Numerous visitors, usual for bARS, but unexpected given the location, which is not easy to reach, flocked to the space in front of the Creative Hub and its first floor, where the works of the artist are exhibited, who, according to the bARS selector, Željko Milović, "has the destiny to be better known abroad than in his own city."
Opening the exhibition, an art historian Katarina Gazdic Ilić stated that with the new exhibition, Čakalović opens a space of contemplation in which paintings, sculptures, reliefs, as well as ready-mades make up the corpus of the author's multilayered mental network, and that at its core lies a deep reflection on the role of information, not only as a carrier of certain content, but as a structure that shapes the world.
"Čakalović does not present a familiar picture of the world in his works. Instead of a narrative representation, he alchemically dissolves, problematizes and interprets virtual reality in a complex symbolic-conceptual visual discourse of cyberpunk aesthetics... The main motif through which he interprets his curiosity about the world is the female figure. She continuously appears in the artist's oeuvre as a principle and archetypal sign of fertility, intuition, the birth of beauty, strength, but also vulnerability and resistance. The female body is the space of life, and her absence is a sign of emptiness, loss and a posthuman landscape without hope and comfort... The quietest, but perhaps the deepest layer of the exhibition is loneliness. In Marko Čakalović's paintings, it seems as if a silent struggle between existence and disappearance is taking place. Lonely figures, eyes that do not observe but 'suffer' without movement and touch, stand as witnesses of time. They represent icons of the modern era that warn without a voice, cry or accusation," said, among others, Gazdić Ilić, inviting art lovers, of whom there were over a hundred, to see the exhibition.
Marko Čakalović did not hide his satisfaction with the atmosphere that prevailed in the Old Town during the opening of the exhibition, as well as the fact that it aroused great interest among the festival audience.
"The arrival of this many people to the top of Stari Bar to see my sculptures, paintings, reliefs... is a surprise to me. I am glad that we showed the Bar audience that we, local artists, exist, that we should be given a chance here and that it is necessary for the audience to be as informed as possible about our work," Čakalović pointed out, adding that he does not want to reveal many details about his works, nor about the concept of the lavish exhibition, because "that way everything becomes open to the audience," and his wish is to maintain the mystery and for everyone to interpret the works in their own way.
Academic sculptor Marko Čakalović (Bar, 1984) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Montenegro in Cetinje, Department of Sculpture in the class of Prof. Pavle Pejović (2008). His recognizable oeuvre belongs to the sphere of figuration with emphasized elements of fantasy. He also expresses himself through the media of classical painting and drawing, as well as through experimental forms in which he combines artistic disciplines. He has been in an artistic residency in Belgium six times, where he has left an impressive number of works. He has participated in many selected exhibitions in the country and abroad, and has exhibited independently six times. A large number of his works are in foreign collections (Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the USA, Malaysia, Italy, Poland, North Sudan, the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Slovakia, North Macedonia, etc.). He has been a member of ULUCG since 2009. He won the Annual Award for Sculpture of the Faculty of Fine Arts, 2007; "Glo Art" Sculpture Award in Belgium, 2019; "Drago Đurović" Award of the Danilovgrad Sculpture Colony, 2022 and won first place at the International Virtual Exhibition "Godess Art Gallery" Germany, 2024.
He lives and works in Bar.
Bonus video:
