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14
Hello Ivan and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
Thank you for the warm welcome. I have got several artistic identities that overlap from time to time. I design and I make jewelry. Having jewelry design as a starting point, I have developed a series of drawings and sculptures. I also paint. Lately, the main theme of my paintings has been a forest. I also tend to paint abstractly, I work in all forms of visual expression. The reason why I wanted to do this interview is my work within contemporary art expression. The topic I've been working on can be defined as ecologically sociological, while being focused on art itself, on the meaning, the essence, the identity. All of that can be seen in my artistic work.
I really liked the thinking of the Croatian philosopher Žarko Paić about contemporary art and identity: "It is no longer appropriate to talk about a regional, local or any nationally-defined space where art is happening as a contemporary experiment of freedom to overcome the borders. This, on the other hand, is by no means a triumph of some illusory cosmopolitan culture and art that doesn't rely on its own space and time. On the contrary, the fundamental mark of this state of a permanent transition of the world of art is a fluidity and traumatic search for a new identity. Just like the national philosophy and science in this global era is contradictio in adjecto, the contemporary art and its theory are on the other side of the nation-state dynamic."
These are the words in which I find my own search for the artistic identity, as he also tends to say "trans/post-national identity”.
I will describe you an intangible work, the realisation of which started in 2006. Its title is "Shaping the artistic identity of Josip Svetić". Josip is my friend who had never done anything artistic before this project. The idea was to make him an artist. We were going to achieve that by making him a recognised member of a pofessional association of Croatian artists. We were also going to do that by exposing my work under his name or in other words by him exposing my work. After a series of exhibitions, Josip Svetić applied for admission to the Croatian Association of Artists after which he became a member of the Society, hence an artist, a bureaucratised artist in a bureaucratic society. This topic is old, it overcomes nation and it's characteristic for all the western societies.
In his book "Civilization" Niall Ferguson stated that the West has conquered the rest of the world by developing the institutions that enabled the advancement of science and thus the economic and military advantages. However, the institutions also create bureaucracy. We are all put under a unique number and that is actually our real identity, more unique than our name, same as the name of lots of other people.
Ecology also creates an identity, an individual's relationship with society. In my series of works "Tribute to Cargo Cults" I am trying to point to the similarities of our contemporary social behavior with indigenous societies. We also have our own deities and we are trying to fill our pockets, our fridges, garages, wardrobes just like the cargo cults want to please the gods so that they bring them more of the precious cargo. All the materialism, that obviously has its roots far in the past, has a bad impact on the environment. With these works, I'm also pointing to a fact that man began to change the environment the moment he planted the first plant and tamed the first animal. The hunting methods also used to be destructive for the environment.
The ecological catastrophe began thousands of years ago. However, it wasn't until modern times that the identity of the individual started to shape alongside with the ecology, so the term "ecological footprint" appeared.
Given that I, as an artist, use more energy and create more waste than the average citizen, I have to admit that my ecological footprint is really bad. As the identity of an individual is created through ecology, this could lead to the decline of the reputation of visual artists in the society.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
Since I was not surrounded by the source and the influences, everything came slowly and late. I enrolled the Academy of Fine Arts when I was 22, which proved to be a positive thing, because by then I had matured and I was able to use everything that the Academy could offer. Back then I was still interested in classical sculpture. I looked sculpture as a craft and it amazed me. During the years of my study, I realised I wanted to become an artist. What showed to be particularly useful for me was a semester that I spent in the United States, at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The Academy in Zagreb offers both classical and contemporary art. So, as you can see, I started modest and without some great artistic ambitions.