The show brings together practices of three artists who offer different reflections on reality. The signature piece (Saša Tkačenko – Unknown, talk to unknown), placed in the window of the gallery, advertises a call for caution with neon light, literally showcasing the words ‘stranger’ and ‘danger’ and setting a tone even before the space is entered. The nouns that rhyme come from Vladimir Nabokov’s reflection on individualist hardship, translated into the context of today’s social traps. On the other hand, while some of Nabokov’s words seemed progressive or supportive of liberal thinking, his chauvinist statements (for example, his “doubt” in women writers) cast a different light on his persona. That every reality is multilayered comes across in Julija Zaharijević’s work too, who uses the mutable nature of symbols to the advantage of many possible interpretations. The works that are shown at Trotoar disfigure the typical Chesterfield sofa pattern, a well-known visual token often associated with the patriarchal view on success, wealth or beauty (all of which might be interchangeable in this view). The buttons are no longer placed in the familiar grid, but rather take on a hybrid form, simulating an organic process of disintegration with no control, turning onto oneself, a cancerous growth. By analogy, this process applies to the adulthood of a generation that matured in parallel to the Internet. The loss of control over our own online behaviors and data, the ultimate burnout from a continuous presence, comes across through Vuk Ćuk’s practice. His works are made of collected objects that are considered useless, strange, and mass-produced, mostly purchased via Ali-Express. Placed on the gallery floor, they are arranged into ritualistic shapes that do not replicate plain circles, but smiley faces – a symbol that is essentially as abstract as the next thing.
-Natalija Paunić