Idem da se vratim
05./ JANUAR // IDEM DA SE VRATIM // 2017 Idem da se vratim” bio je naziv kampanje koja je bila u svojstvu najave moje prve samostalne izložbe u kojoj sam skupio novac za studiranje u Parizu. Sve što se dešavalo okolo izložbe je uzelo tolikog maha da je postalo rad za sebe. Sve je počelo iz konverzacije sa mojom tadašnjom profesorkom slikanja, kojoj kada sam rekao da sam primljen na Ecole de Beaux-art u Parizu, odgovorila je kiselim osmehom uz „I ti ode!“ Na šta sam odgovorio: ,,Ali ja ću se vratiti“. Dugo sam razmišljao o tom razgovoru i o migraciji obrazovanih kadrova, takozvanom „Odlivu mozgova“ koji je na našim prostorima izuzetno vidljiv. Podstaknut i inspirisan tim razgovorom došao sam do parole koja je poslužila za naziv kampanje. Dobio sam „Idem da se vratim!“ i to zapisao na štoku od vrata. Za potrebe izložbe sam ručno uradio tablu tj. ručno oslikao sliku (akril na platnu) na kome je pisalo Stefan Lukić ide u Pariz: „Idem da se vratim“ Bodrimo domaće i na kraju Živela umetnost! Događaj sam krenuo da najavljujem na najprometnijim mestima u Beogradu. Za tu priliku uradio sam i plakate koje sam lepio po Knez Mihailovoj ulici i delio letke. Komentari prolaznika su bili interesantni, gladali su zbunjeno kako to da nešto što se dešava u Užicu ima najavu u Beogradu, a osećala se i određena doza frustracije što su za nešto, što im je jasno vidljivo, očigledno i zanimljivo, uskraćeni, tj uskraćeni ukoliko nisu spremni da izdvoje vreme, trud, da sednu u kola, bus, voz i odu do Užica, a bilo je i takvih. Odlazak iz zemlje u Srbiji se posmatra kao životni cilj. Završavati fakultet da bi otišao “preko,” biti uspešan, pokazati se dobro, sve zarad odlaska iz zemlje u kojoj ste rođeni radi potencijalne svetlije budućnosti. Da li je negde daleko zaista bolje nego ovde? I da li je zaista ima problema topografske prirode? Da li uvek idemo da se vratimo? I ako ne, gde to zaista pripadamo? Besmislenost fraze “Idem da se vratim” ogleda se u čitavoj situaciji koja me je navela da dođem do ovakve ideje. Razočarenje profesorke koja odlazak smatra gubitkom, na šta je je usledio odgovor moj da ću se ipak vratiti. Imamo li gde da odemo, ako u nama samima nema ograničenja? JANUARY 5th // I’M GOING TO BE BACK // 2017 „I'm going to be back "was the name of the campaign that was the announcement of my first solo exhibition in which I raised money to study in Paris. Everything that happened about the exhibition took on such a momentum that it became a work for itself. It all started with a conversation with my then college painting female professor, to whom, when I said that I had been admitted to the Ecole de Beaux-art in Paris, she replied with a sour smile: "You are leaving, too!" And I replied to her: "But I will be back “. I have been thinking for a long time about this conversation and about the migration of educated people, the so-called "brain drain", which is extremely visible in our area. Encouraged and inspired by this conversation, I came up with a slogan that I used as the title of the campaign which was "I'm going to be back!" And I wrote it on the door frame. For the needs of the exhibition, I made the board manually, i.e. I painted a picture (acrylic on a canvas) on which it was written: Stefan Lukić is going to Paris: "I'm going to be back" . Let's encourage the locals and in the end Long live art! I started announcing the event in the busiest places in Belgrade. For that occasion, I also made posters that I placed in Knez Mihailova Street and I distributed leaflets. The comments of passers-by were interesting and they were confused because why something that was happening in Uzice had an announcement in Belgrade. Also, there was a certain dose of frustration felt as they were denied something, which is clearly visible, obvious and interesting to them, i.e. they are denied if they are not ready to set aside their time, effort, to get in a car, bus, train and go to Uzice, but there were some people like that. In Serbia, leaving the country is seen as a life goal. Graduating from college in order to leave the home country, to be successful, to show off, all for the sake of leaving the country where you were born for a potential brighter future. Is it really much better somewhere far away than in here? And is there really a problem of a topographic nature? Are we always going in order to be back? And if not, where do we really belong? The meaninglessness of the phrase "I'm going to be back" is reflected in the whole situation that inspired me to come up with such an idea. The disappointment of my college professor who considers the departure a loss, and my reply that followed that I would be back anyway. Do we have a place where to go, if we ourselves do not have restrictions in our minds?

Daleko, koliko me noge nose!
09 // Daleko, koliko me noge nose! // 2020 / 21 Daleko koliko me noge nose je moj najambiciozniji projekat do sada, on je sklop svih mojih dosadašnjih praksi. To je rad u nastajanju, konstantno preuzima nove oblike i značenja i utiče na moje trenutno umetničko stvaralaštvo. On je svojevrsna verzija Dišanovog velikog ogledala. Ideja se rodila za vreme karantina, gubitak slobode, potreba za sigurnošću, preispitivanja i strah bili su prisutni svakodnevno. Imao sam potrebu da na neki način izađem iz toga, da preispitam svoj put, tempo i ciljeve, i u svemu tome javila se želja da kažem nešto svoje, da ostavim trag. Rad počinje dva dana pre prve trke, kada sam počeo sa lepljenjem velikih parola po centralnim gradskim ulicama. Parole su bile citati bitnih ili manje bitnih ljudi iz umetničkog sveta, povodom mog rada. Citati su počinjali vokativom, tako bi naglasili njihovo obraćanje meni. Kako su oni svojim mišljenjem oblikovali rad, tako sam i ja njihovo mišljenje utkao u duh beogradskih ulica. Rasporedio sam performanse po dinamici razvoja kondicije,od lakših ka zahtevnijim, od bližih ka daljim. Na kraju svake trke pravio sam simbolične okrete, izbegavao prag groblja i uz povećanje brzine i promenu dinamike vraćao se nazad u Dobrinjsku. Performans nazivam crtež-događaj, linije crteža su zapravo putanja u oba pravca iscrtana GPS uređajem i sačuvana u digitalnom obliku. Na kraju sam dobio crtež prečnika 32km. Na svakoj ruti, koja bi veče pred performansa bila otkrivena, prijatelji, porodica, članovi ekipe su mi postavljali okidače sećanja. To su bili predmeti poput mojih prvih cipela, porodičnih slika, nekada bi to bio miris, ukus, zvuk ili draga osoba. Oni su imali funkciju okidača sećanja, preispitivanja cilja i svrhu kretanja ka istom. Kao što je napomenuto na početku da je rad i dalje u nastajanju, tako je i dokumentacija o istom i dalje u procesu stvaranja. Jedan deo te dokumentacije je postao je centralna figura sledećeg, rada kome je Beograd bio premali pa se proširio na Novi Sad, tačnije Trg slobode. Aplikacija za Mangelos nagradu jedna je od stanica na nekoj od budućih ruta koja tek treba da ostavi trag u mojoj umetničkoj, a i privatnoj trci. 09 // As far away as my feet will carry me // 2020 / 21 As far away as my feet will carry me is my most ambitious work yet, it is a blend of all my previous practices. It is a work in progress and it constantly takes up new shapes and meanings and influences all my current artistic ventures. It is, in a way a prefiguration of Duchamp’s mirror. The idea was born during quarantine, the loss of freedom, the need for security, questioning everything and fear were present all around us. I needed to get away from that in some way, to question my path, my tempo, my goals, and in all that a desire to say something emerged, a desire to leave a mark. The artwork starts two days before the race, I started sticking slogans on the streets of the city center. The slogans were quotes from important and less important people from the art world who commented on my work. The quotes began with a vocative so that they would emphasize they were talking directly to me. In a way, their opinions shaped the artwork, so in return, I incorporated their opinions in the spirit of Belgrade streets. I arranged the performances by the level of physical difficulty, from easier to more difficult ones, from closer to further. At the end of each race, I would make a symbolic turn, I would turn to avoid the threshold of a graveyard and with greater speed and a new dynamic, I would return right back home to Dobrinjska street. I call the performance a drawing happening, the lines of the drawing are the path I took, in both ways, drawn with a GPS device, and saved in digital form. In the end, I had a drawing that was 32km long. On each route, that would be revealed the night before the performance, friends, family, members of the crew would leave triggers for memories on my way. Those were items, like my first shoes, family portraits, sometimes it would be a smell, or a taste, a sound, or even a familiar person. They all had a role of helping me question my goals, and my purpose moving towards them. As I mentioned in the beginning, the work is still in progress, so the documentation about it is still being created. One part of the documentation became the central figure of my next work, which Belgrade was too small for, so we had to move on to Novi Sad, Trg slobode to be exact My application for the Mangelos award is one stop on a future route, which has yet to leave a mark in my artistic, and private race.

Veličina (ni)je bitna!
10 // VELIČINA (NI)JE BITNA! // 27.2.2021. Poslednji crtež-događaj koji se dogodio 27.02.2021. godine, na Trgu slobode u Novom Sadu. Crtež je deo rada „Veličina (ni)je bitna“, iz serije: „Daleko, koliko me noge nose“. Vladimir Tabašević piše pesmu kao kritiku performansa Daleko koliko me noge nose. Nakon čega preuzimam njegovo delo i odlučujem da ga premestim u novi kontekst. Kada se spoje, papiri formiraju celinu koja pokriva površinu od preko petsto metara kvadratnih, čineći je nečitljivom. Sa romantičarskog, idealizovanog pristupa umetnosti, gde sam zarobljen dva meseca u ateljeu, potpuno posvećen stvaranju u samoći, polako prelazimo u sledeću fazu dela, koja je povezivanje sa što većim brojem ljudi koji će, ne samo pomoći u postavci dela, već i zabeležiti i svedočiti o jednom radu u nastanku. Na dan performansa, ispred Sava centra u sedam ujutru u isti minibus ulaze umetnici, istoričari umetnosti, studenti sa Fakulteta sporta i fizičkog vaspitanja, fotografi i prijatelji. Svi učesnici bili su obučeni potpuno uniformno u bela odela koja uglavnom asociraju na katastofu i nepogode, a posebno u vreme globalne pandemije. Jedini sam nosio plavo, a generalna praksa u mojim radovima je da pripisivanjem posebne boje svakom performansu, tako da je plava bila boja ovog. Odmah nakon završetka javljam ljudima u belom, da je vreme da te iste papire skidaju. Nakon skupljanja tih natopljenih papira u crne kofe, krećemo nazad za Beograd. Papiri su prvo u kofama ostavljeni da se suše, i publika je pozvana da vidi i taj deo procesa nastajanja umetničkog rada. Nakon par dana radovi su rašireni u prostoru galerije sa plavim osvetljenjem, koje asocira na boju samog performansa, radi dodatne efektnosti, a u pozadini je na zvučnicima puštena čitana verzija pesme usporena do te mere da je nerazumljiva, što je doprinelo samoj atmosferi unutar Kvake 22. 10 // SIZE DOES (NOT) MATTER! // 27.2.2021. The last drawing-happening took place on the 27 of February 2021. at the Trg slobode square in Novi Sad. The drawing is part of the work “Size Does (Not) Matter” , which is part of a larger body of work “As far away as my feet will carry me” Vladimir Tabašević wrote a song in which he critiques the performance As far away as my feet will carry me. After which I take his work and decide to place it in a new context. When connected papers form a whole which covers a surface of five hundred meters squared, making the poem unreadable. From a romanticist idealist way of approaching art , where I was in my studio for two months, completely devoted to creating in isolation, we slowly move into the next phase of the work, which is connecting with a large group of people which will not only help with the setup of the artwork, but also document and witness a work in the making. On the day of the performance, in front of Sava centar, at seven am a group of artists, art historians, students from the faculty of sports, photographers and friends all go into the same minibus. All participants were dressed completely uninformed in white hazmat suits, which usually carry the association of a catastrophe, especially in a time of a global pandemic Only I wore blue, specific colors are a regular recurrence in my work, i give every performance a specific color, and blue was the color of this one. Right after the ending of the performance I tell the people in white that they need to start removing tha papers. After collecting the papers into black buckets, we make our way to Belgrade again. The papers were at first left in the black buckets to dry, and the audience was invited to see that part of the process of “making an artwork”. After a few days the works were spread around the gallery space with blue lights behind them, the color associated with the performance itself, and in the background you could hear the sounds coming from the speakers of a very slowed down version of the poem read outloud, slowed down to the point that you could not even hear the words, which contributed to the whole atmosphere in the space inside of Catch 22.