In his work, Vladimir Miladinović is browsing the archives of our common and recent history. On this occasion, from the archives he pulled out a comic book that played a crucial role in propaganda which influenced opinions on war in Croatia among younger audience in Serbia at the times it was published.
Knindže – Knights of Serbian Krajina is a work in which Miladinović uses a pen and wash technique to copy the comic book of the same title that was published in the autumn of 1991 by Politika. Like a ghost from the past the comic book appears in 18 drawings and points to an unresolved trauma that belongs to a generation brought up in the nineties. Images, although drawn from history, refer to the experiences and anxieties present today.
Coping the work, the author establishes a distance from the original that allows us a critical view. Looking at it from time and technique distance space for reading is being opened. Here the author is confronting political and personal, questioning the role of powerful propaganda apparatus of the mass media and individuals in the creation of collective memories. The comic book which was a mean of propaganda now becomes a mean of questioning the system and the polices that produced it in the first place. Thus, a drawing becomes a powerful media with strong social and political meaning, making this traditional art technique contemporary and relevant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vladimir Miladinovic was born in 1981 in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts, and is currently at doctoral studies at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, Department of Theory of Art and Media at the University of Arts in Belgrade. He was awarded at the 53rd October Salon, operates within the Working Group Four Faces of Omarska, he is a member and one of the founders of the Initiative for Contemporary Art and Theory. Along with the art work he also conducts scientific researches.
Curator: Tonci Kranjčević Batalić
Curator of the cycle NMG @ PRAKTIKA: Natasha Kadin
http://dispet.org/2014/04/vladimir-miladinovic-i-vitezovi-srpske-krajine-u-galeriji-praktika/
http://stav.cenzura.hr/prizivanje-traumaticne-proslosti-ljudima-se-ne-dopada/
http://kontrapress.com/clanak.php?rub=ARTivizam&url=Knindze-u-splitskom-Domu-mladih