SUNSET Journeys
Projekat SUNSET Journeys konceptualno predstavljala sintezu različitih elemenata. Dok je delo predstavljeno u svom konačnom obliku kao instalacija od 40 slika uramljenih duplim drvenim ramovima, u procesu stvaranja instalacije Lidija je koristila ličnu foto arhivu sa svojih putovanja iz proteklih nekoliko godina. Ove slike jarkih i živih boja, i očigledno sakriven tekst, urađene su na papirima brodskih knjiga koje je Lidija našla u zgradi Jugooceanije u Kotorskoj luci u Crnoj Gori. Kada se slika otvori, na desnoj strani ispisani su detalji o poreklu motiva sa slike. Izvlačeći slike, objekte i reči iz njihovih utvrđenih kontekasta, ovo delo izaziva osećaj neodređenosti u kojoj kontrast između realnosti vizuelnih predstava i relnosti koju one oslikavaju postaje jasno vidljiv. Ove slike/objekti stapaju pejzaže i zalaske sunca sa redovima i kolonama tabela, poteze četkice sa algoritmima za sortiranje i kategorizaciju. “Kultura slika” doba u kome živimo karakteriše naša vera u sposobnost vizuelne predstave da objasni naučne i političke fenomene, i susret sa neskladom prisutnim u umetničkim delima može da izazove proces preispitivanja ovakvih status quo pretpostavki. /// English version The project SUNSET Journeys conceptually represents a synthesis of different elements. Whilst the work is presented in its final form as an installation of 40 paintings framed in double wood frames, the process of the installation, Lidija used her personal photo archive from her journeys/travels over the past few years. These colourful and vivid images, and clearly concealed texts, were created on logbook that Lidija found in the Jugooceanija building in Kotor harbour, Montenegro. Technically, when the first image opens, on the right-hand side is written the details of where the pictures motive origins. Extracting images, objects, and words from their established contexts, this work challenges a sense of uncertainty in which the contrast between the reality of visual images and the reality they depict becomes clearly visible. These paintings/objects meld landscapes and sunsets with the rows and columns of spreadsheets, brushstrokes of colour with the algorithms of sorting and categorization. The image-culture age we live in is characterized by our faith in the capacity of visual images to explain scientific and political phenomena, and the encounter with dissonance present in artworks can trigger a process of questioning these status quo assumptions.

In Search of the Miraculous
U potrazi Lidija Delić preuzima fotografski dokument plovidbe holandskog konceptualnog umetnika Jan Bas Adera i litografskim postupkom ga prebacuje na površinu papira iz brodskih knjiga Jugoceanije. Na taj način se potencijalni registar ulaska i izlaska brodova iz kotorske luke, spaja sa Aderovim diskursom u jedno stanje stvari, odnosno u neko polje smisla. U prazan registar brodskih knjiga upisuje se nagoveštaj jedne plovidbe sadržan u preuzetom fotografskom dokumentu. Celokupan utisak instalacije koja je pred nama postaje personifikovana luka koja poručuje posmatraču da plovi dalje, i dalje, i dalje... Kao takva ona teži da postane mesto (locus) umetnosti. Jednostavna poruka otkriva nam složen konceptualni okvir koji je konstituiše. U pokušaju da pređe Atlantski okean Jan Bas Ader je zauvek nestao. Njegova plovidba određena je stremljenjem da se motiv romantičarskog putovanja unese u metod konceptualne umetnosti. Potraga za određenom dubinom, kao reakcija na racionalističku plošnost, daje nam dobar šlagvort za tematizovanje pitanja o lokalizaciji umetnosti. Ako je filozofska misao nerazdvojiva od kreativnog izlaganja izvesnog stanja stvari, onda se može konstatovati da je konceptualna rigidnost filozofije primorana na konstantnu reviziju, pri čemu se njeno stanje stvari transformiše u nizove nagoveštaja nekog smisla. Svet je sve što je slučaj , na samom početku Tractatus-a nam poručuje Ludvig Vitgenštajn (Ludwig Wittgenstein). Subjekt–objekt odnos svesti prema svetu ostvaruje se u delatnosti (Fenomenologija duha). U spoju ove dve tvrdnje pronalazimo slučaj kao izvesnu stvar u vaskolikoj mreži relacija. Pošto nas savremenost, na tragu Dišanovskog (Marcel Duchamp) readymade postupka, uči da je svakoj stvari potrebno minimalno određenje da potvrdi svoju egzistenciju, odnosno da inauguriše određeno stanje stvari. U našim glavama ostaje sledeće pitanje: gde se konstituiše umetnost, tačnije: na kojim mestima nastaje umetnost kao izvesno stanje stvari? Tekst: Velimir Popović /// English version In search Lidija Delić takes photographic documentation of sailing from a Dutch conceptual artist Jan Bas Ader and, through the lithographic technique she transposes it on the paper from the logbooks of the shipping company Jugoceanija. Thus, the potential registrar of entering and exiting of ships in Kotor harbor is merged with Ader’s discourse into one state of affairs, that is one field of sense. The allusion of one sailing contained in the taken photographic record is inscribed into the empty registrar of logbooks. The entire impression that the installation creates in front of us becomes a personified harbor which calls for the observer to sail further, and further, and further…This way it aspires to become the locus of art. The simple message reveals a complex conceptual frame it is constituted of. In the attempt to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, Jan Bas Ader disappeared forever. His sailing is determined by the striving to insert the motif of the Romantic voyage into the method of the conceptual art. The search for a specific depth, as a reaction to the rationalistic flatness, figures as a good buzzword for the thematization of the question about the localization of art. If the philosophical thought is inseparable from the creative exhibition of a certain state of affairs, then it can be stated that the conceptual rigidity of philosophy is forced to the constant revision, with which its state of affairs is transformed into the series of hints of a certain sense. The world is all that is the case , Ludwig Wittgenstein told us in the very beginning of the Tractatus. The subject-object relationship of the consciousness towards the world is realized in activity (The Phenomenology of Mind). In the connection of these two claims, we find case as a certain thing in the omnipresent net of relations. Since contemporaneity, along the lines of Duchamp’s readymade approach, teaches us that each thing needs a minimal determination to confirm its existence, that is to inaugurate a determined state of affairs. In our minds, there rests a following question: where is art constituted, more precisely: what are the loci in which art is born as a certain state of affairs? Text: Velimir Popović

Seascapes/Into the Wave
“Plivanje je kao neka vrsta sna: lako se premestim iz kreveta u jezero. Ako plivam pola sata ujutru, dobro se osećam ceo dan. Kada se potpuno opustim u bazenu, uvek završim u istom položaju, okrenut ka nebu i telom prelomljenim pod uglom od četrdeset i pet stepeni, s glavom pod vodom i rukama ispruženim ispred sebe kao da bih da dohvatim ništavilo. Volim, ovim redosledom, plivanje u moru, jezeru, potoku i bazenu. Plivao sam u kanjonu reke Gardon, u blizini mesta Kolija gde pljosnato glatko kamenje oivičava potok prijatne temperature koji lagano teče. Popeo sam se na preko tri stotine metara do njegovog izvora i vratio se nazad bez i najmanjeg truda, kao u snu, sunce bacajući rumeni odsjaj po površini kamenja i gde mi je vid dostizao do najvećih daljina i odjeka mojih reči.” Eduard Leve - Autoportret Preispitivanje usvojenih i nadalje razvijanih proceduralnih rešenja i postupaka, u disciplini koja je po svojoj osnovnoj medijskoj odrednici statična umetnost, Lidiju Delić je navelo da iz stanja dvodimenzionalnosti slikarskog objekta izađe u prostor i tako ambijentalno aktivira svoje slike. Problemsko središte višemedijske prostorne instalacije Sescapes koju čine crteži-skulpture, ambijentalni zvuk usidreno je zanimanjem za složenost pitanja doživljaja odnosa između kretanja i trajanja. Kroz prepoznatljive vizuelne iskaze, snolike po svom sadržaju i formi, Lidija Delić vešto transponuje sugestibilnu atmosferu iz svojih prethodnih slikarskih serija Ambience i Into The Wave u imaginativno transformisan fizički prostor galerije. Kako bi otvorila mogućnost gledaocu za postepeno upuštanje u događaj umetnica se prepušta senzornim igrama usporavanja vremena, suspendovanja, pauze, preklapanja i stanja mirovanja, pokrećući u posmatraču izvesne psihofiziološke senzacije i izvodeći ga tako iz jedne ravni realnosti u drugu, iz fizičkog u čulni prostor. Radovi Lidije Delić najčešće nastaju u serijama, budući da umetnica pojave, fenomene ili predmete za koje je zainteresovana reflektuje u njihovom neprestanom kretanju, odnosno, sekventnom trajanju. Ovog puta, serijalizovani estetizovani morski prizori - Seascapes okreću se drugačijem plastičkom govoru. U crtežima na pločama možemo da detektujemo samo premeštanja figure, ali uz odsustvo transformacije. Suprotno Mejbridžovim (Eadweard Muybridge) fotografskim studijama dekompozicije pokreta, a bliže Bergsonu (Henri Bergson), kretanje na crtežima je postavljeno u područje trajanja. Ono nije linija, jer linija nastaje tek nakon pređenog puta, nakon završenog čina. Umetnica nam otkriva da sve, čak i naizgled čvrst i nepromenljiv predmet kao što je mermerna ploča, takođe jeste događaj, tačnije, višestrukost tokova događaja - koji nam se otkrivaju u bogatoj teksturi materijala kao naslage vremena. Vreme predstavlja koegzistenciju svih ostalih nivoa trajanja, ono je drugačije i od linije, prostora ili broja ili bilo koje druge opažajne kategorije razuma jer mnogo toga što gradi iskustvo ovih događaja se ne nalazi u sferi neposredno vizuelno opažljivog. U preseku prostora koji je vidljiv i prostora koji misli, umetnica u radu Seascapes privremeno suspenduje svakodnevicu i u intimnom spletu okolnosti svog unutrašnjeg prostora aktivira posmatrača kao učesnika kroz iskustvo blisko meditaciji. Posmatraču je omogućeno da projektuje sadržaje sopstvenog nesvesnog na ponuđene slike, i tako inicira ili nastavi započeto otkrivanje i premeravanje svog unutrašnjeg prostora. /// English version Seascapes ”Swimming is like a kind of sleep: I go easily from a bed to a lake. If I swim for half an hour in the morning, I feel good all day. When I relax completely in a pool, I always end up in the same position, back to the sky, body bent at forty-five degrees, head underwater, arms stretched out in front as if to grab the void. I like, in order of preference, swimming in the sea, in the lake, in a creek, in a pool. I have swum in the canyon of Garden, near Collias, flat smooth rocks line the stream that flows softly at a pleasant temperature, I climbed over tree hundred meters to its source and come back without the slightest effort, as in a dream, the sun cast an orange sheen on the surface of the rocks, my eyes could see far into the distance and my words echoes.” Еdouard Leve – Autoportrait Questioning already adopted and further developed procedural solutions and procedures, in a discipline that is according to its basic media determinant a static art, led Lidija Delic to step out from the two-dimensional state of the painter’s object into the ambience and to thus make her paintings become active in the surroundings. The heart of the matter of the multimedia three dimensional installation entitled Seascapes that consists of paintings-sculptures and ambient sound is anchored by her interest in the complexity of the question of one’s experience of the relationship between movement and existence. Bipartite in its form, in the material and conceptual sense, the exhibition is realized as a coherent whole; individual fragments of this whole were developed by means of establishing their relations with the entirety of the exhibition. Through recognizable visual statements, dreamlike in their contents and form, Lidija Delic skilfully transposes suggestible atmosphere from her previous painting series of Ambience and Into The Wave in the imaginatively transformed physical space of the gallery. In order to open a possibility for the viewer to gradually engage with the event, the artist plays the sensory games of slowing down the time, suspending, pausing, overlapping and of the state of inaction, triggering certain psycho-physical sensations in the viewer and leading him thus from one plane of the reality into another, from physical to sensory space. Lidija Delic most often creates her works in series, because this artist reflects the occurrences, phenomena or objects for which she is interested in their perpetual movement, or, sequential existence. This time, the aesthetic seaside scenes presented, the Seascapes, are directed towards a different sculptural language. In her drawings on marble plates, we can detect only the movements of a figure from place to another, without any transformation. As opposed to the Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic studies of the decomposition of movement, and closer to the ideas of Henri Bergson, movement in her drawings is set in the realm of duration. It is not a line, because a line is created only after a section of path has already been covered, after a completed action. The artist discloses to us that everything, even the seemingly solid and unchangeable object such as the marble plate is also an event, or to be more precise, multiple flows of events – which are revealed to us in a rich texture of the material as a layer of time. Time represents the coexistence of all the other levels of existence, it differs from the line, space or number, or any other category perceptible by the reason, because a large part of the things built on the experiences derived from these events is not located in the realm of the directly visually perceptible things. In the intersection of space that is visible and space that thinks, in her work Seascapes, the artist temporarily suspends the everyday life and in an intimate conjunction of her own internal space makes the viewer an active participant through an experience that is close to meditation. She enables the viewer to project the contents of their own unconsciousness onto the images offered, and to thus initiate or resume discovery and measuring of their own internal space. From the text “Seascapes/Into the Wave”, Miloš Zec.