Serbia’s project Infinity of Structure, which is showcased at the 23rd international exhibition at the Triennale di Milano theme unknown unknowns. an introduction to mysteries , is an anthropological vision of contemporary art that aims to explore the human relationship with the unknown through the innate need to create sacred symbols
Through various means of contemporary art, Ivan Mangov’s team made up of artists Marko Lađušić, Aleksandar Vac, Marko Todorović and Dorian Jovanović, takes us to the realm of symbols through the ornaments of Serbian medieval fresco paintings. The repeated medieval motifs, hidden in a lively rhythm of free structures, through an almost microscopic approach by the author, overlap the present and the past – the suppressed returns, and the invisible makes its way. Upon entering the dark exhibition space of the Serbian Pavilion, visitors will approach a 4.5 meter- high spatial monolith. As they come closer, they will discover that its structure is covered with layers of meticulously hand-painted matter. It is a complex, multi-layered work composed of 18 elements, created by painter, sculptor and multimedia artist Marko Lađušic, a densely packed symbolic system whose meanings remain open to interpretation and unarticulated.
The upper side walls of the Serbian Pavilion are covered with ceramics – around 300 pieces created by the artist Aleksandar Vac, who has always been interested in remodeling of the earth and of matter, to be understood in their meaning purer and in their multi-layered forms, both to the so-called “terra sigata” and related techniques and irrefutable virtuosity.
Original music composed by Dorian Jovanović accompanies the setting, bringing a particular dynamic that combines irregular rhythm and ambient sound with the use of electronic instruments and acoustic processing. The symbols allow us to go beyond the known or seen by linking concepts and experiences; they may carry multiple distinct meanings and expressions. These expressions do not have to be intentionally religious by themselves, but indirectly they still belong to human religion, since they are the outcome of the awareness of the infinite and the unknown. Infinity of Structure resides between two worlds, drawing its elements from both of them. At these unstable borders, a connection is formed between the old and the new culture, urban and traditional aesthetics, rational and irrational, instinctive and intellectual. Repeated medieval motifs hidden in the lively rhythm of free structures, overlap today and yesterday: what is suppressed comes back, and what is invisible finds its way through. By combining the known with the unknown, a group interaction between artists using different media, materializes a kind of synesthesia. A monumental compositions of boundless structures, enriched by music with its unique rhythm gives the impression of a synthesis between the local and the universal, where the local is present through the lens of Balkan traditions, while the universal evokes a feeling of expansion and contraction, like the innate power of the cosmos. Infinity of Structure with its endless repetitions illustrates a playful game of contrasts. Each of them is an original print – no matter how many times it is produced or reproduced, each one is simultaneously the same and different, much like cells dividing.
” Each division gives rise to something new and yet identical – with each repetition, the structures permeate to infinity.” Nataša Radojević
“Infinity of Structure sets out to trace the crossroads of a strongly felt journey into the kingdom of the mysterious symbols of the extraordinary Serbian frescoes typical of the medieval age in relation to the magnificent and obscure question of the unknown and of all that is considered beyond above human experience. The complex and fascinating cosmological „structure“ of Infinity of Structure devoted to worship of the dreamlike, of the symbology, of the rare and of the lyric, full of intellectual stratifications, cultural and metaphysical, thus becomes a unique sensory experience of its kind, wherever past, present and future coexist in a cohesive stage of pleasant harmony and in which the question about infinity finds a whispered answer in the very intertwining of being, in its more hidden meanders and in its manifest trajectories, in the smallest material element in its vastness of expanded light.” Domenico de Chirico
Exhibition curators NATASA RADOJEVIC, BILJANA JOTIC
Critical texts Domenico de Chirico, Natasa Radojevic, Biljana Jotic
Partners: LOGIC ART SPACE, DRINA GALLERY, ITALIAN INSTITUT OF CULTURE BELGRADE, WIZARD GALLERY, ARIA ART GALLERY, EXPRESS GLOBAL, ADRIA.
