nternational art project
LOVES ME / LOVES ME NOT

In this time of ours, love is something we talk and write about a lot. Love is celebrated, or yearned for in literature. Love is discussed about from a psychological aspect. Love is interpretated from a historical point of view. And religious. Sociological. Moral. Aesthetic... But what happens when words, both written and said, become silent? LOVES ME / LOVES ME NOT is a non-verbal attempt to answer the question – what does love mean to each of us?

Ana Đokić, the author of the project
The project is inspired by the game of counting flower petals – first petal LOVES ME, second petal LOVES ME NOT, third petal LOVES ME, fourth petal LOVES ME NOT, and so on as to „discover“ wether the person we care about loves us or not. Sarajevo Culture Bureau - Voli Me / Ne Voli Me - Loves Me / Loves Me Not

23/10/2013 by jonblackwood
On Monday night, an exhibition of illustrations- Voli Me / Ne Voli Me opened on the top floor of the national gallery. Featuring a mixture of Croatian and BiH illustrators, the exhibition is being held as part of the Pazi! Knjiga festival, whose events are happening mainly in Zagreb. The artists involved were invited to interpret the theme (Loves Me / Loves Me Not in English) as broadly as possible and the show is an engaging collage of whimsy, symbolism and introspection. In addition to the entries of the illustrators, two names from other fields of the arts were invited to contribute- the prolific Milomir Kovačević, and a video piece from Ismar Mujezinović.

Emir Durmišević
The visual styles adopted were in places surprising and innovative. Emir Durmišević’s steely, spare, detailed image drew heavily on mediavelism and and legend, cleverly incorporating a picture-within-a-picture to open out the dilemma facing his main female character. Durmišević’s image also leans heavily on contemporary gaming imagery, which his practice as an illustrator focuses on.

Maja Zećo
Others, such as Edita Gazibara and Maja Zećo, enjoy metaphorical play; Edita with open and closed furniture, Maja with a game of multiple, inconclusive noughts and crosses in red on a white background. Elvis Dolić exploits the cloak of a gigantic organic form in his piece, whilst Zdenko Bašić, with his two male figures sat with their backs to one another, creates a complicated, layered piece that invites repeated looking. One of the issues that was raised during the opening speeches was the difference in colouration; the Bosnian images were, largely, monochrome, with the Croatian illustrators seemingly much more ready to experiment with colour. I am not sure that we arrived at the reasons for this difference, but in any case Tomislav Tomić bucked the trend. Tomić showed a fascinating black and white Rackhamesque interplay of plants and insects, rhythmically interlinked and visually mysterious. This uncertain and slightly sinister fantasy world that belies his background in children’s illustration.

Aleksandra Knezević, organiser of the
show in Sarajevo, at the opening.with Ane Đokić, organiser of the project overall Also noteworthy was the minimalist watercolour drops by Sanja Pribić; one drop of pure aquamarine, becoming two- simple but extremely effective and visually distinctive from the busy images that surround it. And Davor Pavelić has a delightful small diptych here, featuring a trademark cobalt blue and red contrast, and carefully mixing the visual metaphors of construction and theatre; the overall appearance is of a late 1920s theatre poster, updated for our times.

Davor Pavelić
Ismar Mujezinović’s video piece breaks up the array of illustrations and adds a visceral ballast to the whole show. The film shows a barefoot man walking ginerly on a wooden floor with nails sticking out of it; some flattened to the surface, others spiking out into his space without pity. The implicit interplay of relief and pain is an unexpectedly frank intervention in the theme.

Overall this is a show fizzing with visual invention and energy and with more than the occasional surprise. It is only on until next Monday, so catch it while you can.

AUTHORS:
Jon Blackwood, Zdravko Cvjetkovic, Boris StapicEdita Gazibara, Elvis Dolic, Edita Gazibara, Elvis Dolic, Emir Durmišević, Jasna Bukvić, Emir Durmišević, Jasna Bukvić, Maja Zećo, Milomir Kovačević Strašni, Ismar Mujezinović

gosti izložbe:
Branka Hollingsworth, Dražen Jerabek, Marijana Jelić,
Aleksandra Knežević, Nikolina Manojlović Vračar, Bruno Kuman, Davor Pavelić, Margareta Peršić, Sanja Pribić, Zdenko Bašić, Marsela Hajdinjak, Jovan Balov, Ivana Tomić, Ivana Guljašević, Tomislav Tomić, Željka Mezić, Aleksandra Knežević & Ana Đokić, Boris Stapić, Emir Durmišević, Zdravko Cvjetković, Aleksandra Knežević