POSTCARDS FROM THE SEASIDE

Postcards, photographs and souvenirs, for the most part, serve as a memorabilia which reminds us of the past times, travels, moments spent with friends and family, but, before all, relaxation. Therefore, these are utilitarian objects, utterly alienated from the actual reality, containing a symbolic value that is priceless to us. The contact with these objets trouves always re-evokes different emotions, so that they definitely serve as triggers for a retroactive summarizing of the individual stages of particular experiences. Therefore, it is not very unusual for contemporary visual artists to often resort to appropriation of these memory holders in order to articulate their own socio-political, philosophical, identity positions and processes. This is also the case with the multimedia project Its Time for Them to Sing, by Belgrade-based artist Ivana Popov. Primarily based on traditional (womens) handiwork with such materials as paper and colors, complemented with moving pictures (video), this art piece activates the nostalgic sentiment of the seaside pastime in a distinct manner. Its a contemplative ambience permeated by the visual notes depicting artists sensations, fascinations, erstwhile artistic and life experiences, as well as influences from different surroundings where Popov lived and worked. The entire installation is consisted of several segments. The video Cavtat represents a mlange of static frames depicting mediterranean landscape (terrace of the seaside family house), as well as artists personal photographs, projected onto a monochrome Himalayan paper. The intervention in gallery space entitled The Sea, engages various materials (dressmakers tracing paper soaked in India ink, a curtain, exercise latex bands, etc.) and reflects the artists perennial work of using collage as a visual medium. The space also features a sculpture - replica of agave plant, while The Sky is a drawing on the wall colored in ink and paint stainer. Video projection on silk, entitled The Flower, permeates the space, and, in the words of the artist herself, represents the outline of the entire narrative. Other objects complementing the space, like the leaf-chair which one of the projections is passing through, or the perforated curtain letting the daylight in, can be considered as so-called designer elements, interpolated into the space in order to introduce the utmost atmosphere to the entire installation.

By toying with different composition formats, emerging from the two-dimensional framework of the image, combining different materials, the artist suggests to the recipient the importance of creative process, as well as the delicate, tactile and sensitive nature of every individual element. However, Popov takes one step further by questioning the relation between the black box, namely the space in which she projects the moving pictures, and the white cube, or the space in which the installations or sculptures are realized in the expanded field. By insisting on permeation of different formats, figurations and media, she basically deliberates on the presentation of the image itself; she constitutes the image as a field of information and communication, suggesting that the medium really is the message (McLuhan).

However, the artistic intervention of Ivana Popov can also be seen in the context of what art theorist Nicolas Bourriaud dubs as radicant. According to him, being radicant, means setting ones roots in motion, staging them in heterogeneous contexts and formats, denying them any value as origins, translating ideas, transcoding images, transplanting behaviors, exchanging rather than imposing. Essentially, he indicates the way in which the contemporary art, through the recycling process of cultural resources, practically produces new meanings; the way in which the practice of recycling, relocating and deploying of the existing (produced), leads to the new (post-produced). In that sense, this authentic project, although seemingly a mere meditative, represents a cluster of hybrid forms which are constantly transforming in relation to the recipient. The gallery becomes an ethereal ambience of sorts, a quiet haven, and a utopian space for relaxation where everyone can surrender to the feeling of temporary serenity.

Vladimir Bjelii, art historian