The young artist Hajdana Kostić recently presented herself for the first time with an independent exhibition, symbolically united under the name "Reprogramming". Guided by personal experience and ideas of programming and reprogramming, overcoming life's obstacles, challenges and imposed rules, she decided to present her messages through works and thus (talk) about self-improvement, self-knowledge, wanting to break away from the imposed and entrenched norms of society, culture, and so on. and art.
Although she withdrew her works a few days before the exhibition was supposed to be officially closed, Kostić does not hide her enthusiasm and joy for her first independent artistic feat. Previously, she participated in several collective exhibitions, but she is also known as the organizer of several humanitarian ones.
For "Vijesti" he talks about the exhibition, the motives of the work, plans for the future, but also new, recognized motives in life and the desire for progress and victories.
The recently closed exhibition was symbolically named "Reprogramming". What does it symbolize and what did you want to tell the visitors?
In my life so far, everything was given to me, all the love, all the conditions, and I used them very badly, and sometimes to my own detriment. I lived in a bad way, had bad relationships, bad diet, bad habits, bad excuses because I believed that it was me, I do it, that's my nature and the end. Like most people, I needed to hit rock bottom in order to move up. After a difficult period of illness of about two years, I slowly and uncertainly began to change what was holding me back, and that is everything that did not make me progress, from people to my own behavior.
And with some really constant (and very often reluctant) repetition of some useful things, I started getting great results and over time my self-image improved significantly and I concluded that a person is capable of becoming literally whatever he wants. And as you first build a habit, and then it builds you, now from the inside, from my soul, the desire to be even better, to be successful in what I do, to live not like the majority of people, but as a minority, to be healthy, is growing. fit, rich by her measure, to deal with smart things, to find out as much as I can about science, art, philosophy, about the possibilities of the modern age in which we live, about the beauty of life, cosmic sciences and phenomenal things that exist around us and in us.
In the exhibition, I symbolically talk about the experience of my own reprogramming, and the current process of changing for the better, about the not quite harmonious harmony between my subconscious and conscious (that's the way it is for now, but that too will reconcile in time in my favor). At the end of the opening, I let the children, as the most sincere transmitters of cosmic beauty and honesty, distribute tiles on which motivational and wise quotes were written and on which I intervened artistically. Design and art, not just canvas.
Through drawings and works of art, you conveyed your thoughts, ideas and attitudes about human improvement, primarily self-improvement. How demanding is it to do something like that, to convey such messages through visual expression?
You have a bunch of wonderful ideas in your head, and when you stand in front of canvas, paper, stone, whatever, it's like trying to use your hands for the first time. I think that every artist encounters this phenomenon, but it is overcome by constant work. When you don't get out of the matter, you can only be better, faster, more dexterous, more skillful, to articulate ideas faster, because by constant work you constantly progress.
David Lynch said that if we just go on the surface we will come across small fish, and if we dive deeper we can catch really big fish. It means ideas. You need to have patience, you need to give something enough time to develop, you need to be persistent enough and if there is any idea of something better in your head, you should not give up until that something is implemented exactly as in your head.
My processes are, most often, quite unglamorous, but that's the way. It's a lot of trial and error, and knowing that I won't accept the work until it's the way I really want it is a guarantee of success.
In work and in life, the most difficult and necessary thing, in my opinion, is to be honest. Selfish ideas of oneself in the eyes of others only lead to insincerity for the sake of being liked. And who does that bring pleasure? To people we don't care about? Insincerity in art is a brake and all works created on that basis will be short-lived.
What are the potentials that lie in people, given that you say they need to be awakened?
Right now, I'm all about belief, what we as people believe about ourselves and the world, what is the image of us that we have in our head. That image we have is our comfort zone. We are familiar and good there. I am so and so, and that's it. The moment we want to be something more, to say something that is not normally ours, to wear something that we don't wear, to do something that we sometimes fantasize about and agree with it, but we never dared, we enter the zone of discomfort. Some people are hurt or frightened by this discomfort so much that they reduce their desires and then on their deathbed regret the missed experiences and opportunities, while others are forced to go through fear, behind which, miraculously, happiness smiles at them. Literally everything we believe we create. "If you think you can or can't do something, you're right." Our current life is a reflection of our belief that got us here.
In every historical age it has been the same as far as people are concerned, 90 percent or more of people are unconscious, driven by impulses, looking for instant gratification, while the remaining minority works on themselves, educates, learns, works on long-term hedonism, on greater goals from themselves and their egos, and they are all the bosses of this first crowd. And both of them were born as pure beings who, until a certain age, were inscribed with the programs devised by their environment, from their parents to passers-by, and to those parents and passers-by, their environment, their parents, and their passers-by. And so we all live other people's views, other people's truths, which we accepted as our own when we were little, and many of them are self-defeating beliefs.
In what way do you think this "reprogramming" is best achieved?
There are many ways to reprogram a person, but first of all there should be some dissatisfaction with the existing, some idea that he can do otherwise, the idea that he is programmed in a certain way and in some things. I have personally been helped by chrono nutrition, training, yoga energy therapy, meditation, the Marie Kondo method for cleaning the house, yoga, qigong, motivational books, online mentors that I watch... There is an unlimited amount of phenomenal knowledge, such as yoga nidra and the possibility that a person in his sleep , while delta waves, the waves of the subconscious, influence the subconscious by playing audio supporting beliefs like a year and directly implanting new beliefs into the subconscious. He can introduce a new habit right now and repeat it tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and every day after that, but without much thought. When the time comes - do it and that's it. Everyday, boring but miraculously effective perseverance lies at the foundation of all great successes and numerous successful people testify to this.
Now, you need to have patience, which I seriously need to work on.
What art techniques did you use, how were your works created?
Shower, acrylic, pencil, anything I can get my hands on. For a long time I was afraid of painting, because I believed that I would never be able to do it. Only because at the time when I was learning painting at the academy, I was not ready or able to receive that knowledge and I packed it into my subconscious and for literally five years I did not dare to put paint on paper, because of my fear. Now I don't have that fear. I am literally not afraid to destroy the work with various attempts and trials. All this gives it strength and beauty.
How much does art help in self-knowledge?
If a person is interested in self-knowledge, there is no field in which he cannot achieve it. There are so many stories of successful and happy people who understand life's lessons and experience the bliss of existence through their jobs and are engaged in a wide variety of jobs. From football to journalism... Creation, in my opinion, is the meaning of life. Life for the sake of giving and imparting life. And all those who have decided to be artists have a wonderful and often difficult task. An idea is like a seed, you need to water it, take care of it, think about it, improve it so that a work can grow from it. But I think the highlight is knowing yourself as a very serious professional who needs to create powerful works, and at the same time knowing that we are fleeting and short-lived and not taking yourself seriously. It is as if the climax is when the opposites within us merge into one.
You are young, and behind you are a large number of exhibitions, awards and events that you organized yourself. What inspires you to work and how open is our space and society to such things?
When I read, watch, and listen to what artists are doing abroad and how advanced they are in some things, I have the feeling that I am very late. Patience, patience...My weak point.
Well, at various times, I was motivated by various things. Sometimes an intuitive, unknown rush into something that I feel I have to implement, such as humanitarian exhibitions. Which turned out great. As for the exhibition, the co-author is Stefan Bulatović, and of course I have to mention about a hundred artists who selflessly donated their works.
It's kind of okay when a person gets an award or praise or something like that, but I can't triumph over it for long. It's not good for me to brag about some past achievements, because it's already a thing of the past after two days. I have the need to go further and to be constantly new and fresh. I am inspired by absolutely everything... An artist should play, while walking to observe and look for art in everything, to breathe art, it is in everything, in every smallest particle of nature. Everything can be an inspiration. I think that there is a place for every good idea, you just need to be persistent enough to realize it. If he can't do it in one place, he will be able to do it in another. If he can't do it in one way, he can do it in a hundred others.
The most beautiful and free business in the world - art
What is the attitude of our society towards art, in your opinion?
I think that most people in Montenegro honestly consider art to be a hobby. Creative energy may have been developed and encouraged in our childhood, but it has to be practiced a lot, to be worked on, to deepen ideas, to strive to produce works with intention, not just to let them happen, to experiment, to try, to expose ourselves to various events, projects, ideas, to improve, to modernize, to follow what is happening in the world, because in the second case we remain average, and I think that is the worst punishment that I could drink in this life. It is really true that talent loses at the start compared to work and dedication. Is there anything worse than the sentence: "As talented as he was, he could have been something great"?
Art should be treated like a business, but the most beautiful and free business in the world, in order for it to succeed. In the second case, we can only justify the correctness of the myth about the bohemian artist, who is angry at the unjust world while drinking from a bottle, staring into space and cursing circumstances.
What is art like today?
I think that the art market in the old, dilapidated way will not be able to survive for a long time and that the only way to improve the total connection with the region and abroad is sales over the Internet, projects with various funds, non-governmental organizations, the state, and the like.
You have to find collectors, good places to exhibit, good competitions, good connections. And above all, I believe that artists should apply their creativity to everything they can get their hands on, every project, every idea they like or come up with. Because somewhere we also have some programming in our heads that reads: I am this and that, and only that and nothing more and nothing less than that. Having a clear direction is phenomenal, but then again, if we can create something beautiful in addition to a painting, in addition to a drawing, and earn money for it, why not? How much easier it is for us now, than for previous generations... There are a bunch of books that talk about how to succeed in the art world, which can be ordered online. Everything is so easy for us. Only instead of watching brain-numbing things, you should use that time to choose and order one book that can change your life, for example.
Tell me what you're going to do, but show me first
These days you are in business... What are you working on, what are your plans for the near future?
These days I'm doing design, you'll see soon I hope. I also paint. I have a lot of good ideas, but I'll use a great quote: "Tell me what you're going to do, but show me first."
Bonus video: