Among the pulsating lines and pencils sharpened to the point of being sharp, Ilija Branko Buric finds and realizes what he calls "having to" - the inner need to create, to draw, to collect thoughts and ideas...
His exhibition of drawings at the Petrović Castle thus becomes a space where years of work, the pedagogical spirit, and the tireless curiosity of a man who never stops drawing come together.
An inexorable force that compels him to draw line after line, traces of movement, breaths of duration, testimony.
The energy of your drawings circulates through the Petrović Castle. How do you feel among all of your works?
I spend all day with these works, constantly. However, the space in which I am with these works is not such that I can see them all, so this is one of the opportunities to look at them. Of course, this is not enough either, because there are still many drawings left in the studio… You can see how many there are here, and how many are still in the studio, but that quantity means nothing to me. It has never occurred to me in my life to count, calculate, or talk about quantity. That is not a value. I also have many torn works, and you can see for yourself that some of those remains were used for this occasion. These are some drawings that were done, but were torn up as unsuccessful.
Now that you've mentioned it, I would say that these works, although torn, are not destroyed, because they are still here and alive as a testimony of the work, thus becoming a work in itself, at least in this exhibition. Some would say an installation in space.
I don't know how to explain it, but I agreed to exhibit it. That is a process that shows art. It wasn't like that at first. I tore up my works because they were really just drawings that didn't work. It was kind of strange to me at the time that in that clearing, in the meadow where I was working, drawing a cow's head, you throw those drawings around you, in the air, leave them behind, and then the next day when you come back, you find them scattered and you see one of your drawings there. So I started collecting them and keeping them, and sometimes I joked a little and said that it was my money. Then, when I came to the studio, usually late at night, I would put it all in a pile and observe it from a so-called bird's eye view. I would look at what was created. A large number of the drawings that are exhibited here, and in general those that I created, were created in one day.
As a charge of energy, inspiration, perhaps first of all an inner need?
It's been going on like this for years. Or it has been going on. Lately, I can't pick up a pencil so easily. All these works were created through movement, which can be seen in the video shown at the exhibition - I was constantly moving behind that head, following the plow, following the eye, following the movements, believing that it was some kind of compensation... There's something to all of this, because, simply, I had to draw.
I would say you used the right expression, “I had to.” I think that is truly a must when it comes to art that lies within the creator.
That's right. Now I'm going back to Giacometti, one of the world's greatest sculptors. He worked his entire life from natural form - I'm the same way and I'm insatiable about it. None of my drawings were created from memory, everything was from natural form. And he is an example for me, not a role model, but an example in terms of the creative process. No matter what happened, he remained faithful to his work. What and how you do is important to us in art. Perhaps the most important thing. Because, in order for you to read the works of your colleagues and people who have marked the history of art, you have to elevate your gift to the level of art. Everything else is gossip.
The worn-out pencils displayed at the exhibition are a symbolic testimony to your work.
That's right. We also have pencils in the exhibition, the ones I used, and each one of them has been used up to the very end... A pencil is a tool through which an artist realizes something of his gift, of the ideas that come to him. Pencils also have their own gradations, 2B, 3B, 4B, HB and so on... I used 4-5 pencils a day, drawing, sharpening, drawing... I'm not even talking about quantity as some value, but as an insatiable need to work, nothing else. The late Nut Đuric said "It's a shame to talk about yourself" and I completely agree with him...
The process of work and continuous work is particularly important to you, I think. How did that continuity, persistence, movement come about?
While I was still at the Academy in Belgrade, which was a Yugoslav academy, and as such a place of enormous energy... When I took the entrance exam, there were 670 candidates, while, for example, my colleague Miki Radulović I took the entrance exam with about 900 other candidates, while the Academy only accepts 40 students… Why did we manage to pass the entrance exam? Because we worked. There was a Higher Pedagogical School in Nikšić, which later became a faculty. With the diploma you received there, you could work in an elementary school, but to work in a high school, you had to have a university degree. In our field, to have a university degree, you had to have graduated from an art academy, and even more difficult - you had to enroll in one. And that is phenomenal. However, that Higher Pedagogical School played a big role for us. We had a good professor, the late Nicholas Gvozdenović who was a real artist. That was a great fortune for us. He would tell us: “You will work, and I will give you exams,” meaning those from the general group of subjects, and there were all kinds of subjects, like Marxism, ZODO, communist ideology and so on… And he really helped us and in a way even gave us some exams. It was actually pedagogical, because Professor Gvozdo had an ear for students and allowed us to work, to work day and night.
How important is this for an artist and for you personally - space, time and freedom, for work and creation, in order to feel the art that lies within you?
Thinking about it, I can say that you asked a good question because you framed it around these elements of space, time and freedom. All of this affects the artist, but when you create, you are not aware of it. You are not even aware that you are building all of this around yourself. In order to feel it, you need to last. I repeat myself, but I will refer to an interview, for Monitor, I think it was last year. You have “taught” many generations, he says… That word is a bit banal, because I have not taught anyone to draw, nor could I teach anyone. No one learns to draw, but draws, because you will find out by drawing. So, space, time, freedom, work and only work… Why shouldn’t that be a privilege for students? Exactly what I took for myself when I was a student at the academy. That is the essence.
There were quite a few of your students at the exhibition opening. All of them were full of respect, admiration, it was obvious, but also a friendly relationship, along with the “teacher” one. How do you view that segment of your career, that pedagogical aspect?
I am not indifferent to that. I tell you honestly, I cannot be indifferent to that. They gave me some energy again with their visit, words, greetings... Many of them are now artists, many of them have families, various obligations, but they still came... Thanks to that, we regained some of that joy and camaraderie at the Academy. We remembered, perhaps each to ourselves or out loud, those days. I say joy and camaraderie, but we also worked, we did not joke around. We went outside the office, wandered around Cetinje, drew, it is all an integral part of the work, although it may be funny to some. In my opinion, it is very important that students trust you, as a professor. And for a student to trust you, they have to see what you do. A student has to see what the professor does, in order to trust him, and that is so, at least in my opinion. I expressed such a desire when I was a student.
It is a great calling to be a professor and teacher, for the life of every individual in some way. And perhaps only then to be an artist.
That goes without saying. In our calling, during work, during the process, those thoughts, sentences, space, time, all of that is compressed into work. Work and creation are the main thing.
Your drawings are like an infinite straight or curved line in the most diverse possible manifestations. I would say that there is an eruption of energy from that infinite line that has its own force and demonstrates the urge to create...
It's all drawing. And that drawing with a pencil; charcoal was at the beginning. That's the material, but it's all (was) related to the work process. When I graduated from the Academy, and I repeat, I found myself in a real problem, I returned to Nikšić... While I was in Belgrade - there are at least 10-15 poseurs waiting for you during your studies, and they earn a crust of bread from it. I had the privilege of working like that. However, that was a period when interest in those classical means slowly began to fade and everything turned to concepts, abstraction was even a classic. The first lady of that is, let me say, Marina Abramović, right, our Gorski kotar, who was the main star of that region... And all that's okay, but it didn't interest me. Students often asked me what I thought about Marina Abramović - what do I think about Marina Abramović, whom the whole world has heard of, and no one has heard of Ilija Branko Burić...
(…)
Okay, now you're gesticulating, giving me a little more importance, I see that. That's fine, but this is the truth.
Nikšić, what influence did it have on you?
Everything is Nikšić. Nikšić is there and all that. It is there in photography… There is also the late Mijo Mijušković, he was my school. That is what is yours, what you worship, how you learn… That environment is important, and socializing is also important. However, you can be a little handicapped at one point… For example, I was in Paris and realized that it was an impossible mission. Paris is something exemplary, hundreds of thousands of artists come to Paris and look for their place under the sun and end up, not to mention where and how.
I would say that the environment, community, society, state, have a great influence on an artist. Do you feel that this has perhaps limited you in some way or has given you freedom?
Maybe so, but we are not aware of it. An artist shapes his time, if he is an artist and if it is art. If it is art, I repeat, because we are witnesses to what is happening. I stated somewhere that I am afraid that design will swallow art. Wherever you turn - design and decorative elements, because it is profitable. Well, the creator of pop art, for example, Warhol, says that when he came to New York, he realized that everything is for sale. And everything is, everything is for sale. And what is pop art - popular, intended for young people, transient. But still, Warhol created an aesthetics, let me say a philosophy, there too. And not every work of art is philosophical.
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You said in an interview that an artist shapes time.
That's right.
What then can we read about the times we live in today, and what can we conclude about the artists who shape them?
To tell you the truth, I don't think the artist asks that question. He works. I wouldn't say "just works," because, I repeat, you listen to everything, even time. When I was drawing, I didn't concentrate only on that head or on the line, on anything.
When I draw, I think and reflect on everything, about my mother, about my family, about society, simply - about everything. Everything comes to you if you draw. I say "if you draw", but also if you paint, sculpt, if you create. There are moments when you are burdened by the topic you are working on, but you go through that topic and all those, let's say, life problems, like other people, except that as an artist you are perhaps a little more sensitive, more sensible, and you have a means through which you would like to express it. In all of this, a gift is implied. I do not agree, for example, with students or with people when they say that art can be learned. Art cannot be learned. Likewise, art is not therapy. Art is a gift, by nature, by birth, and how you will develop it throughout your life is another matter, but above all, art is a gift. So drawing cannot be learned, nor is it therapy, that is nonsense.
The exhibition was opened to a large audience, and a guided tour was organized... The exhibition will run until the end of November... What feelings does it evoke in you, what are your impressions?
Honestly, at first I was a little scared. This is not my first time exhibiting, far from it, but I was a little scared. No one is indifferent, no matter what. I was also anxious, I walked around the space, but when I saw my friends, colleagues, students, I was happy and calmed down and I no longer thought about myself, the drawings or the exhibition. Among other things, and in this way I see that they care, that they respect me and that they remember our friendship, that makes me happy.
Bonus video:
