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22/4/2005

Predrag Pajdic

Focal Point Gallery (old location), Southend-on-Sea

Minority Report

Using sound, installation, video and photography, the exhibition Minority Report by Predrag Pajdic sets out to explore and reconstruct the reasons for the artist’s departure from the former Yugoslavia in the 80s. In addition it investigates why Pajdic decided to immigrate and assemble his new home in the UK.

Minority Report is an exhibition about the proximity of art and life against the backdrop of contemporary politics exploring issues of memory, belief, ethnic minorities, exile and displaced national identity.

After 15 years of exile Pajdic returned to his homeland just to find that the country he left no longer existed. He found the place torn apart with a different name and different borders.

The work ranges from interviews with old childhood friends and family to archival material as well as images from public spaces that are no longer recognisable to the artist. ‘Reality Check' and ‘Minority Report' are two new works specially commissioned by Focal Point Gallery and reflect the artist's aspiration to capture his own observations and experiences of his homeland.

In Why I Left (2003, 2 single channel video) the artists poses the question ‘Why do you think I left Yugoslavia?’ to various figures from his past and present, including his mother and family, revisited childhood friends, teachers as well as friends from the UK. This work examines the reasons why Pajdic left the country from the interviewees’ subjective perspectives. However, through these questions the interviewees discover their own personal memories and impressions not only of the artist but also of the nation as a whole. In turn, these works operate as inverted self-portraits, paradoxically questioning their own beliefs, identities and memories.

Hero, 2003, is an installation of 5 lightboxes and sound. The photographs of blurred images, taken in Kalemegdan, the central public park in the heart of Belgrade, represent the plethora of bronze busts dotted around the park celebrating the lives of supposedly famous Serbian (formerly Yugoslav) historical figures. With the demise of the former Yugoslavia the non-Serb historical figures (Croats, Slovenians and others) vanished, leaving behind unfilled empty spaces. Those that did remain, in other words Serb nationals, represent a revisionist historical narrative of the former Yugoslavia and are therefore considered insignificant by the artist.
Each lightbox is accompanied by past propaganda, Yugoslav anthems and Tito speeches. The anthems glorify those heroes which are no longer considered part of Serbian history. They refer back to this imaginary nation, a symbolic nation that only ever existed in the imaginary space, a fictional nation for a fictional people.

Predrag Pajdic (Yugoslavia, 1965) lives and works in London, UK. He is an interdisciplinary artist, working with video, photography, drawing, sound and installation. In 1994 he completed his studies at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London. His work has been shown internationally in various solo and group exhibitions, including: 'Delay', Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2004); 'To whom it may Concern', nn Foundation for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2004); 'The Presidency', Exit Art, New York (2004); 'Memory', Salina Art Center, Salina (2004); 'Garden' Castle Vault, Southampton (2004); 'Terrorvision', Exit Art, New York (2004), 'Blackout', Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2003)…

Private View: 23 April 12 – 2 pm

Focal Point Gallery
Victoria Ave., Southend-on-Sea - Essex

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