When the picture paints the words, and the words paint the picture

Consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, we often want to escape from reality, create an imagination of the real, conjure images and worlds known only to us.

One such "Imaginarium" in which everything begins and ends with a picture, was decided to be given to the Nikšić audience by the JU "Zahumlje" and the author of the project. Kristina Radovic, art historian and program editor in "Zahumlje". Her "Imaginarium" will include a series of sessions whose basic theme will be the phenomenon of painting treated through various arts. Prof. had the honor to open the "Imaginarium" and bring closer the connection between painting and literature. emeritus Sava Damjanov and others Marijana Terić, and their field of scientific interest is, among other things, literary fiction.

"Image in literature is a conditional concept, it is the result of poetic generalizations, it contains the author's fiction, imagination, fantasy. It is formed by the writer in accordance with his worldview and aesthetic principles", said the editor and author of the forum.

According to her, painting is one of the most ambiguous and broad terms used by theorists and practitioners of all kinds of art, including literature.

"The influence of painting on literature, that is, literature on painting, in the entire history of our culture was immeasurable. Thousands of books have been written on this topic, and yet it never ceases to intrigue both artists and art theorists. Of course it will be like that as long as painting and literature exist. It is about a phenomenon that has been continuously changing throughout history", pointed out Radović.

According to Damjanov, writer, literary historian and professor emeritus at the University of Novi Sad, as readers, whether we like it or not, consciously or subconsciously, we turn literature into images.

"Everything we read, which has the possibility of visualization, we turn into a picture. On the other hand, painting also verbalizes literature. We tend to describe even the biggest pictures with words. This interaction between literature and art is complex," said Damjanov, who writes prose, literary-critical and literary-historical works.

With the emergence of civilization, painting also arose, which, according to Damjanov, is more powerful than literature for the simple reason that it is universal and does not need to be translated into the language we know, while literature is.

"The mutual influences of literature and painting are multiple. We have many examples of artists who were also painters and writers, such as Michelangelo, but also that writers wrote under the influence of painting, or that some literary text served painters as a template for a painting", Damjanov pointed out and recalled the travel essay Miloš Crnjanski o To Dierer and the unfinished literary testament about Michelangelo, while Ivo Andric was possessed Goyom.

Damjanov is of the opinion that art greatly affects reality, often invisibly, and that in the 21st century we try to put it on the level of entertainment, spectacle or commercial.

He explained that his interest in literary fiction stemmed from the fact that he was not interested in something that was a copy of what he had already seen, but was looking for something that was unreal, that transcended our reality. He wrote and researched, as he said, what he liked to read. He recommended those who are just entering the world of literary fiction to read "Atlantis" Borislav Pekić, works Milorad Pavić, Vladimir Velmar Janković, Artur Klark, Stanislav Lem, Margaret Atwood...

Marijana Terić, who is the first doctor in the field of fantastic literature in Montenegro, recalled Plato's the theory of images that he explained in "The State".

"He distinguishes between two types of pictures - the one that is a reproduction of the original and he calls it a good picture and false pictures or phantasms that he attributes to a poet or a painter. Those phantasms are much more meaningful and the essence of their meaning is hidden in them," said Terić.

According to her, a picture is part of the literary creation of the author who forms it in accordance with his aesthetic principles, and it must be the bearer of strong feelings and a strong message.

Terić said that how much painting and literature are intertwined and cannot do without each other, the examples of painters and writers who found inspiration in literary works, i.e. paintings, speak best. That's how the Norwegian painter is Edward Munk painted under the influence of the novel Dostoyevsky and tried his best to, like the famous writer, "bare the man". Jose Saramago wrote one scene in the novel "Blindness" thanks to the famous paintings of famous painters, while Danilo Kish in the polemical book "Anatomy Lesson" was inspired by the book of the same name Rembrandt's picture. Image Hieronymus Bosch The "Ship of Fools" inspired the German author Sebastian Brant to write a satire of the same name.

"Art is much more powerful than reality, but it is art that gives meaning to our reality. Without art there would be no meaning. It allows us to look at ourselves, to question ourselves, but also the essence of life. Art cannot exist without reality. When an artist creates, whether he is a painter or a writer, he takes themes from reality, but he transforms that reality, he creates guided by the laws of his own imagination, because art enables that unfettered freedom of imagination and dreams of the future," said Terić.

This boundless freedom was the worldview that directed her to literary fiction, and she recommended to those who are not yet close enough to literary fiction to read the works Ranko Krstajić, "Heavenly Betrothed" by Mirko Kovača with the obligatory story "Florijan", but also works James Joyce, Borges, Carlos Fuentes...

At the end of the evening, Terić briefly presented the first magazine for fantasy in literature and art in Montenegro, "Athanatik", behind which she is the initiator and editor-in-chief.

The new tribune will be held in March, and the guest will be a director Goran Bulajic.