Bojan Šarčević: A Curious Contortion in the Method of Progress – L’ellipse d’ellipse

She He

It is the open form that Bojan Šarčević, who was born in Belgrade in 1974 and now lives in Berlin and Paris, is fundamentally concerned with; or, to let him speak for himself: "My exhibitions are not an expression of a position, but a reflection of the origins of any position." And so this book on the two exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, and the Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbann/Rhône-Alpes, presents a sculptural work that meanders between monumental sculpture, filigree wall pieces and multi-layered films. With Bojan Šarčević, the viewer never knows what will come next. The only thing that is certain is that these are aesthetic questions that, in an almost simple Brechtian manner, push us to find out how to cross the border from art to life. In contrast to this, however, there is also a modernist vein in Bojan Šarčević's work, when he develops a resistant form that also appears as a sculpture and therefore basically as the blatant opposite of a boundary crossed between life and art. This practice draws on many historical role models, be it the Moscow Constructivists or the architects Hans Poelzig, Erich Mendelsohn and Hans Scharoun. However, it leaves all formalism behind. Because "the fact that art wants to transform itself into a form of life", as Michel Gauthier writes in his contribution to the catalogue, "does not mean that life gets rid of any form of art." Of course, this catalogue is also a small sensation, because for the first time ever, the artist has allowed (and actively participated in) a large number of his very different works since 1999, but mainly from the last five years, to be retrospectively illustrated, described and interpreted. The book that the art world has long been waiting for is now finally available.

Exhibitions:
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, 10/2 - 6/5/2012
Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbann/Rhône-Alpes, 21/9 - 18/11/2012