Called “Golgotha Night,” the performance by a multimedia artist Dimitrija Popović, was performed on April 3rd at the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb.
Popović indicates to "Vijesti" that the symbolic artistic act in the space was performed to mark the Catholic Good Friday, the day of Jesus' death.
"It is known that the Christian world, in various manifestations, artistic and folk, especially marks Good Friday, when in various public performances they try to identify as much as possible with Christ's suffering and death on the cross. Given that the theme of death is important in Christian eschatology, because with Jesus' death on Golgotha, death was defeated by resurrection, for the artistic transposition of this biblical event, I conceived the performance as a particularly suitable way of expressing this theme," Popović said.
His performance "Golgotha Night" is based on precise symbols characteristic of that New Testament event, he adds, but presented in the spirit of a contemporary treatment of the motif, while keeping the essence of the theme the same.
Performans su izveli art model Josip Josko Tešija and musician Maja Bajamic.
"The performance is not about illustrating a biblical event, but rather the internal structure of the motif as an archetype of sacrifice and mourning is expressed through a kind of minimalist mysticism. Therefore, the protagonists' bodies do not act as characters but embody signs. The performance can also have the character of a meditative ritual. All elements are precisely determined to form a coherent artistic and scenic whole. In this sense, the atrium of the National Museum of Modern Art was particularly suitable for achieving a fine harmony of the motive of the action and the ambience," Popović pointed out.
Croatian media report that the event attracted an exceptionally large number of visitors, confirming the audience's enduring interest in Popović's long-standing research into sacred and existential themes.
"The performance 'Golgotha Night' thematically belongs to Popović's 'Corpus Mysticum' cycle, in which the artist has been dealing with the motif of Christ's passion, crucifixion and death on Golgotha for more than forty years. It is one of the key thematic pillars of his oeuvre, which he has interpreted over the decades using a wide range of visual media, from drawings and paintings, to sculpture, to installations and performances. It is precisely this long-term dedication to a single theme that has enabled him to elaborate on it in a layered manner, far removed from literalism and open to symbolic, archetypal and universal meanings," writes Novi list.
Unlike traditional folk depictions of Good Friday, the text adds, which often strive for identification with Christ's suffering through a narrative and figurative reconstruction of the biblical event, Popović's performance is not based on illustration, the text emphasizes.
"On the contrary, the author consciously avoids literalism and turns to artistic transposition in which the protagonists do not embody concrete characters such as Christ or the Virgin Mary, but rather represent states - archetypes of sacrifice, pain and mourning. It is precisely in this departure from the narrative and figurative that the strength of this performance is revealed, which balances between a recognizable iconographic base and an abstract, almost meditative artistic and scenic form," Novi List writes.
Dimitrije Popović undoubtedly continues to attract and enchant the public, both professionals and art lovers, with each of his artistic expressions and its symbolism and authenticity.
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