Viktorija Križanović / Field Recordings
Solo exhibition
In the period from 13.12.2018 to 05.01.2019, the first solo exhibition of the young Osijek artist Viktorija Križanović will be presented at the Šira Gallery.
The winner of the Rector's Award of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek and the Dean's Award of the Academy of Arts in Osijek will present a series of graphic sheets, photographs and an audio recording of a vocal performance according to graphic notation, which were preceded by a site-specific action.
This action, which resulted in the graphic edition Field recordings, involved the performance of graphic techniques in situ on a plain that remains inscribed in two-dimensional matter by means of physicochemical processes.
For the concept of the work and artistic expression, Viktorija Križanović draws inspiration from the element of the immediate environment – the Slavonian plain – which surrounds her and to which she gives a voice by reflection, while placing herself in the position of a subject who transmits that voice through the artistic medium.
According to the artist: "I start a conversation of a continuous event between living (nature) and inanimate (graphic plates) things, which resulted in imprints that are sounded – through the human voice."
FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION
It all started out of the need for an unprocessed, analogue recording of what surrounds me geographically, visually, psychologically and audibly. I choose the motif of the field because it dominates my environment, in all the ways mentioned above. I was looking for ways to give this element of living nature the right to express itself and the right to voice, to make it sound. To position myself as a subject who transmits the voice through the artistic medium. I wonder if it is a straight line of static? Or does it hide a multitude of possibilities and life?
The graphic notation and vocal performance were preceded by an almost site-specific action of alternatively inscribing the space of the plain in the surface of the graphic board. As a product of the first phase – action, in January 2017, the graphic edition "Field recordings" was created. The way of performance allowed the action of place and time, in three ways. In collaboration with musician Ksenija Pešić, an analysis of the inscribed visual elements followed as a mark for realization in sound. We agreed that the musical composition would be minimalist, repetitive and without text. Then I returned to graphic matrices, in order to create a graphic notation based on the written sound and visual record of the field, which will exist as a transitional medium and will ultimately be performed.
This is when a graphic notation is created – the imprint "Score for Three voices". It is this imprint that carries the system that connects the sound with the raw state of the field. I reach for the matrices from the beginning of the process and cut them into formats that resemble the traditional score and subconsciously encourage the viewer to read the visual content from left to right. When the format is extremely rectangular, the content within it acquires a temporal dimension – the duration is emphasized. The imprint contains 24 matrices, each matrix is valid for 2 bars – the musical composition has a total of 48 bars. The lines represent the three voices, and the distances between them represent the intervals between the tones. With the help of transparent notation, the tones can be identified. A unique pattern is created that also marks the sound of the three vowels and the earth.
The whole concept of the work is subordinated to lending the voice to the one who does not have a voice – I ask myself what kind of voice does the field want to have? Universal, invisibly understandable and monumental? Encouraged by the previous reflections, I throw out the components of human specificity – language and text. The story is thus able to avoid cultural barriers, while talking about a specific place. The audio track "Composition for Three voices" reproduces a vocal performance of graphic notation in which the following people participated: Jasmina Krha – alto, Ksenija Pešić – mezzo-soprano and Viktorija Križanović – soprano.
By inscribing a three-dimensional place in the graphic plate, the space of the negative is captured, which is translated into a two-dimensional system, then by interpreting the sign it transcends matter and becomes immaterial in sound. The graphic medium then becomes a means that enables the transfer of information from one level of understanding the world to another. The motif of the field contains a geographical, cultural and psychological component, and when it is sounded, it opens up very current questions about the relationship to the place and time in which we live. In addition, a work in progress will be exhibited, which is presented as an extension and continuation of previous interests, in which I confirm the expanded use of the medium of art graphics. Ecological preoccupations, the work deals with questioning the basic human right to clean air.
In the end, I leave open the discussion on the relationship between the work and the observer. When the visitor is confronted with sign and sound at the same time, several perceptual questions remain. Can a certain visual structure arouse sensitivity to the temporal and spatial orientations of sound? For properties that, if not interdisciplinary unaroused, would never exist for most.
Viktorija Križanović
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Viktorija Križanović was born in Slavonski Brod in 1991. She graduated in 2017 from the Academy of Arts in Osijek, Department of Fine Arts. She is the winner of the Rector's Award of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek in 2013 and the Dean's Award of the Academy of Arts in Osijek in 2015. In 2017, she studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Bratislava at the study of Free Graphic Expression. She lives and works in Osijek.
She has participated in the following recent group exhibitions: 2018: 11th HT Exhibition of the Award for Croatian Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; A4 – 0 edition, Kortil Gallery, Rijeka; Jarčevac, Nádor Galéria Art&Med Kulturális Központ, Pécs, Hungary, 2017: 3rd International Triennial of Printmaking, Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion, Belgrade, Serbia; International Biennial Sint-Niklaas, Stedelijke Musea, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium; A4 – 0 edition, Museum of Fine Arts in Split
The exhibition is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb.
The exhibition in the Šira Gallery can be viewed until January 5, 2019.
