LEPA SAM KAO REVOLUCIJA
Naručila sam istoriju po meri
Novim projektom naziva Lepa sam kao revolucija Milica Rakić nastavlja da istražuje značenja pojmova arhiviranja, kolektivnog sećanja i ličnog iskustva. Korišćenjem ustupljene arhivske građe iz
Arhiva Jugoslavije i pažljivo odabranih citata, umetnica kreira specifičan narativ zasićen dvosmislenošću, dovitljivošću i humorom. Iako serija novih radova naizgled predstavlja ekstenziju
dosadašnje prakse umetnice, ona se zbilja može tumačiti u svetlu produbljivanja pojedinih pitanja odnosno problema vezanih specifično za samo polje umetničkog stvaralaštva.
Naime, okosnicu ovog projekta predstavlja jedan intrigantan istorijski dokument. Reč je o pismu koje molerski radnik i amaterski umetnik Đura Rašić upućuje Josipu Brozu Titu 1947. godine sa
molbom da mu država pomogne u realizaciji umetničke karijere (što rezultira finansijskom pomoći radniku). Rakić koristi ovaj dokument kao ready made, međutim, reč je o svojevrsnom artefaktu koji
manifestuje na najbolji mogući način sinhronizaciju ličnog i kolektivnog u odnosu na poimanje umetnosti i ideologije u potonjem sistemu. Dakle, država uopšte ne postavlja akademsko obrazovanje
kao preduslov ili imperativ za bavljenje umetnošću, već polazi od proste činjenice da svakome treba pružiti priliku da ispolji svoj talenat što jeste bio deo šireg emancipatorskog projekta
pružanja mogućnosti građanima da utiču na promenu vlastitog socijalnoga statusa, te da budu aktivni učesnici opšte društvene promene.
Bez obzira na to što je pomenuti radnik očigledno prepoznat kao politički podoban pružena mu je prilika da se realizuje kao umetnik što je danas gotovo nezamislivo. Sfera umetnosti je u
savremenom trenutku više nego ikada postala kontaminirana interesima vladajuće većine koja podržava isključivo tržišno isplative kreativne inicijative, pri čemu bilo kakvim nezavisnim,
neakademskim, amaterskim ili politički mišljenim praksama nema mesta.
Sa tim u vezu bi se mogla dovesti i poslednja scena filma Dekameron Pjera Paolo Pazolinija iz 1971. godine; film je zasnovan na nekoliko različitih priča iz Bokačovog srednjevekovnog epa, a jedna
od njih prati oslikavanje crkve od strane čuvenog slikara Đota koga tumači sam reditelj. Film se završava scenom slavlja nakon uspešno obavljenog posla u kojoj slikar, to jest, Pazolini izgovara
sledeću rečenicu: Pitam se, zašto stvarati umetničko delo kada je sanjati o istom toliko slađe?
Četiri godine kasnije on je brutalno ubijen ne samo zato što je bio homoseksualac, već zato što je bio politički neistomišljenik odnosno komunista. Čini se kao da postavljeno pitanje sumira
Pazolinijevu filozofsku poziciju koja svoje uporište nalazi u levoj idologiji. Nepatvoreno umetničko delo kao manifestacija estetskih načela moguće je realizovati samo u domenu iluzije ili sna,
dok realizacija istog u realnosti podrazumeva odgovornost i neminovno je podložna različitim spoljnim uticajima. Prema tome, poimanju umetnosti kao alatke za društveno političku artikulaciju
bliska i strartegija Milice Rakić, a veza sa Pazolinijevim stvaralaštvom je očigledno i na nekim od radova inspirisanim njegovom poemom KPI mladima iz 1968. godine.
Kako bi se njena umetnička strategija pravilno razumela u odnosu na savremeni trenutak, neophodno je uzeti u obzir i lokalni društveno-politički kontekst te konstitutivne elemente dominatnog
ideološkog diskursa kao što su mizoginija i istorijski revizionizam. Potiskivanje, te brisanje istorijske tekovine Narodnooslobodilačke borbe i generalno anitfašizma, te ženskog doprinosa u tim
okvirima, iz kolektivnog sećanja posebno u poslednje vreme sprovodi se ne samo krivom interpretacijom događaja iz prošlosti u udžbenicima, popularnoj kulturi, agresivnim agitovanjem za
uklanjanjem spomenika u javnom prostoru, već i neverovatnom medijskom zloupotrebom ženskog tela i iskustva. Obe tendecije se međusobno prožimaju u regresivnom i nadasve patrijarhalnom društvenom
vrtlogu, čime se sistematski potire celokupno zaleđe ideja rodne ravnopravnosti, kolektivnog duha i solidarnosti.
Iako neke od rečenica odnosno citata koje umetnica koristi pripadaju arhivskoj građi, stavljanjem u funkciju ženskog iskustva one postaju parolama ili pak fragmentima manifestnog tipa. Na taj
način Milica Rakić naručuje istoriju po vlastitoj meri, te pušta artikulisan i glasan ženski politički glas koji pretenduje da ukaže upravo na one segmente prošlosti koji jesu bili emancipatorski
i suštinski progresivni, ali i sadašnjosti koja jeste haotična i opresivna.
Konačno, umetnica na zauzima ni u kom slučaju arbitarnu poziciju nekoga ko proklamuje opštu istinu, ona, pak, ispostavlja vlastitu istinu, te se ova serija radova može posmatrati u svetlu
kontinuiranog napora odnosno intencije umetnice da polje umetničkog delovanja, te neprikosnovenosti autorstva i originalnosti razgradi upravo rodnim i preciznim ideološkim pozicioniranjem.
Vladimir Bjeličić
I’M BEAUTIFUL LIKE A REVOLUTION
I ordered history after my own heart
With her new project, “I’m beautiful like a revolution” Milica Rakić continues researching the meanings of ideas of archiving, collective memory and personal experience. Using the retrieved material from the Archives of Yugoslavia and carefully selected citations, the artist creates a complex narrative abounding with ambiguity, ingenuity and humor. Although a series of new works seemingly represents an extension of the artist’s practice so far, she can be really interpreted in the light of the deepening of certain issues, that is, the problems specific to the field of artistic creativity.
Namely, the backbone of this project is an intriguing historical document. This is a letter that the amateur painter and artist Đura Rašić sends to Josip Broz Tito in 1947 with a request that the country should help him to fulfill his art career (resulting in financial help to the worker). Rakić used this document as ready made, nevertheless, it was a certain artifact manifesting in the best way the mode of synchronization of the personal and collective in relation to understanding art and ideology in the past system. Namely, country does not demand an academic education at all as prerequisite or imperative for art making, but starts from the simple fact to offer a chance to everyone to express one’s gift, that was a part of wider emancipation project to offer the opportunities to the citizens how to influence the change of their own social status, so that they could be active participants of total social changes.
Regardless of the fact that the aforementioned worker was clearly recognized as politically fit, he was given the opportunity to realize himself as an artist, which is almost unthinkable today. Sphere of art today has become more than ever contaminated and influenced by interest of the ruling majority, exclusively market-based creative initiatives, with no independent, non-academic, amateur or politically-oriented practices.
The final scene of the film The Decameron by Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1971 could also be brought into this connection: the film is based on several different stories from Boccaccio’s medieval epoch, and one of them follows the painting of churches by the famous painter Giotto, who the director himself interprets. The film ends with a scene of a celebration after a successful work in which the painter, namely, Pasolini, pronounces the following sentence: I wonder why create artwork when dreaming about the same is so much sweeter?
Four years later, he was brutally murdered not only because he was a homosexual, but because he was a political opponent, actually a communist. It seems that the raised question sums up Pasolini’s philosophical position, which has its foothold in the left-wing ideology. An undisguised artwork as a manifestation of aesthetic principles can be realized only in the as an illusion or sleep, while realizing it in reality implies responsibility and is inevitably subject to various external influences. Accordingly, the art of painting as a tool for the socio-political different close articulation and strategy of Milica Rakić, and the connection with Pasolini’s work is obviously also on some of the works inspired by his poem KPI to young people from 1968.
In order for her artistic strategy to be properly understood in relation to the contemporary moment, it is necessary to take into account both the local socio-political context and the constituent elements of the dominant and ideological discourse, such as misogyny and historical revisionism.
The suppression, and the erosion of the historical achievements of the National Liberation Struggle and the general anti-fascism, as well as the women’s contribution in these frameworks, from collective memory, it is also presented by the false interpretation of events from the past in textbooks, popular culture, aggressive agitations for removing monuments in the public space, but also the incredible media abuse of women’s body and experience. Both tendencies are mutually pronounced in a regressive and above all patriarchal social whirl, which systematically tackles the entire backdrop of the idea of gender equality, collective spirit and solidarity.
Although some of the sentences or quotations used by the artist belong to the archival institution, by putting in the function of the female experience they become slogans or manifest fragments. In this way, Milica Rakic narrates history after her own heart, a lively and loud female political voice that pretends to point to precisely those segments of the past that were emancipatory and essentially progressive, but also the present which is chaotic and oppressive.
Finally, the artist does not, by all means, take an arbitrary point of view of a woman who proclaims the general truth. However, she presents her own truth within the series of works that can be viewed in the light of the continuing effort or the artist’s intent to break down through the field of artistic activity, and the inviolability of authorship and originality by precise and ideological positioning.
Vladimir Bjeličić
