From the circle of stone, into the circle of eternity

Cities live forever, even when destroyed. Stone remembers longer than time, let alone man. The circle, the circle is all around us - in stone, cities, time.

In its own legend and monumentality, in stone, city and time, the work lives on. Ratko Vulanović, academic artist from Nikšić, one of the most significant sculptors of this region, often called the last stonemason of our time.

His solo, unfortunately posthumous, exhibition of works united under the title "In the Circle - Sculptures and Drawings", opened on Monday evening in the gallery space of King Nikola's Castle in Nikšić, going beyond the usual framework of protocol ceremonies. The encounter of different poetics of art and citizenship of all generations, sensibilities and experiences, showed the respect that Vulanović deserves, although he did not always enjoy it from everyone.

"If you don't know how to hit a stone - it will break apart"

Exhibition curator, art historian and director of the “B2” Gallery from Belgrade Bojan Muždeka, He emphasized that Vulanović was a sculptor who transformed the soul of stone into sculpture.

"Ratko once said that if there is truth, it is surely written in stone, and you can reach it with patience, making sure to slowly remove the layers of stone, because if you don't know how to hit the stone - it will break completely. Guided by this logic, the exhibition was set up in circles, because it seems to me that it was in these circles that Ratko so convincingly removed the stones and reached the truth," Muždeka said.

The exhibition brings together sculptures in stone and wood, as well as drawings that represent the fundamental discipline of Vulanović's work. At the same time, the exhibition opens up a space not only for viewing, but also for staying among forms that exude something ancient, mythical, almost ritual. Each sculpture carries its own energy, but none of them (exists) on its own, but they are all parts of a whole, elements of a larger system - like a city or even the world. In this order, in this silence of stone, the circle gains its center - not as a point in space, but as an internal focus from which everything begins and to which everything returns. It is from the center of that circle, just like from the core of the planet, that lava-like energy radiates, unstoppable. This is the energy of Vulanović's work, concentrated, archetypal, devoid of excess, strong to the point of monumentality.

Ratko Vulanović was an artist of constellations, says sculptor Mato Uljarević at the opening of the exhibition, a representative of the Nikšić - European Capital of Culture 2030 office.

"His sculptures are parts of a broader order in which they do not lose their details, but mystically serve the whole, not themselves. It is as if he was copying the structure of the celestial bodies, following the command of ancient mystics to be 'as above, so below', or 'as in heaven, so on earth'. Vulanović explores the structure of the mutual relationships of elements in space and the laws of eternal circulation. His work focuses on the architectonics of the entire structure, and only then on the question of the form and content of individual elements. He always builds his ideal city anew, in countless appearances, revealing the essence and meaning of the city - the agora of encounter. At the same time, he is both an architect and an urban planner, if you will. His groups are microcosms, the embryos of cities. His entire work is a kind of theory of cities and circles," Uljarević believes.

When politics destroys, but art remembers

At the center of the circle and the city, where stone, nature, art and time meet, stands Vulanović's (masterpiece) work - steadfast and peaceful, as a primordial sign that true forms, cities, do not collapse, but continue to live, even demolished, destroyed, but never forgotten.

A specific form, but also a special city, is unavoidable in the context of the artist, but also of Nikšić. The Stone City. Nikšić's Stonehenge, but also Babylon. Erected proudly, proudly, distinctively and authentically in Nikšić, Vulanović's monumental "Stone City" was once placed, not so long ago, behind the Castle of King Nikola. It was a stone that perhaps saw the future too early, ahead of its time, something that has always been difficult for an artist and visionary to forgive. In it, the primordial and the modern, the mythical and the urban, duration and power collided. It stood as a warning that a work of art, and thus cities, do not belong to the authorities, but to time and the world. Its later, brutal and merciless removal remains one of the deepest traumas of Nikšić art and contemporary Montenegrin culture, an act in which politics tried to trample on art, and shortsightedness to erase duration. And that was an unavoidable topic at the opening of Ratko Vulanović's exhibition, organized by the Public Institution Museums and Galleries Nikšić and the Municipality of Nikšić.

Director of the Public Institution Museums and Galleries Nikšić Vesna Todorovic In her address to the audience, she pointed out that almost everyone in Nikšić "when we talk and think about Ratko Vulanović, we always have his 'Stone City' before our eyes."

"It was created in a strong symbiosis of the physical and spiritual work of this great forger, and then disappeared, as in some incredible fairy tale, by some evil fate because of some botanical garden that no one was allowed to build on a terrible and metaphysical place of execution and execution of art... Therefore, our task is to, in some way, contribute to ensuring that this disappeared city, as a measuring unit of the meaning of art, does not disappear from our memory and to do everything we can to protect and preserve the artist's legacy for future generations. That is why institutions like this, whose task is to cut through time and remember everything that is good and beautiful, exist, and tonight's exhibition is aimed at that goal," said Todorović.

Rails and sky

The artist's wife also spoke about 'Stone City' Olivera Vulanovic, which reminded us of his childhood and life. In a powerful, almost poetic form, through the allegory of rails and sky, it told the story of the artist's life.

“Ratko went through harsh moments of poverty in his childhood. It would have broken many, but it outlined in him the forms of future sculptures and the outlines of drawings of fierce strength. With deep peace, he would say philosophically: 'It is only necessary to turn a difficult memory into quality'. One of such memories is the story of going to Dubrovnik, when he was ten years old, with the boyish hope of earning something. With some change in his pocket, he jumped on the train, the popular 'Ćira'. Full of wonder, he saw the world for the first time on the other side of the Nikšić threshold. In the morning, hungry and tired of the uncomfortable bed under the conifers, he decided to return home. With no money, he had the bold idea, for a child, of following the movement of the rails and, with the help of that landmark, reaching home. He held on to them with the heart of a boy, just as one holds on to the hand of an uncle or father who shows the right path. How he then set off on those rails that uncompromisingly led "He followed them his whole life. They led him up hills and through stone gorges, through vineyards and rose gardens. From sweat and exhilaration in the studio to awards, from defeats to victories and recognitions, from medals to betrayals. Always strong. Always great. Ratko," Olivera said.

The rails, which he took as a boy and which once showed him the way, added Vulanović's wife, also led him to the basement of a Belgrade building, which became his first studio.

"He had an insatiable need to work for days, months, years, following those rails, with his uncle and father, with his homeland, with the epic of folk poets and the lyricism of his own soul. That path led him to the 'Politika' award, the highest recognition for fine arts in the greater Yugoslavia, which he received in 1988. He was awarded for the ensemble of aluminum sculptures 'Veliki predio'. For the first time in the history of the award, the jury was unanimous. Even earlier, in the seventies, the reputable Prosvjetina encyclopedia brought, in three units, the presentation of Ratko's sculpture as a sculptural step towards modernity and originality, at a time when socialist canons and formal discipline of expression still strongly prevailed," Olivera Vulanović recalled.

However, the artist's wife emphasizes, all of this meant nothing to the Nikšić authorities, who demolished the monumental complex of his sculptures in 2008.

"Just like that. Stone City. It was an act of revenge, because it did not belong to their political and ideological ranks. They were ready to attack poetry, spirituality, creativity - because these were values ​​that they did not hold in the slightest. That was the only moment in his life when he was weak. Those same rails, after traveling around the world, brought him back to his native soil. His countrymen, fellow citizens, relatives invited him to work on Stone City. And then he was told, as Cain told Abel: 'Let's go to the field'. It was an ominous invitation to a place where art would be killed. Ratko then said bitterly: 'It would have been cheaper for them if they had killed me'. After all, those rails led him along the path that leads to heaven - the path of immortality of beauty, where there is no demolition or destruction. The path on which we will meet him again one day," said Olivera Vulanović.

For the artist to receive his legacy

Spontaneously, in Nikšić style, he also took the floor. Ranko Dakic, who called Vulanović his teacher, emphasizing that he himself was engaged in a similar profession, appealing for Vulanović's great work to be preserved.

"I am ready to help if someone decides to return some of the boulders, which have been on the Tehno base plateau in Kapino polje since 2008, to where they were before they were removed," said Dakić.

Uljarević added that the idea of ​​the city as a circle is at the heart of Nikšić's urban vision, which inspired the application for European Capital of Culture.

“As a UNESCO Creative City and European Capital of Culture, Nikšić today focuses on the dignity of artists and the integrity of their work. One of the foundations of Nikšić’s application for the ECoC was the idea that Vulanović would receive his legacy, and that through a large project called ‘Cities of Ratko Vulanović’ his work would be placed in the focus of artistic content in the city, and inspire new creators to enter into an active dialogue with him. This exhibition goes in line with that. And it warns that just as ‘manuscripts do not burn’, in the words Bulgakov", so cities cannot collapse," Uljarević concluded.

Muždeka told everyone to take the time to look at each of the works individually when visiting the exhibition and to "approach the stone in silence, which is very powerful."