Sanja Kojić Mladenov: Examples of Media Art (Novi Sad) and Stevan Kojić: Self-Sustaining Systems of Absurdity Autonomic
Date: Friday, 13 April at 6 pm
Location: Škuc Gallery, Stari trg 21, Ljubljana
Stevan Kojić: Self-Sustaining Systems of Absurdity Autonomic
The Self-Sustaining Systems of Absurdity installation deals with the theme of the interpretation and possible deceptive representation of existing live images. This self-sustaining system is continuously processing data from video footage through low-tech electronics and transforming them simultaneously into new visual and audio forms. Indirectly, it emphasises the absurdity of certain environmental and social relations, particularly the relation between ecology and technology through the system, quasi technological, and also absurd. In this pseudo-laboratory, a bonsai tree slowly rotates on its axis. Based on the principles of hydroponics, the tree is lit with LED grow lights (high-intensity red and blue LEDs emitting the precise light spectrum needed for photosynthesis). A web camera captures the rotating tree, and the footage is displayed on an LCD monitor. Photo-resistors attached to the monitor measure the amount of the light. Part of this light is then converted into pulsating light in a Plexiglas screen mounted on the wall. Another part of the light is processed through light theremins and converted into a glitching/crackling sound coming from Piezo plastic-cup speakers.
Stevan Kojić was born in 1973 in Kikinda. He graduated in 1997 with BA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade and completed MA at the same Faculty in 1999. Since 2004 he is working at New Media Department, Academy of Arts, Novi Sad. Basic Kojić’s interests are the exploration of relations between: low-tech/hi-tech, ecology/economy, private/public etc. www.stevankojic.org
Sanja Kojić Mladenov: Examples of Media Art (Novi Sad)
Media practice in Serbia had its beginnings in the Belgrade, Novi Sad and Subotica conceptual art scenes of the 1970s. During the eighties and especially in the nineties, a period of war and political conflict, as well as the expansion of television, communications and IT technology, media practice became important in the Serbian art scene. Over the years, artists, artistic groups and activists from Novi Sad, in cooperation with civil society organisations, and cultural and educational public institutions, developed a diversified media art scene. Media practices in Novi Sad were based on aspirations to experiment, research, promote, collaborate, and share knowledge and experience. This led to changes in art theory and criticism, as well as numerous opportunities to produce, present and preserve this form of art.
Sanja Kojić Mladenov (1974) is a curator, art historian and researcher in the field of recent artistic practice, media and gender, since 1995. She graduated from History of Art at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. She is running the Department of Current Art Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina – MSUV, Novi Sad, since 2006. Curator of Serbian Pavilion on 54th Venice Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2011, exhibition Light and Darkness of Symbols: Dragoljub Raša Todosijević – winner of the UniCredit Venice Award. Written and published more than 70 critical essays, exhibition reviews and articles in exhibition catalogues, specialized magazines, books and on the electronic media, as well as scientific research projects in academic publications. She is the author and curator of many thematic exhibitions and research projects in Serbia and abroad. She took part in numerous professional symposiums and conferences. She is a member of international associations – AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and CIMAM (International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art). Kojić Mladenov is co-founder, Board Member and Curator of non-profit organization Association for Visual Arts and Culture “Visart”, Novi Sad, since 2006.