gradske galerije osijek / galerija waldinger / fakultetska 7, osijek / 11.11. — 10.12.2017.

marko lulić: the proposal

Branka Benčić: Bilješke o videu i performansu u radovima Marka Lulića

Strategije dekonstrukcije koncepta spomenika, arhitekture, te nasljeđa modernizma u Istočnoj i

Zapadnoj Europi već su više od deset godina polazišta umjetničke prakse Marka Lulića. Marko Lulić

često prisvaja ne samo subjektivno odabrane momente jugoslavenske i internacionalne moderne,

već i elemente popularne kulture, te nastavlja rad na temama prostora i njihovog arhitektonskog,

kulturnog i političkog značenja, kao odnosa umjetnosti i ideologije, sa kojima je u kontinuiranom

dijalogu. Zanima ga međuodnos ideologije i forme, značaj i pozicija koju zauzimaju danas, u

suodnosu sa onom koja im je bila pripisivana u određenom (povijesnom) trenutku.1 Lulić re-kreira

i re-interpretira baštinu modernizma služeći se različitim materijalima i medijima, arhitekturu,

objekte i spomenike “prevodi” i rekontekstualizira. Objekte i prostore ispunjava posve novim

značenjima pomoću pomaka u građi ili konceptu, na temelju formalnih aspekata i kulturalnih,

društvenih i političkih tema. Lulić pokušava detektirati mogu li se i na koji način danas u suvremenoj

umjetnosti obrađivati teme utopije.2 Umjetnik repolitizira javni prostor kroz evokaciju traumatskog

sadržaja spomeničke plastike, odnosno afirmira konfrontaciju osobnog prema kolektivnim javnim

sadržajima. U tom smislu, radovi umjetnika javljaju se kao oblici repolitizacije simboličke inskripcije

javnog prostora. Takva repolitizacija shvaćena je kao otvaranje novih mogućnosti i potencijala

individualnih poetika i politika u odnosu na službene.3

Arhitektura koja je, prema shvaćanju Bogdana Bogdanovića, nedovršena, neizvjesna, koja prodire

u podsvjesno, kao da pronalazi svoj “produžetak” u odabranim video radovima Marka Lulića,

produžetak koji se manifestira podjednako fluidnostima naznačenim pokretom i koreografijom

protagonista, njihovom interpretacijom kao oponašenjem objekata ili odnosa, kao i izražajnim

sredstvima medija pokretnih slika, pokretima kamere i montažom. Optičko nesvjesno kamere kreće

se prostorima reprezentacije spomenika istražujući i reflektirajući različite pozicije i načine na koje

se strukturiraju značenja i doživljaj prostora, protagonista, subjekata, objekata i odnosa. Otkriva

se prostor koji izmješta i transformira uobičajena shvaćanja, a pritom naglašava specifičan način

teatralizacije, te montažne odnose kao kombinaciju ritma i i dramaturgije prizora.

Bogdan Bogdanović autor je Kamenog cvijeta, spomenika u Jasenovcu, kojeg Lulić postavlja u središte

interesa u svojem performativnom video radu Jasenovac. Spomenik, koreografija i video u službi

su artikuliranja specifičnog vizualnog jezika u kojem se pokreti protagonista prepliću s vizualnim

sredstvima filma, pokretima kamere i montažnim rezovima, stvarajući mjesta tenzije pokretnih i

nepokretnih slika. Kao da nejasno osjećamo pukotine, zjevove, točke trenja; katkad imamo neodređen

dojam da prostor na mjestima zapinje, puca ili da se sudara…4

1] Branka Benčić: Demistifikacija i dekonstrukcija : Muzej revolucije na medijskoj fasadi MSU-a u Zagrebu i drugi radovi Marka Lulića, Čovjek i prostor, 2010.

2] Ibid.

3] Sanja Potkonjak and Tomislav Pletenac: Kada spomenici ožive – “umjetnost sjećanja” u javnom prostoru

4] Georges Perec: Vrste prostora, Meandar, Zagreb.

Istraživanje pokreta u umjetnosti od početaka 20. stoljeća - u skulpturi, slikarstvu, fotografiji,

sintetizirao je medij filma, odn. pokretnih slika, budući da su upravo pokretne slike na realan

način omogućile zabilježiti i dokumentirati pokret i vrijeme. Prakse filma i performansa od

šezdesetih su godina imale ulogu dematerijalizacije umjetničkog predmeta, savladavanja javnog

prostora, te izmještanja institucionalnog konteksta umjetnosti, a medij filma/videa i performans

podjednako su angažirani kako bi se odmakli od percepcije umjetničkog predmeta kao dovršenog

i fiksnog predmeta ili robe namijenjene tržištu, te doveli u pitanje dosadašnje kategorije i norme

muzealizacije, institucije i sustava umjetnosti. U tom smislu i suvremene kritičke prakse umjetnika

nastale na nasljeđu post konceptualne umjetnosti, u središte interesa stavljaju i ideju spomenika,

koju interpretiraju, analiziraju, razlažu pokretom.

Grupu od tri video rada Marka Lulića okupljena na izložbi možemo sagledati zajedno, kao labavo

zamišljenu cjelinu i u relaciji su s izloženim objektima i instalacijama. Video radovi Jasenovac, Proposal

for a Worker’s Monument i Model of Relations (The Circle). nadovezuju se na neka prethodna Lulićeva

istraživanja i umjetnikove interese - strategije dekonstrukcije koncepta spomenika, arhitekture, te

nasljeđa modernizma, pitanja kolektivnog pamćenja, kao i interes za aproprijaciju, prevođenje,

rekontekstualizaciju. Okupljena djela mahom pripadaju kategoriji jednokanalnih video radova,

a strukturiraju se kao dijalog pokreta i interpretacije ideje spomenika. Orkestrirajući cjelokupni

ambijent u audiovizualan doživljaj, sudjeluju u stvaranju napetosti, između pokreta i mirovanja,

ukazuju temporalnost statičnog spomenika, na odnose tijela i skulpture, formiranja različitih

provremenih konstelacija, formacija ili odnosa, kao i slojeva značenja koji ih uokviruju. Primjećujemo

kako Lulić ne bira herojsku figurativnu skulpturu, već monumentalnu skulpturu apstraktnih obilježja.

Dok Jasenovac pred posjetitelja donosi rascvjetale forme betonskog spomenika A Proposal for

a Worker’s Monument donosi monumentalnu javnu skulpturu evropskog visokog modernizma,

Baumruine Franza Eggenschwilera iz 1975. godine. A Proposal for a Worker’s Monument dokumentira

koreografiju i relacije tijela i monumentalne skulpture u boji “reanimirajući” postojeću skulpturu.

Umjetnik oko nje orkestrira plesne pokrete grupe mladih protagonista, približavajući park skulptura

ideji poligona i mjesta istraživanja i rekonfiguracije različitih odnosa.

Porijeklo ovog rada, ali i cijele grupe video radova koji se temelje na performansu možemo

prepoznati u nekim prethodnim umjetnikovim realizacijama poput Reaktivacija/Cirkulacija, radu

perfromativnog karaktera gdje umjetnik izvodi nemimetičke pokrete u kružnim elementima

geometrijske konstrukcije javne skulpture Vojina Bakića iz 1970. Strategijama tijela i pokreta umjetnik

istražuje prostor i beskonačnost povezanih kružnih elemenata. Ozbiljnost kompozicije i hladna forma

geometrijske strukture suprotstavljene su istraživanju i dječjoj zaigranosti, a Bakićeva kompozicija na

kratko kao da postaje poligon za istraživanje cirkularnosti, ponavljanja u okviru međuodnosa tijela i

objekta. Umjetnikovi pokreti predstavljaju odmak od oubičajenog standarda ponašanja, izmještajući

kontekst Bakićeve skulpture, ukazujući na beskonačnost, cirkularnost ili besmislenost.

Model of Relations (The Circle) u užem smislu ne pripada radovima koji se bave temom spomenika, već

komunicira bliskim vizualnim jezikom, formalnim elementima, korografijom pokreta i kontekstualnim

karakterom. Model of Relations (The Circle) koristi koreografiju – plesni pokret kako bi iskazao niz

odnosa. Naziv rada znači krug i kolo, i njegovo se značenje formira u dihotomiji suprotstavljenih

elemenata, ideje univerzalnog, te modernizma i njoj suprotstavljenog nečeg partikularnog ili

lokalnog, vidljivog u plesu kola, tradiciji folklora, kao primitivnog i jednostavnog plesnog rituala.

U isto vrijeme različite konfiguracije protagonist formiraju različite forme i strukture, koje možemo

povezati sa oblicima organizacije i odnosa, od tektonskih pomaka i geoloških struktura koje formiraju

kontinente, preko geopolitičkih formacija, društvenih pokreta i grupa, kao i međuljudskih odnosa.

Navedeni video radovi temelje se na plesnom pokretu i koreografiji, gdje jezik pokreta i niz referenci

omogućavaju dijalog sa spomenikom ili pak reprezentiraju različite odnose, koristeći strategije

koreografije kao stvaranje novog djela. Mimetičnost koreografije, tenzija narativnog i nenarativnog

predstavljaju vrstu oponašanja koje sudjeluje u stvaranju novog oblika i strukturiranju novog jezika,

a okupljaju ideje «oživljavanja» socijalističkih spomenika, te postavljaju pitanje o vremenu post-

monumenta, preispitivanju koncepta monumentalnosti, ili dematerijalizacije spomenika (u videu

ili plesu).

_______________________

* Predgovor predstavlja skraćenu verziju eseja objavljenog u katalogu samostalne izložbe Marka Lulića: Futurology, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Verlag Moderner Kunst, Nürnberg / Vienna, 2017

Proposal for a Workers’ Monument, 2014commissioned by Le Mouvement, Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel/Bienne, 2014 / video / duration: 10‘25’‘courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist

Proposal for a Workers’ Monument, 2014commissioned by Le Mouvement, Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel/Bienne, 2014 / video / duration: 10‘25’‘

Courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist

Jasenovac, 2010video / duration: 9’06” min / courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist

Model of Relations (The Circle), 2015 video, duration: 11‘ / produced for a collaboration with Kuehn Malvezzi and their project Models of the House of One, Chicago Architecture Biennial, 2015 / Courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist

Proposal for a Workers’ Monument, 2014commissioned by Le Mouvement, Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel/Bienne, 2014 / video / duration: 10‘25’‘

Courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist

Branka Benčić: Notes about video and performance in the works of Marko Lulić

Strategies of the deconstruction of the concept of monument, architecture and the heritage

of modernism in Eastern and Western Europe have been for more than ten years the premise for

the artistic practice of Marko Lulić. He often appropriates not only subjectively selected factors in

Yugoslav and international modernism but elements of popular culture, and continues work on

subjects of space and its architectural, cultural and political meaning, as relation of art and ideology,

with which he has an ongoing dialogue. He is interested in the interrelation of ideology and form, the

importance and position that they occupy today, and the correlation with what was ascribed to them

in a given (historical) moment.1 He is interested in mechanisms of translation and transposition, of

the transference of context, the process of alteration of relationships and relocation of meaning.

Lulić recreates and reinterprets the heritage of modernism, making use of various materials and

media, translates and recontextualises architecture and monuments. He fills spaces and objects with

completely new meanings with the help of a shift in the material or the concept, pursuant to formal

aspects and cultural, social and political themes. Everything is subject to criticism and interpretation,

without bias or nostalgia. Lulić attempts to detect whether today in contemporary art utopian

themes can be dealt with, and if so in what way.2 The artist re-politicises public space through an

evocation of the traumatic content of monumental plasticity, that is, endorses the confrontation of

the personal with collective public contents. Such re-politicisation is understood as the opening up

of new capacities and potentials of individual poetics and politics as against the official.3

Architecture that is, in the words by Bogdan Bogdanović unfinished, inchoate, that slips down into the

subconscious, seems to find its extension in selected video works of Marko Lulić, that is manifested

equally in the fluidities indicated by the movement and choreography of the protagonists and by

expressive means of the medium of moving images, with movements of the camera, with editing. The

optical unconscious of the camera moves through the spaces of representation of the monument,

exploring and reflecting the different positions and ways in which the meanings and experience of

spaces, protagonists, subjects, objects and relations are structured. A space is revealed that displaces

and transforms usual ways of understanding, and emphasises a specific manner of theatricalisation,

and editing relationships as combination of rhythm and dramaturgy of the scene.

Bogdan Bogdanović is the author of Stone Flower at Jasenovac, the former death camp, which Lulić

puts in the centre of interest in his performative video work Jasenovac. Monument, choreography

and video are there for the sake of articulating a specific visual language in which the movements

of the protagonist are interwoven with the visual resources of the film, with the cuts in the editing,

creating places of tension between moving and still images. As if we were unclearly sensing the cracks,

1] Branka Benčić: Demistifikacija i dekonstrukcija : Muzej revolucije na medijskoj fasadi MSU-a u Zagrebu i drugi radovi Marka Lulića / Demystification and deconstruction: Museum of the Revolution on the media facade of the MCA in Zagreb and other works of Marko Lulić, Čovjek i prostor, 2010.

2] Ibid.

3] Sanja Potkonjak and Tomislav Pletenac: Kada spomenici ožive – “umjetnost sjećanja” u javnom prostoru

the fissures, the moments of friction; sometimes we have an unclear impression that space in places gets

stuck, cracks or clashes...4

Filmed accounts of monuments are a means that has enabled numerous aspirations and researches

of artists during the development of sculpture from the early 20th century, from Brancusi’s films or

even the idea of the monument (in) (to) movement like the Forme uniche della continuita nello spazio

(1913) of Umberto Boccioni. In a sense, we can observe that the research into movement in art from

the beginning of the 20th century, in sculpture, painting, photography, was synthesised by the film

medium, by moving images, since it is actually moving images that in a realistic way enabled both

time and movement to be recorded and documented.

Practices of film and performance since the sixties have had a role in the dematerialisation of the

artistic object, of mastering public space, and displacing the institutional context of art, while the

medium of film/video and performance have equally been engaged to make a break with the

perception of the artistic object as finished and fixed object or commodity for the market place, and

have called into question previous categories and standards of musealisation, the institution of art

and the art system. From this point of view contemporary critical practices of artists created on the

heritage of post-conceptual art place at the centre of interest the idea of the monument, which they

interpret, analyse, and expound through movement.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a group of three video works by Marko Lulić Jasenovac, Proposal

for a Workers’ Monument and Model of Relations (The Circle) – can be seen together, as a loosely

devised group. They build on some previous artistic interests – strategies for the deconstruction of

the concept of monument, of architecture, and the heritage of modernism, the issue of collective

memory, the interest in appropriation, translating, recontextualising. The works assembled are

all in the category of single channel video works, and they are structured as a dialogue between

movement and the interpretation of the idea of the monument. Orchestrating the whole setting

into the audio-visual experience, they take part in the creation of tension between movement and

quiescence, draw attention to the temporality of the static monument, the relations of the body and

the sculpture, the forming of different temporary constellations, formations or relations, as well as

the layers of meaning that frame them. A Proposal for a Workers’ Monument includes a massive public

sculpture of European high modernism, the Farbige Baumruine of Franz Eggenschwiler of 1975. It

documents the choreography and the relations of body and monumental sculpture in colour, re-

animating the existing sculpture. The artist orchestrates around it the dance movements of a group

of young protagonists, making the sculpture park closer to the idea of a proving ground and a place

for the research into and reconfiguration of various relations. Model of Relations (The Circle) does not

directly impinge on the monument theme, but does use choreography – the dance movement to

express a series of relations. Because of the title of the work, its meaning is formed in the dichotomy

of the opposed elements, the idea of the universal, and modernism and the opposition to it of

something particular and local, visible in the circle dance, the kolo, the tradition of folk art, primitive

4] Georges Perec: Vrste prostora — Species of Space, Meandar, Zagreb.

Object for Two Performers, 2015 / 17exhibition view Futurology, Lentos Museum, Linz, 2017MDF, paint / 102 x 120 x 175 cm / courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist / Photo: Reinhard Haider

and simple dance ritual. At the same time the various configurations of the protagonists form various

shapes and structures, which we can correlate with the forms of organisation and relations, from

tectonic shifts and geological structures that form the continents, geopolitical formations, social

movements and groups and interpersonal relations.

These video works are based on choreography and the movement of the dance, where the language

of movement and a series of references enable a dialogue with the monument of indeed represent

various relationships, making use of choreographic strategies as the creation of a new work. The

mimetic potential of choreography, tension between narrative and non-narrative represent a

kind of representation that takes part in the creation of a new form and the structuring of a new

language, bring together ideas of reanimating socialist monuments, raising the question of the time

of the post-monument, re-examining the concept of monumentality and on the other hand the

dematerialisation of the monument (in video and in dance).

Translated by Graham McMaster

_______________________

* Foreword is a short version of the essay published on the occasion of Marko Lulic solo exhibition Futurology at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Verlag Moderner Kunst, Nürnberg / Vienna, 2017

Object for Two Performers, 2015exhibition view Displacement - Texts and Interventions, Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna, 2015

MDF, paint / 102 x 120 x 175 cm / courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist / Photo: Iris Ranzinger

Marko Lulić, vizualni umjetnik (Beč, 1972), studirao je na Visokoj školi za primijenjenu umjetnost,

te Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Beču, gdje je trenutno zaposlen. Izlagao je na brojnim skupnim i

samostalnim izložbama u vodećim međunarodnim umjetničkim institucijama, muzejima i galerijama

Witte de With, Rotterdam, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, ACF New York, OCA, Oslo;

Kunstforum, Beč, Oktobarski salon, Muzej savremene umetnosti, Beograd, Kunsthaus Bregenz,

Kunstverein Graz, Lentos Muzej, Linza. Dobitnik je brojnih nagrada i umjetničkih rezidencija. Živi i

radi u Beču.

Marko Lulić, visual artist (Vienna, 1972) studied at High School for Applied Arts and Academy of

Visual Arts in Vienna, where he is currently employed. He has been showing his works in numerous

collective and solo exhibitions in leading international and Croatian art institutions, museums and

galleries: Witte de With, Rotterdam; Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York; ACF New York;

OCA, Oslo; Kunstforum, Vienna; October Salon, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Kunsthaus

Bregenz; Kunstverein Graz, Lentos Museum Linz. He received numerous awards and art residences.

He lives and works in Vienna.

Monument to Movement, 2013—2016exhibition view The Proposal, Apoteka, Vodnjan / wood, PVC / 120 x 150 x 43 cmcourtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist / photo: Matija Debeljuh

Monument to Movement, 2013—2016exhibition view The Proposal, Apoteka, Vodnjan / wood, PVC / 120 x 150 x 43 cm

courtesy: Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna and the artist / photo: Matija Debeljuh

Marko Lulić: THE PROPOSAL

organizacija izložbe / exhibition organizer

Gradske galerije Osijek / Osijek City Galleries

Fakultetska 7, 31000 Osijek

tel. 031/320-981

e-mail: ggosijek@gmail.com

ravnateljica / director: Ljerka Hedl

kustosica izložbe / exhibition curator: Branka Benčić

likovni postav izložbe / exhibition set-up: Marko Lulić & Branka Benčić

tehnički postav / technical set-up: Dražen Budimir

izložbeni prostor / exhibition venue

Galerija Waldinger / Waldinger Gallery

Fakultetska 7, 31000 Osijek

11.11. — 10.12.2017.

katalog / catalogue

nakladnik / publisher: Gradske galerije Osijek

za nakladnika / represented by: Ljerka Hedl

urednica / editor: Marijana Fumić

predgovor / catalogue foreword: Branka Benčić

prijevod / translated by: Graham McMaster

naslovnica / cover: Museum of Revolution, 2010

installation view 21er Haus, Belvedere, Vienna

steel, paint / 1100 x 400 x 300 cm / collection Belvedere, Vienna / photo: Marko Lulić

grafičko oblikovanje / graphic design: Saša Došen

tisak / printed by: Grafika d.o.o., Osijek

naklada / copies: 200

Izložba je realizirana sredstvima Grada Osijeka, Ministarstva kulture RH i Austrijskog kulturnog foruma Zagreb

The exhibition has been produced with the financial support of the City of Osijek, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of

Croatia and the Austrian Culture Forum Zagreb