The spirit of punk is political and rebellious, and so are his works.
"In the world of spectacle, everything already exists, everything is available. I'm looking for my own way, trying to express the energy of rebellion, but also to make my work artistically valuable", says the academic fine artist in an interview with Vijesti. Aleksandar Leka Mladenović.
If (or not) it is really so, the Montenegrin audience recently had the opportunity to see for themselves for the first time. Although present and unique on the art scene of the region for decades, Mladenović premiered in Podgorica during October and November, with the exhibition "Overground Post-pop", organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, in the MSUCG Gallery. Mladenović's exhibition acts as a sort of prelude to the presentation of Lajbach, whose exhibit is currently open in the MSUCG Gallery.
Mladenović states for Vijesti that "there will always be people who do not accept the imposed rules"...
Aleksandar Leka Mladenović was born in 1967 in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1991, and received his master's degree in 1994 in the class of professors. Emir Dragulja. His creative path was marked by an early interest in punk...
"That rebellious spirit of the aesthetics of the youth movement of the 1970s and 1980s left its mark on his artistic expression, which is especially felt in his critical artistic approach to social norms and institutions. While in 2014, he finished his doctoral thesis under the mentorship of a professor Žarko Smiljanić, focusing on hybrid graphic techniques and contemporary artistic practices, Mladenović continued to nurture a punk approach by questioning the boundaries between the traditional and the experimental, thereby opening new horizons in graphics," his biography states.
Mladenović talks to Vijesti about his creativity, punk, aesthetics, fine art and its purpose, as well as his position and relationship with the audience, as well as everyday challenges and events.
Your work is said to be deeply rooted in a critical punk attitude towards social structures and authorities. What is it that characterizes your punk approach (in) fine art and is that punk culture really your starting point?
The essential connection with punk is in the context, the idea. Punk was born as a rebellion against the repression of the ruling system and resistance to social inequalities, which, in the form of criticism, sometimes obvious, and sometimes metaphorical, also runs through my work. The rebellion is reflected in the interest in the common man and opposition to all forms of repression. Yes, creatively and politically I came from punk, it's important to know where you come from, it's definitely in my artistic DNA.
Is punk alive or dead in the time we live in, and what does it represent today, in the context of culture, movement, lifestyle, and especially considering the state of general kitsch and (turbo)folk that rule the society of the region?
Punk as a musical direction and subcultural style is long dead, it was current in the middle and during the second half of the 1970s as a phenomenon of youth culture. It is precisely the term "young" that indicates that this tenacious, youthful, rebellious spirit has survived to this day. He operates from the underground and the social strata that are socially threatened, which in the punk era were students, artists, working people, and today also the middle class, which is in the terminal phase of extinction. Paradoxically, punk used kitsch and bad taste as a tool of shock, social criticism in the era of strengthening conservatism and on the eve of the emergence of neoliberal capitalism. Today, on the contrary, the punk attitude is reflected in the opposite of the ubiquitous kitsch, vulgarity, populism in all spheres and levels of society, from the teacher who plays folk songs to children in kindergartens to the self-proclaimed elite in the region.
What is the relationship between punk and politics, the so-called. political elites, power structures, both local and global, and how important is it in society to have a voice like the one that comes from punk culture, which will be a counterthesis and in its own way contribute to the questioning of social norms?
The spirit of punk is political and rebellious. Power structures, the so-called the political elite, vain and narcissistic as it is, reacts to every criticism. I am a supporter of creative, subversive social interventions, for example those carried out by the British K 2 Foundation or the Bristol graffiti artists, who are mostly former punks who adapt the methods of resistance to the circumstances. They use artistic expression, installation, performance to make the action visible. K 2 Foundation (Bill Drummod i Jimmy Cauty) performed, for example, a performance - they set fire to the million pounds they collected by selling pieces of artwork for a pound along with a floating boat as a sign of protest against neoliberal capitalism. The system, of course, punished them draconian financially. We also have creative people who raise their voices against restraining social norms, it doesn't matter if they came from punk, but their methods are reminiscent of punk. They are a social corrective in their questioning. On the Belgrade art scene, I would single out Pianist i Dragan Papić which appears somewhat less in public today.
You mentioned some, but do we have recognizable and authentic underground or overground models in society today?
In England a few years ago, I witnessed the contemporary underground scene of larpurartism, which we learned from art history is a pejorative term. However, these artists, painters, poets, in a punk style and somewhat nihilistically propagate it in order to get paid to do what they do, which is art. That idea is magnificent to me, almost heroic. One of the slogans is "Conform Not!"... A good example of the vital underground in the region are the young independent art collectives of the region, whose influence and interconnections remain below the radar of the mainstream. There will always be people who do not agree with the imposed rules.
The best example of an "overground" model, someone who originated from the subculture and rose to the visible spheres of good mainstream vision is Jon Gnarr, a former punk who was appointed mayor of Reykjavík in 2011 and who brought former punks, poets and pop stars into the city administration with the idea of transforming politics into something good for all citizens. The only ad that his party, called "The Best Party", published in the press is "The Best Party wants to meet good people from 18 to 90 years old".
Your works are said to oscillate between the aesthetics of rebellion and subtle philosophical criticism, and the overground is contextualized as a rise from the underground punk subculture to a higher sphere of art, and even a higher perception of society and culture... How intertwined are all these concepts and directions? How synchronized or contradictory are phenomena and terms such as: aesthetics, philosophy, criticism, punk, pop?
My artistic expression is a combination of those two opposing attitudes, rebellion and subtle criticism, it is close to me from the history of culture, the period of Dada and the avant-garde, simultaneously anti-artistic and extremely aestheticized phenomena. If you are exhibiting in a contemporary art museum or gallery, you are hardly still underground, your art would be on street walls or historically in the Dada era - in the obscure Cabaret Voltaire. On the other hand, visibility is an opportunity to subversively express an attitude that is opposed to the corporate, bourgeois nature of art. An example of this paradox is a book grayson perry, laureate of the Turner prize "Game for the gallery" in which he exposes the world of contemporary art, the Swedish film "Square" crowned with the Palme d'Or in 2017, which satirically points to social and cultural hypocrisy or Vivienne Westwood who receives the Order of the British Empire, but that does not change her social engagement. Westwood is with McLaren and coined the term "overground" to define their post-punk artistic credo. Just as the world is based on conflicting phenomena from the extreme ends of the spectrum, art is also dialectical and carries within itself the contradiction you mention, it reflects the tension between idea and form. Art almost always possesses aesthetics and expression, so many engaged works are "packaged" in an art form, graphic pamphlets Barbarian Kruger or the anti-war and feminist art works of Nancy Spero. In art and culture, oxymorons are in circulation: "the aesthetics of the ugly", "philosophy of the palanquin" (Konstatinović) and others. The notion of punk is by nature extremely incompatible with academicism, and for this reason hybrid theoretical discourses such as cultural studies, which are not science, but unite several disciplines, correspond to it. Punk is interesting because of its contradiction, similar to situationism, because it combines the incompatible because it connects the worlds of "low" and "high" culture.
How would you describe the relationship between the aesthetics of rebellion, which you use in your work, and modern fine art, and whether art can be both aesthetically appealing and socially subversive, or controversial and commercial?
Art today does not accurately reflect the zeitgeist that cannot be captured, the image is similar to a broken mirror. Places where it is displayed, fairs and exhibitions have become fairgrounds similar to the amusement park described in Pinocchio. In the world of spectacle, everything already exists, everything is available. I am looking for my own way, trying to express the energy of rebellion, but also to make my work artistically valuable. According to this understanding, I am close to a circle of contemporary artists, especially British artists who are aesthetically interesting and very engaged, the aforementioned K-2, Jamie Reid, Jimmy Cauty, Billy Childish. They all perfectly handle the values of classical art, but with a current goal.
In order to be perceived, art must be visible (overground), otherwise it remains at the level of a cult, an enclave. Even that, cult status is not bad at all costs, integrity is preserved, but the range is relatively small. Banksyeva graffiti-engaged art sends a far-reaching message, but instantly upon its creation it becomes a valuable commodity on the art market. The paradox of the combination of subversion and commercial. His works are both aesthetically appealing and subversive.
For the first time during your long career, you presented yourself in Podgorica... What impressions do you have and whether and in what way that setting is important to you?
The impressions I have are exceptional, from the organization of the exhibition, the response of the audience to the media coverage. The installation meant for me to look at a cross-section of work in painting and hybrid works during the last two decades, because I usually exhibit only one series of works at each exhibition. The exhibition connects several main series created during the last decade and a half, two. The exhibition, which is a cross-section of a period, including the latest works, leaves a good impression on me, and the added value is the possibility of seeing which way I could move further. Also, it was important for me to see my work in an environment different from the one in which I live and create and to try to see it with neutral eyes, and I am satisfied with that. No less important were the reactions of the audience, especially the younger ones, because it is proof that my work is current.
The exhibition is called "Overground Post-pop" and starts various allusions. It seems to me that these artistic and cultural currents represent and question society and the system in different and different ways, but how does it come about and what do you strive for when creating
The name is a tribute to punk pioneers Westwood and McLaren who coined "overground" to describe their punk-derived art. There are differences and similarities between punk and pop art as cultural phenomena. Both concern the capitalist order, punk is chaotic and nihilistic and he attacks it, the other, completed as an artistic discourse, comments on it and uses the language of the mass media. Both draw historically on Dada and the avant-garde. I use the visual language of pop art in my work, like when someone expresses himself verbally in English or Mandarin, it's formal. The hybrid form of painting and graphics gives me the freedom to quickly realize an idea that always touches social relations and different projections of human nature, the question of identity, the great themes of art.
You deal with numerous, globally current topics and problems... When creating a work, how much are you influenced by current events in society, culture, media, daily politics, economic events, global insecurity, conspiracy theories, and the like? What questions do you process yourself when creating, and are there any messages that you want to convey through your work?
As an artist, I am sensitive to various phenomena and try to understand them as phenomena, not at the level of daily politics. I especially process questions and symbols of power, human nature, the moral boundaries that man sets for himself and the conditions under which he betrays them and crosses over to the other side, the eternal question of good and evil. I don't think we need to follow current events to find out the truth because they will always hide it from us. The artist channels a lot on a personal level and projects it through his works. I try to use my works to inspire answers to the questions I pose to the audience, because art should neither be a daily political commentary, nor entertainment, nor a closed system, and the work should be open and the viewer should learn its own meaning.
Are you currently working on something and can we expect more of your presentations in Montenegro after this first one?
I just finished a large painting that I think is the best I've ever done! Also, I'm making an agreement with a fellow sculptor to maybe make a joint project, and it's a new, interesting experience for me. I would like to present myself to the audience in Montenegro again, if and when it fits.
Would you like to add something?
Turn off the TV, computer, stop reading the news, ignore politics, erase borders, invite a neighbor for coffee, hug a loved one, go out into nature, dance, read a book, see an exhibition, draw a picture, sing a song.
Quality names are lost in the roulette of dealers and gallerists
How do you perceive the art scene of Serbia, and the region, and then Montenegro (if you follow it)? Do you have any expectations or aspirations when it comes to your own act of creation, and on the other hand, the reaction to the work?
I follow the scene of the region sporadically on social networks. A lot of it is exciting, and we artists from this area are gifted, we draw it from the depths of Slovenian pathos, there is weight and humor in all of it, we swim well in it. The art scene is maintained by inertia, based on the inner need of the artist to express himself, exhibit his works, make a performance, without support or with minimal support from institutions. Dealers and gallerists spin a number of names that rotate, so a number of quality artists are lost in that roulette.
The act of creation is a process that ends with a visible result. My way and the path I see is to dive deep into myself and bring to the surface everything I carry. I always hope that I will innovate through new work, so I emotionally distance myself from the previous one, let it live its own life. It is equally important to me that the idea is meaningful and that the work has an artistic character. The question of backlash is interesting, vanity is flattering, and criticism hurts, and it is short-lived and irrelevant. Of course, it gives you additional meaning to your work if someone responds with emotion to your work, but the bottom line is that the viewer himself loads the meaning into the work.
Art saves the world on a daily basis
What is the position and influence of art today, and does the artist/art have its own task and goal? If yes, which one?
I am close to the humanist understanding of art that it, not that it will save the world, but that it saves it on a daily basis as a counterweight to negative phenomena. In addition to the autotherapeutic effect on us creators, art, with its beauty, harmony, well-engaged idea, helps people overcome everyday life and immerse themselves for a short time in a more beautiful and better world or a world that will move them. Partly escapism, some will say. Yes, it is.
Only, doing art today, in a corrupt world ruled by the law of profit and greed, is already an act of engagement. Social relations are reflected in contemporary art, so the task of the artist is to respond to that challenge with the language of art, not pamphleteering. Like Goya once, who went to the scene where the rebels were being shot and ran to the studio to immortalize the scene and thus show engagement, recognizable even to this day.
You have to fight for creative freedom and not take it easy
Are the artist and art free in the society in which you create and in which the audience becomes a consumer of some content, and what role does the audience play in the complete process related to art?
The general question of freedom is globally questionable for all people today, not only for artists. This is dangerous in the long term when it comes to art, because there is self-censorship in the media, and false morality is propagated to the public in the spirit of political correctness. All this affects the creative process and then art becomes something gray, impersonal, without juice. As far as creative freedom is concerned, you have to fight for it, not to indulge the audience and critics, the prevailing taste and trend and thus preserve integrity, and if someone likes what you do or sees the meaning in it, all the better. As official art is incorporated into the neoliberal system of the so-called free market, neither the artists nor the audience are free, but become chameleons. Artists opportunely adapt to the key words of the trend, and the audience does not have its own, but accepts other people's opinion as its own, it is similar with criticism.
Bonus video:
