art critics, theoreticians, philosophers, sociologists, writers and poets, historians, political scientists, lawyers, economists have taken part in them. The project is open and subject to changes, conditioned by the existing art practices, new occurrences on the current fine art scene, new art productions, new contacts and forms of collaboration on the international art scene.

The exhibition ‘On the edge’ analyses border areas in art and its risky intersecting with other domains, such as science, new technologies, social relations, politics, everyday life, market, economic fluctuations, media, lifestyle. Reality that offers poverty, coercive migrations, exile, terrorism, permanent fear of new viruses and deadly infections, panic over epidemics, natural disasters and catastrophes to the majority of population, becomes a subject of researches in art, a theme studied thoroughly and persistently by some artists. Although they do not always give solutions and optimistic forecasts, they try to direct our attention to numerous problems in the contemporary world, to awaken our lulled conscience and to enhance the influence of art and its significant position in the society.

Tempo imposed by electronic media and new technologies turned our life into a contest, time into abstraction, biological rhythm into mechanical acceleration. It whetted our appetite for new things, thus converting the entire world into information. How can art beat then its rivals – the media? By offering spectacles, scandals, surprises, aggressiveness, shocking things or something else?

Today an artist can enter the domain of risk when the very material he/she researches or an idea that he/she wants to present or a method and place of presentation of his/her art work or the public are at issue. The domains of risk can be found between the intimate and the public, the emotional and the rational, the regional and the universal, the aesthetic and the commercial, the local and the global, the personal and the common etc.

An edge can be a borderline or rather a place, perhaps, where one can slip into and find him/herself in the unknown. Walking on the edge is an enterprise that demands courage, audacity, sometimes positive obstinacy, spite, but also a necessity to endure, to strike a balance…

The authors presented at this exhibition belong to that vital course of the current art scene in Vojvodina. They represent a possible choice conditioned not only by the given theme, but also by the capacity and dimensions of the exhibition hall in the Belgrade Cultural Centre. All of the authors move freely without prejudice and restraints through the domain of art experimenting with various disciplines. Therefore, we can speak of a multimedia exhibition that includes installations (Stevan Kojic), video presentations (Vesna Tokin and Antal Silard), computer animations (Mileta Postic), digital photography and prints (Igor Antic and Andrej Tisma) and sculptures-objects (Vladimir Ilic).

Stevan Kojic structures his concept in plastic through the relationship between the intimate and the public, carrying it out in installations and ambient set-ups, where one of the principle elements is/are mirror/mirrors. In the series of works with mirrors, created in the last decades, the artist examines that border area between the intimate and the public, the personal and the common, the hidden and the manifest, the controlled and the consumerist. On one hand, he resorts to indoor spaces, i.e. places with intimate atmosphere (ballet studios), opening them to the urban exteriors and bringing them closer to the public; on the other hand, he chooses some popular public places of gathering (cafes), transforming them into places for intimate contemplation. Light plays a very important part in his works. He achieves a desired atmosphere with it, like in his latest works presented at this exhibition, where reflections in the mirror and their light refractions casting shadows on the floor blend.

Igor Antic is occupied with provocative themes of socio-culturalogical connotation. His critical approach towards anomalies of the rich world and the consumer society demonstrate that a gap between the rich and the poor is getting deeper and deeper and that the lowest ranks of society, and refugees belonging to different ethnic groups are part of them, are becoming poorer and poorer. These refugees become new inhabitants of some great metropolitan areas in the world. They live on the outskirts of the cities, in some temporary settlements and in the houses made from cardboard, planks and waste material which disappear over night as quickly as they are built up. Photographs taken by the artist are the only proof of their existence in this world. They represent a critique and a warning to the anaesthetised conscience of the mankind.

Andrej Tisma identifies a border area where the personal and the common crisscross, and intimacy is usurped by the terrorism of media, which smothers a personal space with a massive amount of information. Moving into it, polluting and poisoning it with negative news of the outside world, that terrorism tries to conquer the last oasis of intimacy, i.e. our own private quarters. The loss of that significant space of freedom brings insecurity, confusion, fears and anxiety to an individual.

Vesna Tokin tries to speak about identity walking bravely on the very edge. She finds the domain of risk, where various identities crisscross, where their attributes are obliterated, i.e. a domain where metamorphosis of polarity/sexuality from one form into another is ongoing as well as making of new forms of bipolarity/sexuality and non-polarity/sexuality. Thus she mocks prejudices, conservative, superseded and hypocritical social conventions.

Mileta Postic finds his themes on the edge where the good and the bad are in close contact. He steps daringly into a risky area where he encounters terrorism and everyday life, terrorists and ordinary people. Terrorism becomes a ubiquitous necessary evil that tries to dominate and keep under its thumb the rest of the world spreading horror and panic. Not accepting passivity, the hero of his latest (and unfinished) animation starts a rescue action and resistance against terror offering hope and optimism.

In his sculptures-objects, Vladimir Ilic looks for border areas where he re-examines laws of nature and physics, gravity. At the very rim of the possible, being in risk to fail, he boldly spites scientific and conventional way of thinking, bringing in dynamic, excitement and drama into his plastic concept.

Silard Antal raises the issues of the domain of risk between the aesthetic and the commercial with his art films (clips) and author music. Identifying an ample production, created with the intention of sucking up to the consumer mentality and taste, the artist also takes a critical view of a lifestyle which shows deformations in the system of value. Authenticity and originality vanish because of the invasion of uniform and “cloned” contents and elements of kitsch.

By Svetlana Mladenov

Biographies:

Silard Antal (1975) graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where he works as an assistant professor. He works as a film director, writes author music and engages in researches in the domain of electronic media.“Video clip», 2005, shot with a film camera, duration: 4, 20 minutes.

Igor Antic (Novi Sad, 1962) graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in 1988 and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1988/1990. He engages in site projects, installations, video art, photography and etc. “Diaspora # 1”, 2004, photography, 40x70 cm.

Vladimir Ilic (Novi Sad, 1981) is an undergraduate student under the tutelage of Prof. Ljubomir Denkovic at the Department of Sculpture of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He is a member of Art Clinic.

Stevan Kojic (Kikinda, 1973) holds BA and MA degrees from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. He works as an assistant professor at the Department of New Media of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He engages in site projects (objects, installations and ambient projects), new media (computer animation, digital photography and video art). “The intimate – the public”, 2005, installation

Mileta Postic (Novi Sad, 1970) hold BA degree from the University of South Carolina, USA (1995) and MA degree from the University of Portsmouth, UK (1999). He works at the Department of Animation and Visual Effects of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He engages in multimedia researches.

Andrej Tisma (1952) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1976). He engages in web art, digital prints and video."In my room", 2005, digital print.

Vesna Tokin (Vrsaca, 1969) holds BA degree in painting from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (1996). A member of ULUS since 1999. She paints and engages in multimedia projects and researches conducted in the domain of film and video. The artist's works have been shown and displayed at more than 60 festivals and exhibitions held in the country and abroad.

Pressetext

On the edge
Kurator: Svetlana Mladeno

mit Vesna Tokin, Igor Antic, Andrej Tisma, Vladimir Ilic, Stevan Kojic, Mileta Postic, Silard Antal