Artissima 2022

Saša Tkačenko and Nina Zeljković at Eugster || Belgrade Artissima, PINK B, Booth 22

The Eugster || Belgrade presentation at Artissima explores two conflicting positions: the human condition, with reference to Hanna Arendt, and the exploration into what comes after the human (conditio ahumana). This subject relates strongly to the global situation in the past 2 to 3 years, during which we have all needed to revisit what it means to live in a world which is evidently no longer in our hands (due to the unexpected and unstoppable effects of the global pandemic and its consequences, the global warming, etc.). On the other hand, the topic is aesthetically informed by the peripheral perspective that the gallery holds in relation to the European continent, the art market and the market in general, both with its programme and its geo-political location.

The two artists, Saša Tkačenko and Nina Zeljković, offer their own insight into the matter.

Nina’s practice is generally inspired by Hanna Arendt’s work, especially the motif of the common table as a metaphor for an element that connects and separates us at the same time. This idea of an instance that facilitates both unity and division is related to the human condition today, as seen through many of the things that we share, but at the same time feel isolated by (our social media presence, our backgrounds, our viruses and their mutations, for example). Following this remark, Nina will develop a series of new works that extend that concept through an attempt to literally represent the non-western perspective. These themes will be addressed through painting on canvas and other fabrics, with a contemporary reference to the Byzantine style of painting which she hones through her practice.

Saša Tkačenko works with associative images and installations, in order to evoke an emotional response to the familiar in the viewer. This familiarity is conditioned by our shared experience of the West and its tropes, which can, again, be a point of collaboration or separation; but in his work, it is as well presented as a testimony of a collective nostalgia, produced as a residue of late capitalism. Proceeding from an ongoing series of works started in 2021, Saša will continue to work with text and music, as rendered by Spotify, a music app with a recognisable aesthetic. He uses the screenshot of he app’s interface as a print on various surfaces, to which he adds his own hand- or machine-made interventions. At Artissima, he will produce a new series of prints on mirrors and sculptural works that refer to the familiar, the human, and the a-human, as said in the beginning.

The main objective of the show is to reveal the artists’ contrasting approaches: the subtle, carnal and manual, as seen with Nina Zeljković; and the digital, designed and literal, as is the case with Saša Tkačenko. The key here is that both of them carry a specific poetic note, even if their aesthetics seem to differ; which is what we see as a perfect reference to Arendt’s communal table.

Natalija Paunic

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