Photo collages 2015
While starting to work on the concept for Partenza, the history of painting as well as the whole art history that I studied became very important to me. With this project I wanted to change my approach to art making and to deliver the narrative as a painter would do – exclusively through visual compositions, without dialogues or a narrator.
Prior to Partenza, I made a series of collages titled Don’t Turn Your Back On Me. This eventually also became the title of this book, enclosing the subjects that preoccupy me – collaging of the past and the present moment and intertwining history of art (in digital media) with contemporary artistic approach.
The correlation between the past and the present, our treatment of history and the facts commonly accepted as truthful, as well as rewriting of historical narratives (sometimes used by state apparatuses to exercise their power over people, their memory and value systems), are all recurrent motifs in my practice that combines documentary and fiction elements. On these issues I based many of my previous works, such as Ruta and The Monument (2009) and afterwards Staging Actors/Staging Beliefs (2011).
* The photographs taken in the studio, during casting for Partenza. Photo: Tamara Dugandžija&Davor Konjikušić