Mima Orlović
Mima Orlović1 (18th April 1965, Belgrade – 8th May 2020, Sydney) completed her undergraduate and MA studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the sculpture department. She was accepted for Ph.D. studies at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna under the professor and artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. She has participated in and led numerous workshops, art colonies and research residencies, including KulturKontakt, Vienna and the Highlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco. She was a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia, in the section for expanded media. She lived and worked in Australia for the last two decades.
Mima Orlović, “A Sip of Coffee”, with Lora Orlović, interactive performance, Cultural centre Magacin, Belgrade, 2013, courtesy of the artists family.
Mima Orlović used various visual means of expression, such as performance, installation, video, sculpture, drawing, relief, collage, painting, and photography in her artworks, and made interventions in book or magazine pages playing with words and images123456.
The main topics of her works relate to nature, the body, rituals, love, sources and destinations. From the very beginning, Aboriginal mythology and aesthetics were also present in her work. In the period spanning from the late-1990s to the beginning of the 2000s, she introduced bio-art and organic processes into her artworks through the use of materials such as mold, rot, rust or by leaving fresh meat to rot in the gallery space during the exhibition. Mima Orlović was one of the first artists who according to Biljana Tomić from 1994 introduced a new female sensibility into the activities of the Gallery of the Student’s Center in Belgrade7. The Gallery, in addition to Mima Orlović, gathered together female artists such as Tanja Ristovski, Nataša Teofilović, Ivana Smiljanić, Biljana Klarić and others.
Mima Orlović used carefully selected objects that were always imbued with personal histories, such as the eye prostheses obtained from her father’s workshop. Later, she used photographs of scars on her body to make photographic collages and manipulations. The personal and products of experience are very prominent in her work, which becomes especially evident with the appearance of social networks. Mima Orlović then starts to use Facebook as an online medium to communicate her art, her “visual haiku journal” made from personal notes, and various experiments with digital photography in which she intervenes, redoubles and collages photographs.
At the beginning of 2013 she made the performance “Fifteen Years Later – Who is Mima Orlović?”9 in the Remont gallery in Belgrade, which thematised the phenomenon of social networks or, more precisely, Facebook as the medium that she used in her work and activities. She participated in the “Real Presence” manifestation (curated by Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri) within which she made the performance “A Sip of Coffee” in the Magacin Gallery in Belgrade.
In October 2020 in the Kolarac Legate gallery in Belgrade the artist Ivana Smiljanić conceptualised and presented the exhibition “Portal MMXX”10 dedicated to Mima Orlović who had passed away earlier that year. The exhibition comprised an installation with drawings and three video artworks. The exhibited video was taken from Mima Orlović’s Facebook profile as well as her three more recent drawings “Body/Chamber I”.
Mirjana Dragosavljević in cooperation with Ivana Smiljanić (2022).
1Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Visual Poetry”, drawing, combined techniques, courtesy of the artists family.2Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Portal”, painting, combined techniques, courtesy of the artists family.
3Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Body”, digital photograph, 2011, courtesy of the artists family.
4Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Touch Me”, interactive video performance, SKC Gallery, Belgrade, 1996, courtesy of the artists family.
5Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Stuff”, video installation, “Out of Chaos” exhibition, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Ludwig Foundation (MUMOK), Vienna, 1996, courtesy of the artists family.
6Illustration: Mima Orlović, “Uterus”, sculpture, (papier-mâché, sawdust, hair), the “Habitat” exhibition, SKC Gallery, Belgrade, 1995, courtesy of the artists family.
7See: seecult.org/vest/biljana-tomic-secanje-na-mimu-orlovic.
8See: seecult.org/vest/facebook-uzivo.
9See: seecult.org/vest/portal-mmxx-oda-mimi-orlovic.
– (18. april 1965. Beograd – 8. maj 2020. Sidnej) osnovne i magistarske studije završila na Fakultetu likovnih umetnosti u Beogradu, vajarski odsek. Primljena je na doktorske studije na Akademie der bildenen Kunste u Beču kod profesora i umetnika Mikelanđela Pistoleta. Polaznica i voditeljka brojnih radionica, kolonija i studijskih boravaka, uključujući KulturKontakt, Beč i Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisko. Bila je član Udruženja likovnih umetnika Srbije (ULUS), sekcije proširenih medija. Poslednje dve decenije svog života živela je i stvarala u Australiji.
Mima Orlović: “Gutljaj kafe”, sa Lorom Orlović, interaktivni performans, Kulturni centar Magacin, Beograd, 2013.
Mima Orlović je u svom radu koristila različita vizuelna sredstva izražavanja: performans, instalacije, video, skulpture, crtež, reljef, kolaž, sliku, fotografiju, radila je intervencije na stranicama knjiga ili časopisa igrajući se rečima i slikama123456.
Glavne teme u njenom radu vezane su za prirodu, telo, ritualnost, ljubav, izvorište i odredište. Mitologija i estetika Aboridžina je takođe prisutna u njenom radu, od samih početaka. U periodu krajem 1990ih i početkom 2000ih ona uvodi bio art i organske procese u svoj rad upotrebom materijala poput buđi, truleži, rđe, izlaganjem svežeg mesa koje tokom trajanja izložbe truli u galerijskom prostoru. Mima Orlović je bila jedna od umetnica koje je okupljala Galerija Studentskog kulturnog centra u Beogradu, počevši od 1994. i koje su, prema rečima Biljane Tomić, unele nov ženski senzibilitet u okvire delovanja Galerije SKC-a u to vreme.7 Pored Mime Orlović, Galerija je okupila umetnice Tanju Ristovski, Natašu Teofilović, Ivanu Smiljanić, Biljanu Klarić i druge.
Mima Orlović u svom radu koristila je pažljivo odabrane predmete, uvek sa ličnom istorijom, poput očnih proteza iz radionce njenog oca koji ih je pravio. Kasnije je koristila je fotografije svojih telesnih ožiljaka za fotografske kolaže i manipulacije. Lično i doživljeno je vrlo prisutno u njenom radu, što posebno dolazi do izražaja sa pojavom društvenih mreža, kada Mima Orlović počinje da koristi Facebook kao online medij za komuniciranje svoje umetnosti, ali i za svoj “vizuelni haiku dnevnik” sastavljen od ličnih beleški, različitih eksperimenata na digitalnim fotografijama na kojima intereveniše, udvaja ih, kolažira i slično.
Početkom 2013. godine u galeriji Remont u Beogradu izvela je jednodnevni performas „Posle petnaest godina – Ko je Mima Orlović?“8 koji se bavio fenomenom društvenih mreža, tačnije Facebook-om kao medijem koji je koristila u svom radu i delovanju. Učestvovala je u programu manifestacije „Real Presence“ (kustoskinje: Biljana Tomić i Dobrila Denegri), u okviru kojeg je izvela performans 2013. godine u Kulturnom centru Magacin u Beogradu, pod nazivom „Gutljaj kafe“.
U oktobru 2020. godine umetnica Ivana Smiljanić osmislila je i predstavila publici izložbu “Portal MMXX”9 u galeriji Kolarčeve zadužbine u Beogradu posvećenu Mimi Orlović, koja je ranije te godine preminula. Izložba je obuhvatala instalaciju sa crtežima i tri video rada. Izložen je video preuzet sa Facebook profila Mime Orlović, kao i tri njena recentnija crteža „Telo / Soba I“.
Mirjana Dragosavljević u saradnji sa Ivanom Smiljanić (2022).
1Ilustracija: Mima Orlović, “Vizuelna poezija”, crtež, kombinovana tehnika, ljubaznošću umetničine porodice.8Link: seecult.org/vest/facebook-uzivo.
9Link: seecult.org/vest/portal-mmxx-oda-mimi-orlovic.
