Accepting the existence of limits, and thus the curious exploration and questioning of the limits of those same limitations, man adapts to the existing state of affairs or, on the other hand, overcomes barriers and continues his questioning further in the need for change.
Thus, from the "Borders" exhibition, the Montenegrin painter Jelena Papović came to her new exhibition - "Transformation", which will be opened today at 21 pm in Budva, in the Modern Gallery "Jovo Ivanović" in the Old Town, where it is available until July 30.
"The artist will open the exhibition in an unusual and unique way. Please note that during this event, the Budva Museums and Galleries will comply with all NKT measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus," say the organizers.
Author Papović tells "Vijesti" about the inspiration that prompted her to create a new series of works.
"In my works, from the exhibition 'Borders', through the exhibition 'Reason and Sensibility', to 'Transformation', I shaped everything we go through, as well as the present moment in which we live... All this led to the conclusion that we must accept changes and live accordingly. My main theme is the body in motion, but I'm always kind of flirting and throwing mythology into it all. If we take into account that the Greek gods had this power of transformation, especially Zeus as the supreme god, we notice that mythology and transformation are connected, since ancient times, through the legends and myths of our peoples...", Papović points out and states: "Everything that what happened in the past resonates with us in the present, and our present will resonate in the future. I believe that all this is connected in the present moment and the need for changes both within us and around us".
On the occasion of the exhibition, she recalled her performance "Borders" from 2012 at the "Grad Teatar" festival.
"I'm an easel painter, but I take the act of opening seriously and sometimes I slip into a performance. At that exhibition, only the triptych in the apse was illuminated, I stretched a rope in the middle of the church so that people in the dark could not approach the paintings. I wanted to remind them how much they are used to accepting a limit that someone justifiably or unjustifiably sets for them", she says, emphasizing that in this way she wanted to encourage people to question the limits around them, but also within themselves.
She also pointed out that as a mother she witnessed the examination of boundaries as only children can, and their manipulations, and she says that it is a shame that people often forget about that child in them.
"But it is characteristic of a painter, an artist - to be childish, to ask awkward questions, to challenge, to be an eternal rebel. It's a shame that most people forget that child in them. Forget asking questions to yourself and others. Forget that change is good. That change is not evil. Yes, when a sweet child gets pimples, it's a painful transformation, but it leads to growth, to the knowledge of new things", says the artist and states that it was the opening of new life chapters, questions, obstacles, learning about new boundaries that was the motive of the present installation - "Transformation". .
“Why are people afraid of change? Why are they afraid of being different? Our brain, skin, blood, DNA, bones, lungs. Every part of our body is completely renewed. Old cells are replaced by brand new cells. And in a few years, every cell in our body is a brand new cell. Which means that we are also completely new at the cellular level. There is nothing left in us of what we were before. We have transformed. Whether we become a butterfly or something long depends on ourselves. It depends on how we treat our body. It depends on what we feed the body with. But also from what we feed the mind with. That's why the people in my pictures get wings, octopus arms, bulls' heads, ravens howl... Don't we learn all our life, if we learn, we improve ourselves. How then do we accept to live in a world of constants, in a world of brutal limits, in a world of nonsense, in a world of trampled natural law?" asks Jelena Papović and concludes: "Natural law is universal and above all".
One hundred works in three halls
With the exhibition "Probražaj" the artist also marks a small anniversary - 20 years since her first exhibition in the Modern Gallery. So, for this occasion, she prepared 100 works which she arranged in three exhibition halls, and the works created during 2019-2020, but also 2014-2015 will be shown, mostly in the technique of acrylic on canvas, but also in combined techniques...
Jelena Papović was born in Cetinje on January 28, 1975. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje in 1997 in the class of professor Nikola Gvozdenović Gvozd. She attended postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade under Professor Gradimir Petrović. Since 1998, he has been creating and living in a studio in Budva's Old Town. She also worked as a scenographer for several amateur theatrical performances and as a journalist, and she organized several exhibitions of young artists in open and closed spaces.
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