Vesna Vesić
– (1975) is a multimedia artist living in Belgrade. She graduated from the Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Art in Belgrade. Her work includes first-person video and drawing on materials (fabric, wool), mixing autobiographical and social stories and maintaining an engaged attitude towards civilization and historical awareness, community and the emotional-affective connections on which communities are based.
After my days as a student, in the mid-90s, I had solo exhibitions in the gallery of the Student Cultural Center in Belgrade, using the aesthetics of the gallery’s white space as a social environment.
The work “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”123 is a video performance about political and human pain by which I refer to the destruction of the wars of the 90s in the former Yugoslavia. I cry in silence, while the camera slides over the tracks of my tears, catching only fragments of my face, in an extended minute of silence, being quiet whilst shedding tears.
I participated at the Venice Biennial with that work in 1999 as the youngest participant of the exhibition D’ APERTutto, selected by Harald Szeemann. This event was a turning point for me, because up until then I thought of art as a matter of opinion, fully equating life with art. I could not stand the images and the acts of manipulation coming from the world of politics, media, society and artistic space in those years. I made a radical decision to retire from the world of art. I became a mother of four, and dedicated myself to the work of care, worry and compassion.
I returned to the art world in a different way, marking the beginning of a new chapter in my life and becoming interested in the “women’s issue” in my artistic practice. In the lecture-performance “07:00- 00:00”, I deal with looking back and raising an awareness of the years spent questioning the (un)sustainability of the position: Women-Artist and Mother-Artist4.
In the video “Winter Tale”56 I walk across a snowy landscape wearing my father’s leather overcoat. In an atmosphere of existential wandering I think about the spirit of the socialist epoch, the “society of progress” of the 20th century, the generation my parents belonged to and that believed in a better future, the embodiment of which was its children.
In my newer work I focus on weaving stories in soft, organic wool, which I began felting by hand in 2018. The process of creating “Tender Things” includes a physical choreography of different intensities, from the energetic handling of large-format wool rolling, which was traditionally a man’s job due to its demanding physical nature, to the inclusion of colours and letters in the material by the processes of rubbing, stroking and caressing. Touch is one of the main pillars in the construction of “Tender Things”. By adopting and embracing quotes and poetic slogans I give these works a material base78.
In contrast to speed and overproduction, over-stimulation, loss of attention and exposure to constant distractions, I introduce a different mode of production, through slowing-down, focus and dedication. “Tender Things” comes forth as a part of the scenery and atmosphere that is created by people, not merely in a perceptive but also tactile and empirical ways. The works can serve as a rug, a blanket, a cloak, a kind of physical support. The environments I create exude closeness, warmth and protection, in contrast to feelings of insecurity, loneliness and general exhaustion.
I continue walking, this time not in my father’s clothes but in my own, thinking about the spirit of my generation and what we are fighting for, thinking about the future and our children. I put “Tender Things” into the public space. Cloaked in felt wool with the verses “I do not remember that Spring” and “That year the sparrows did not return to their nests” I walk among the workers of JKP “Zelenilo Beograd” and the fallen green and lush canopies, swiftly reacting to the cutting down of trees in my street which is a result of uncontrolled urban investment910.
In the peaceful actions of wandering over the territory of no-one’s and everyone’s land, I continue working on “Along a distant path, a lonely noise became tangled in the grass.”111213 It is a poetic, quiet, individual gesture-protest against the new types of appropriation, pollution, depletion and exploitation.
Text is written in colaboration with Dejan Vasić (2022).
1Image: Vesna Vesić, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”, video, 7 min, 1998, Photo: Vladimir Zarić.2Image: Vesna Vesić, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”, video, 7 min, 1998, Photo: Vladimir Zarić.
3Vesna Vesić, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”, video, 7 min, 1998, vimeo.com/152947771.
4The work was carried out as part of the scientific conference: “Culture and Sustainability of Cultural Development in the Time of Crisis”, Rectorate of the University of Belgrade, 2014.
5Image: Vesna Vesić, “Winter tale”, video, duration 6 min, 2016, Photo: Milorad Mladenović.
6Vesna Vesić, “Winter tale”, video, duration 6 min, 2016, vimeo.com/155179874.
7Image: Vesna Vesić, “Tender Things – conceptual & useful, hand-made, cuddled, caressed, loved”, hand-felted 100% sheep wool objects, 2020, Photo: Pavle Crnobrnja.
8Image: Vesna Vesić, “Tender Things – conceptual & useful, hand-made, cuddled, caressed, loved”, hand-felted 100% sheep wool objects, 2020, Photo: Pavle Crnobrnja.
9Image: Vesna Vesić, “I do not remember that Spring” and “That year the sparrows did not return to their nests”, Performance-action-reaction to the cutting down of trees in my street, 2022, Photo: Kosta Crnobrnja.
10Image: Vesna Vesić, “I do not remember that Spring” and “That year the sparrows did not return to their nests”, Performance-action-reaction to the cutting down of trees in my street, 2022, Photo: Kosta Crnobrnja.
11Image: Vesna Vesić, “Along a distant path, a lonely noise got tangled in the grass”, video, 3,15 min, 2022. Video still.
12Image: Vesna Vesić, “Along a distant path, a lonely noise got tangled in the grass”, video, 3,15 min, 2022. Video still.
13Vesna Vesić, “Along a distant path, a lonely noise got tangled in the grass”, video, 3,15 min, 2022, youtu.be/5xEbzqs-lso.
– (1975) je multimedijalna umetnica koja živi i radi u Beogradu. Diplomirala je na Fakultetu likovnih umetnosti, Univerziteta Umetnosti u Beogradu. Vesić se bavi videom-u-prvom-licu i crtežom u materijalu (tkanina, vuna), ukrštajući autobiografske i društvene priče i održavajući angažovan stav spram civilizacije i istorijske svesti, zajedništva i emocionalno-afektivnih veza na kojima zajednice počivaju.
Od studentskih dana, polovinom 90ih, samostalno sam izlagala u galeriji Studentskog kulturnog centra u Beogradu, baveći se estetikom galerijskog belog prostora kao društvenog ambijenta.
Rad „Umij me i biću belji od snega“123 je video-performans o političkom i ljudskom bolu, kojim referišem na ratna razaranja devedesetih godina u bivšoj Jugoslaviji. Plačem u tišini, dok kamera klizi duž linija suza hvatajući samo fragmente mog lica, u produženom minutu tišine i ćutanja u suzama.
Sa tim radom učestvovala sam na Bijenalu u Veneciji, 1999. godine kao najmlađa učesnica u okviru izložbe D’ APERTutto, u selekciji Haralda Zemana (Harald Szeemann). Taj događaj je za mene bio prekretnica, jer sam do tada umetnost poimala kao pitanje stava, uz potpuno poistovećivanje života i umetnosti. Nisam mogla da podnesem slike i činove manipulacije koje su tih godina promicale svetom politike, medija, društva i umetničkog prostora. Činim radikalni rez i povlačim se iz sveta umetnosti. Postajem majka četvoro dece i posvećujem se radu nege, brige i saosećanja.
Umetničkoj sceni vraćam se na drugačiji način, kroz otvaranje novog poglavlja života i interesovanje za „žensko pitanje“ u svojoj umetničkoj praksi. U predavanje-performansu (lecture-performance) „07:00- 00:00“, bavim se pogledom unazad i osvešćujem godine preispitivanja (ne)održivosti pozicije: Žene-Umetnice i Majke-Umetnice4.
U video zapisu „Zimska bajka“56 odevena u očev kožni šinjel šetam po snežnom pejzažu. U atmosferi egzistencijalnog lutanja razmišljam o duhu socijalističke epohe, „društva napretka” 20. veka, i generaciji kojoj su pripadali moji roditelji a koja je verovala u bolju budućnost, i za koju su deca bila njeno oličenje.
U novijim radovima, bavim se ispredanjem priča u mekoj, organskoj vuni, koju počinjem da ručno filcam 2018. godine. Proces izvođenja „Nežnih komada“ uključuje telesnu koreografiju različitih intenziteta, od energičnog zahvata valjanja vune velikog formata, koja je tradicionalno zbog fizičke zahtevnosti bila muški posao, do ugrađivanja u material boja i slova putem utrljanjavanja, maženja i milovanja. Dodir je jedan od glavnih nosioca konstrukcije „Nežnih komada“. Prisvojenim, prigrljenim citatima i poetskim sloganima u ovim radovima dajem materijalnu podlogu78.
Nasuprot brzini i prekomernoj proizvodnji, nagomilavanju senzacija, potrošnji pažnje i izloženosti serijalnim distrakcijama, uvodim drugačiji modus proizvodnje, kroz usporavanje, fokusiranje i posvećenje. „Nežni komadi“ se pojavljuju kao deo ambijenta i atmosfere koju unose ljudi, oni nisu samo perceptivni, nego su taktilni i iskustveni. Mogu služiti kao tepih, ćebe, pokrivač-ogrtač ili neka vrsta telesne potpore. Ambijenti koje stvaram odišu prisnošću, toplinom i zaštitom, u kontrastu sa osećanjem nesigurnosti, usamljenosti i sveopšteg umora.
Nastavljam da hodam, ovaj put ne u očevoj odeći, već u sopstvenoj, razmišljajući o duhu svoje generacije i onoga za šta se borimo misleći o budućnosti i našoj deci. Iznosim „Nežne komade“ u javni prostor. Ogrnuta filcanom vunenom tkaninom sa stihovima „Tog proljeća se ne sećam“ i „Vrapci se te godine nisu vratili u svoja gnezda“ hodam između radnika JKP “Zelenila Beograd” i popadalim bujnim zelenim krošnjama, u brzoj reakciji na seču drvoreda u mojoj ulici, koja je posledica divljeg investitorskog urbanizma910.
Mirne akcije lutanja teritorijom ničije i svačije zemlje nastavljam sa radom „Putanjom dalekom, usamljeni šum se zapleo u travu“111213. U pitanju je poetičan, tihi, individualni gest-protest protiv novih prisvajanja, zagađivanja, iscrpljivanja i eksploatacije.
Tekst je napisan u saradnji sa Dejanom Vasićem (2022).
1Slika: Vesna Vesić, „Umij me i biću belji od snega“, (Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow) video , 7 min, 1998. Foto: Vladimir Zarić.4Rad je izveden u okviru naučne konferencije: „Kultura i održivost kulturnog razvoja u vreme krize“, Rektorat Univerziteta u Beogradu, 2014.
5Slika: Vesna Vesić, „Zimska bajka”, (Winter tale) video, duration 6 min, 2016. Foto: Milorad Mladenović.
7Slika: Vesna Vesić, „Nežni komadi – konceptualni i korisni” (Tender Things-conceptual&useful, hand-made, cuddled, caressed, loved), hand-felted 100% sheep wool objects, 2020. Foto: Pavle Crnobrnja.
