Vidosava Vida Jocić

(1921-2002) graduated from the High Film School in Belgrade in 1949. She then graduated from the sculpture department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1955, and completed her specialist studies there in 1957. She held 30 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 200 collective exhibitions in the country and abroad.

The most momentous exhibition in the artistic oeuvre of sculptor Vida Jocić was her first solo exhibition entitled “Auschwitz 49865” held at the Graphic Collective Gallery in Belgrade in 1958. The exhibition followed immediately after the completion of specialist studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. It presented almost twenty figural sculptures in which she dealt with the subject of suffering in the Auschwitz concentration camp, since she herself survived imprisonment in the Banjica, Auschwitz and Ravensbrück camps in the period from 1942 to 1945. The number 49865 from the title of the exhibition was the number tattooed on her arm upon her deportation to Auschwitz.

Some of the sculptures in the “Auschwitz 49865” exhibition depicted portraits of specific people, but a larger number represented figures of male and female camp inmates that were conceived as typologies with the intention of expressing the universal experience of being imprisoned in the camp. The figure that stood out in particular was the sculpture “Appeal“. It shows an emaciated inmate in a dress, with a shaved head held high, facial bones protruding from malnutrition, fragile hands, with a body position that suggests survival of trauma.

Another prominent figure during the exhibition was “Prisoner”, which shows a naked woman in a sitting position, with long hair, but also an emaciated and malnourished body, with a pronounced skin texture that indicates scars, suffering, traces of experience that cannot be erased.

In addition to the depiction of camp inmates, in the “Auschwitz” thematic cycle, Vida Jocić also created figures of fighters and warriors. It is important to note that her experience of imprisonment in the camps was marked by suffering, but also by resistance, since upon her arrival in Auschwitz she was involved in the work of an illegal international organization whose aim was to provide any kind of support to the men and women in the camps that was possible under those conditions. Before her imprisonment, she and her sisters joined the Valjevo Partisan Detachment in 1941.

In addition to the sculptures, she also devoted a series of drawings to this subject in the cycle “Recorded” which, along with the sculptures from the cycle “Auschwitz” form a consistent and rounded whole.

The exhibition “Auschwitz 49865” garnered a lot of attention from the professional public. In the same year that the exhibition was held in the Graphic Collective Gallery, an exhibition of reproductions of her sculptures dedicated to the concentration camp in Oświęcim was organized in Warsaw, and in the following year, she had an exhibition in Novi Sad, Warsaw and Krakow. In 1960, the exhibition traveled to London, Oslo, Trondheim and Kristiansund, and then the cities across Serbia.

The aforesaid sculpture “The Camp Survivor Girl” was included in the exhibition of the Yugoslav Pavilion in the Memorial Museum in Auschwitz, which was opened in September 1963. In 1967 and 1968, Vida Jocić was involved in the expansion of this display.

Her personal experience of surviving imprisonment in the camps also marked her work. Through art, she found a way to express her experience. However, it is important to note that this expression is far from banal. Her sculptures were contemporary in their form, unusual at the time of their creation, as evidenced by the laudatory statements of Henry Moore, her professors Jovan Kratohvil, Sreten Stojanović, Lojze Dolinar and Ilija Kolarević, and in numerous awards in the country and abroad.

She was an active exhibitor until the end of her life, the author of several monuments in public space. In Valjevo, there is a park dedicated to Vida Jocić, which also houses her original works. She presented a group of 40 sculptures “Appeal for Peace” to the city of Belgrade after their exhibition at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in 1999.

(1921-2002) završila je Visoku filmsku školu u Beogradu 1949. Potom je diplomirala na vajarskom odseku Akademije likovnih umetnosti u Beogradu 1955 godine, a tamo je završila i specijalističke studije 1957. godine. Održala je 30 samostalnih izložbi i više od 200 kolektivnih u zemlji i inostranstvu.

Izložba koja je u najvećoj meri obeležila umetnički opus vajarke Vide Jocić bila je njena prva samostalna izložba pod nazivom „Aušvic 49865“ održana u Galeriji Grafički kolektiv u Beogradu 1958. godine. Izložba je usledila odmah nakon završetka specijalističkih studija na Akademiji likovnih umetnosti u Beogradu. Izložba se sastojala od skoro dvadeset figuralnih skulptura u kojima se bavila temom stradanja u koncentracionom logoru Aušvic, budući da je i sama preživela zatočeništvo u logorima Banjica, Aušvic i Ravensbrik u periodu od 1942. do 1945. godine. Broj 49865 iz naziva izložbe bio je broj koji joj je istetoviran na ruci prilikom deportacije u Aušvic.

Pojedine skulpture na izložbi „Aušvic 49865“ prikazivale su porterte konkretnih ličnosti, ali veći broj je predstavljao figure logorašica i logoraša koje su bile koncipirane tipski sa namerom da izraze univerzalno iskustvo zatočeništva u logoru. Figura koja se posebno izdvajala bila je skulptura „Apel“. Prikazuje iscrpljenu logorašicu  u haljini, ošišanu na čelavo, glave podignute goe, isturenih kostiju lica od neuhranjenosti, krhkih ruku, sa položajem tela koji nagoveštava preživljavanje traume.

Još jedna figura koja je imala zapaženo mesto prilikom izlaganja bila je „Zatočenica“ koja prikazuje nagu ženu u sedećem položaju, duge kose, ali takođe iscprljenog i neuhranjenog tela, sa izraženom teksturom kože koja ukazuje na ožiljke, patnju, tragove iskustva koje je nemoguće izbrisati.

Pored prikaza logorašica i logoraša, u tematskom ciklusu „Aušvic“ Vida Jocić je realizovala i figure boraca i ratnika. Bitno je napomenuti da je njeno iskustvo zatočeništva u logorima bilo obojeno patnjom, ali i otporom, budući da je po pristizanju u Aušvic bila uključena u rad ilegalne internacionalne organizacije koja je imala za cilj da omogući sve vidove podrške logorašicama i logorašima koji su u tim uslovima bili mogući. Takođe, pre zatočeništva se sa svojim sestrama pridružila Valjevskom partizanskom odredu 1941. godine.

Pored skulptura, ovoj tematici posvetila je i seriju crteža u ciklusu „Zabeleženo“ sa skulpturama iz ciklusa „Aušvic“ čine skladnu i zaokruženu celinu.

Izložba „Aušvic 49865“ je privukla veliku pažnju stručne javnosti. Iste godine kad je bila održana izložba u Galeriji Grafički kolektiv, u Varšavi je organizovana izložba reprodukcija njenih skulptura posvećena logoru u Osvijencima, a već naredne godine, priređena joj je izložba u Novom Sadu, Varšavi i Krakovu. Godine 1960. izložba je putovala u London, Oslo, Trondhajm i Kristijansund, a potom i po gradovima Srbije.

Gorepomenuta skulptura „Preživela logorašica“ je bila uvrštena u izložbu Jugoslovenskog paviljona u Memorijalnom muzeju u Aušvicu, koja je otvorena u septembru 1963. godine. 1967. i 1968. Vida Jocić je bila uključena u dopunu ove postavke.

Njeno lično iskustvo preživljavanja zatočeništva u logorima obeležilo je i njen rad. Kroz umetnost je pronalazila način da izrazi jedno takvo iskustvo međutim bitno je napomenuti da je taj izraz daleko od banalnog. Njene skulpture su bile savremene po svojoj formi, neuobičajene u vreme svog nastanka, o čemu svedoče pohvalne izjave Henrija Mura, njenih profesora Jovana Kratohvila, Sretena Stojanovića, Lojza Dolinara i Ilije Kolarevića, te brojne nagrade u zemlji i inostranstvu.

Bila je izlagački aktivna do kraja svog života, autorka je nekolicine spomenika u javnom prostoru. U Valjevu postoji park posvećen Vidi Jocić, u kojem se nalaze i njeni autorski radovi. Grupu od 40 skulptura „Apel za mir“ poklonila je gradu Beogradu nakon njihovog izlaganja u Centru za kulturnu dekontaminaciju 1999. godine.