Stela Mikulin / Archive of the Absent

Solo exhibition

Presentation of the thesis.

FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION

The paper is divided into two segments, an object-book and a video work, and both deal with the same issue: the analysis and analysis of the thought elements of personal spaces.

The object-book is composed of photo collages constructed from photographs that document the spaces of the house, yard and garden during growing up and staying in them. Paper constructions are directly built on the scenes from the photographs, symbolizing the absent elements of space. Paper elements are associated with the fragility of preserving precious thought elements that fade over time and are broken down into a set of subsequently assembled moments and memories. These blank papers thus occupy the physical space on the present elements from the photographs. The photo collages printed on the cards together create the whole of the object-book that clearly shows the spaces in which all important and absent moments are stored using the mnemonics method.

The video work is especially dedicated to one space, the dining room, which, due to its function that connects all family members, imposes itself as the center of the house. The dining room, with all the associated past and present elements, becomes a synonym for a common space intended for family gatherings.

With the principle of re-recording past moments, I try to recover memories and see them as a set of information. I apply this to the analysis of the dining room, which I analyze and describe on several levels of its existence in order to personally get to know all the layers of that room.

Mentor: Assoc. Prof. Gordana Bakić Vlahov

Co-mentor: umj. sur. Hrvoslava Brkušić