The interactive video work ‘Necklace’ by Goran Despotovski, visual artist, professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and president of the Association of Fine Artists of Vojvodina (SULUV), and performers Sofija Lukić and Dimitrije Despotovski, are coming to Doček, on 31 December, on the Small Stage in Štrosmajerova Street.
The concept of the work is based on the visual interpretation of the subdued form, through the processes of certain movements of the subject and the environment. The ‘Necklace’ represents a three-part video including the movement principles: formation and disappearance, the spirit energy and surrounding manifestations. The semblance of this representation is in the constant movement of the dominant form of the figure, outline and fluid space. This division in movement is characterised by given directions of movement in horizontal (x-axis), vertical (y-axis) and movement of the form in the axis of symmetry (s-axis). All relations form the unity of the movement process, which requires a cycle during the encounter but also transience. The ‘Necklace’ work is actually a geometry of movement in infinite space concentrated in the axis of the necklace, with a frontal view in the first part of the video and a central view in the final part. This change takes place imperceptibly through the three parts of the video, thus forming a whole.
The initial movement along the horizon is uniform. It is a melancholic representation present in all of us. It is a set and an instrument as a personification of real movement, and a manifestation characteristic of the natural cycle. The relationship of this movement speaks of the natural need for communication, sharing and the other. While moving through a horizontal frame, the dominant object is the one moving on its axis of symmetry throughout the frame. This movement is internal. It represents the movement around its axis, the axis of symmetry. It is the movement that separates the natural cycle from us and represents our inner movement. This movement is initiated by a figure resembling a moving mark, a form that absorbs the movement dynamics through its amorphousness during contraction and expansion. The figure is a set of measurements, a matrix in motion, a point of formation or disappearance. An additional interaction of vertical movements in a separate layer is a stylised mask that forms a set of generated lines of the visible state of the previous two movements. These movements, as a special layer of the image, open the visible space of the image depending on the additional dynamics provoked by the environmental sound. A sound-sensitive line or mask set in this manner into dynamic movement oscillations moves the image downwards and upwards.
The whole process divided into three parts forms a whole that unites the relationships between movements throughout life, connections, but also transience and returning the periodicity of backward movement. The relationship of movement ranges from melancholic, through the multiplied dynamic form in interaction to the central circular movement.
Goran Despotovski was born on 13 August 1972 in Vršac, Serbia. He received an associate degree from the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Belgrade (1995); at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, he completed undergraduate studies (1999), master’s studies in painting (2003), and received the D.F.A Degree (2018). He has been employed at the Academy of Arts since 2004. He was appointed as a full professor, in the field of Painting in 2019. He has been the president of the Association of Fine Artists of Vojvodina since 2017. He exhibited at sixty-three independent and several joint exhibitions in the country and abroad. He has been awarded multiple times in the field of fine arts. He is the author of several projects within the Academy of Arts: The Difference (2005–), The Image (2011), The Book (2016 –) and projects within SULUV: The SMIC. Project (2019–), Move in Code (2021–) and others.
Photo: Promo