Bojan ŠarčevićA Curious Contortion in the Method of Progress – L’ellipse d’ellipse

It is the open form that fundamentally concerns Bojan Šarčević, born in Belgrade in 1974 and living today in Berlin and Paris; or, to let him speak for himself: “My exhibitions are not the expression of a position, but a reflection on the origins of any position.” And so this book on the two exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, and the Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, shows a sculptural practice that meanders between monumental sculpture, filigree wall works and multi-layered films. With Bojan Šarčević, viewers never know what will come next. The only certainty is that these are aesthetic questions which, in an almost simple Brechtian manner, bring home to us how the boundary between art and life is to be crossed. In contrast to this, however, there is also a modernist streak in Bojan Šarčević’s work when he develops a recalcitrant form which at the same time appears as sculpture and thus, fundamentally, as the stark opposite of a boundary crossed between life and art. This practice draws on many historical models, be they the Moscow Constructivists or the architects Hans Poelzig, Erich Mendelsohn and Hans Scharoun. It nevertheless leaves all formalism behind. For “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 divests itself of every form of art.” The catalogue now available is admittedly something of a small sensation, for the artist has for the very first time permitted (and has actively participated in the process) a large number of his highly diverse works since 1999, but predominantly from the past five years, to be reproduced, described and interpreted retrospectively. At last, then, the book is available that an interested art world has long been waiting for.

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