Spaces by Jelena Sredanović / Dephts by Tatjana Dimitrijević Photo courtesy of the artists
Curated by Danilo Vuksanović
September 16, Bel Art Gallery, 17 Mihajlo Pupin Boulevard, Novi Sad
Seemingly different judging by the titles above, the two artists use different artistic techniques to produce metaphysical artistic echoes of equal intensity. Titles are only verbal determinants here because nuances point to the same thing. These are spatial depths or depth spaces that that I have ventured to place within the broadest possible term, the one extending over an elusive and indefinite duration. Time is multiplied in the title of the exhibition and thus further extended (although acquiring the character of pleonasm). TIMES represent the words I took for the name of the exhibition along with the emblem, an allegory of time, a female figure holding a clepsydra in her hand next to an ivy-wrapped stone.
This symbol of transience, with the cautionary motto Memento mori, is the introductory symbol of the exhibition, which will consist of blue compositions carved in wood (Jelena Sredanović) and artworks made with the oil on canvas technique (Tatjana Dimitrijević). The dominant blue tone of the exhibition, on the one hand, points to and reminds of a special gesture of the famous artist Yves Klein, the creator of a special IKP matte blue color (International Klein Blue), who released 1001 blue balloons into the air to announce one of his exhibitions. There is an unequivocal association with this gesture in the woodcarving cycle of Jelena Sredanović, entitled “Clouds and Reflections”, which the artist further developed through the visual relations of the sky, clouds and the multiple layers of blue. In her abstract painting cycles, Tatjana Dimitrijević displays a monochrome mode of artistic expression depicting the transformations of blue coulour and images simultaneously, especially in the cycles “Insignificant Records” and “Frequencies”. In her artistic explorations, she relies especially on the tradition of Klein’s quest for the most perfect expression of blue.
The artistic flag* on which a female figure holds an hourglass has replaced the usual representation of Chronos, pointing to the allegory of time, the symbolic image of temporality. The pigments of blue emphasize the depth of time spaciousness and the metaphysical nature of artistic processes used by Jelena Sredanović and Tatjana Dimitrijević, each in her own way. The universal character of their artistic endeavors is found in the indefinite character of time, in the absence of historical context and social influences. The TIMES exhibition raises questions about temporal structures, eternal characters, where it is very hard to distinguish objective from subjective within temporality. The crisis of historicity consequently leads to the breakdown of temporality, which sets free the present – the present of the material world. That is why the title of the exhibition is the only possible plurality of time, a deep reflexive “trap” in the perception of contemporary artistic practice. (Danilo Vuksanovic, MA)
- Artistic flag is the work of the curator/co-author of the exhibition, Danilo Vuksanović, used exclusively in an editorial and contextual function, and will be printed together with the accompanying text of the TIMES exhibition.
Explorations of Danilo Vuksanović (1973, Sombor) in the field of visual arts are an reinterpretation and re-contextualization of certain art history phenomena, mirrored in contemporary artistic practice. Vuksanović graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad in 1998, majoring in graphics. In 2005, he received a master’s degree in drawing from the same Academy. He is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Association of Fine Artists of Vojvodina and the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. Danilo Vuksanović has had 50 solo exhibitions in Serbia and abroad (USA, Italy, Hungary). He is an art critic. He is employed as a senior conservationist-restorer at the Matica Srpska Gallery, and an editor of the edition ”Traditions and Contemporary Creativity”.
Tatjana Dimitrijević (1965, Sombor) graduated in 1988 from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Department of Painting (class of prof. Dušan Todorović). She worked as an editor of fine arts programmes at the ”Laza Kostić” Cultural Centre in Sombor (2012-2016) and as a professor of fine arts in primary and secondary schools (1989-2012). She had 9 solo exhibitions and participated in several collective exhibitions. Tatjana Dimitrijević took part in several art colonies in Serbia and abroad, as well as in more than 30 accredited professional seminars in the field of fine arts pedagogy, contemporary teaching methodology, art history, aesthetics and developmental psychology. She organized more than 20 art workshops and lectures for children and young people, as well as street art events at Holy Trinity Square in Sombor (2009-2016).
Photo courtesy of the artist
Jelena Sredanović (1982, Novi Sad) graduated in 2005 from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (class of prof. Zoran Todović), where she also received a master’s degree in 2009. She completed doctoral studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in the academic year 2016 (mentor: prof. Biljana Vuković). Jelena Sredanović exhibited at numerous solo and group exhibitions in Serbia and abroad (Novi Sad, Belgrade, Niš, Ljubljana, Vienna, Bilbao, Madrid, New York, Beijing, Yerevan, Rome, Timisoara, etc.). She received several awards and honors, most notably: Honorary Commendation at the First International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Yerevan (2017), First Prize at the International Triennial of Graphic Arts in Belgrade (2017), Grand Prix of the Graphic Collective (2010), Second Prize at the International Exhibition in Vienna – the Walter Koschatzky Award (2009). She is employed at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad as an assistant professor of fine arts, with special expertise in graphic arts. She has been a member of the Union of the Associations of Fine Artists of Vojvodina since 2006.
Photo courtesy of the artist