Jasminka Babić
Untitled
Redefinition of space is one of the main focus points of Viktor Popović’s work. If the intervention into space happens on a formal level, it is usually with simple installations created in the tradition of Minimal art. In Popović’s case, such works surpass the definition of installation and due to the artists relation to space and wider understanding of it, they can be considered ambiances. Another mode of working with the same subject matter happens mostly on a conceptual level. The artist does not only react to the form of space, but also to its context, and through association, he changes its meaning in a very interesting way. Such an approach has led to the works exhibited at the MAP gallery.
As an initial reference to this specific space, Popović chooses the original character of a typical Dalmatian residential house – the gallery’s windows overlook the sea. The landscape becomes an extremely important and dynamic element in the definition of the interior as well. The most distinguishable element that becomes the artist’s focal point is the horizon. He appropriates it and continues it in the interior by creating a new collage horizon made of photographs. He doesn’t use the photographs of that particular view but assembles various photographs of the sea created through a longer period of time in such a way that he connects them all exactly on the line of the horizon and creates one continuous landscape. What becomes obvious is that the horizon is nothing but the line. And lines are not created only in nature. Man creates them through various means: using pencil, ballpoint pen, brush... The artist can create them using the very objects used for drawing. On the ground floor of the gallery, Popović creates a new horizon using those exact objects. Such inversion becomes even more interesting when we remember that the line, regardless of how it was made, is the starting point of any creative process.
Popović has realized the final exhibited work in collaboration with the audience. This is not unusual for his work. However, in his earlier works, the audience was not directly present – mostly he would lend personal objects that carried some kind of memory, but this time he is “lending” their views. He is recreating a new horizon for each visitor separately, depending on the height of their eye level. The final layout is unknown, but that is precisely what makes it interesting. To the artists, as well as to the audience.
Untitled
Redefinition of space is one of the main focus points of Viktor Popović’s work. If the intervention into space happens on a formal level, it is usually with simple installations created in the tradition of Minimal art. In Popović’s case, such works surpass the definition of installation and due to the artists relation to space and wider understanding of it, they can be considered ambiances. Another mode of working with the same subject matter happens mostly on a conceptual level. The artist does not only react to the form of space, but also to its context, and through association, he changes its meaning in a very interesting way. Such an approach has led to the works exhibited at the MAP gallery.
As an initial reference to this specific space, Popović chooses the original character of a typical Dalmatian residential house – the gallery’s windows overlook the sea. The landscape becomes an extremely important and dynamic element in the definition of the interior as well. The most distinguishable element that becomes the artist’s focal point is the horizon. He appropriates it and continues it in the interior by creating a new collage horizon made of photographs. He doesn’t use the photographs of that particular view but assembles various photographs of the sea created through a longer period of time in such a way that he connects them all exactly on the line of the horizon and creates one continuous landscape. What becomes obvious is that the horizon is nothing but the line. And lines are not created only in nature. Man creates them through various means: using pencil, ballpoint pen, brush... The artist can create them using the very objects used for drawing. On the ground floor of the gallery, Popović creates a new horizon using those exact objects. Such inversion becomes even more interesting when we remember that the line, regardless of how it was made, is the starting point of any creative process.
Popović has realized the final exhibited work in collaboration with the audience. This is not unusual for his work. However, in his earlier works, the audience was not directly present – mostly he would lend personal objects that carried some kind of memory, but this time he is “lending” their views. He is recreating a new horizon for each visitor separately, depending on the height of their eye level. The final layout is unknown, but that is precisely what makes it interesting. To the artists, as well as to the audience.