Biljana Djurdjevic
dal 29/9/2006 al 14/11/2006
Segnalato da
29/9/2006
Biljana Djurdjevic
Galerie Davide Gallo, Berlin
Paradise Lost. The main theme explored by Djurdjevic in the new series of artworks is denied childhood. The artist shows the inner nature of the children's personalities with a skilful attention to detail, concentrating on features such as their lost, questioning eyes or their clenched, tense hands.
Paradise Lost
On September 30th the galerie davide gallo has the pleasure of
hosting the first solo show undertaken by the Serbian artist
Biljana Djurdjevic at a private gallery.
Born in 1973 in Belgrade, Biljana Djurdjevic has already
participated in prestigious exhibitions throughout the world;
such as “Blut & Honig" at the Essl Collection in Austria (2003),
“Balkan Crossroad", curated by Harald Szeemann in Bologna, Italy
(2003), at the Seville Biennale, curated by Harald Szeemann,
Spain (2004), “Six from Europe" at the Sonoma Valley Museum, San
Francisco, USA (2006) and at the Sydney Biennale, Australia
(2006), curated by Charles Merwether .
The main theme explored by Biljana Djurdjevic in the new series
of artworks is denied childhood.
Exposed to the violence of images circulated by the media,
children are portrayed with an extreme realism, caught in the
moment in which they are unconsciously shaping a new identity.
In these artworks, the artist shows the inner nature of the
children's personalities with a skilful attention to detail,
concentrating on features such as their lost, questioning eyes
or their clenched, tense hands. The scenes are depicted through
an abstract environment and these settings go on to serve as a
catalyst which transports the children into another realm of
consciousness.
While Biljana Djurdjevic's earlier works reflected the
expressions of violence tied to Balkan culture and drew
inspiration from Socialist propaganda as well as from a variety
of great artists - ranging from masters of the Italian
Rinascimento and Barocco eras such as Michelangelo to more
contemporary talents such as Francis Bacon - her new works show
a transition in style and subject matter as well as drawing
inspiration from Byzantine Icons. The images nonetheless
maintain their characteristic still and stark form and the
dialogue which results induces the viewer into being mesmerised
into a feeling of eternal transfixion.
War, violence and the shocking images of our times are all
hardships which the protagonists of Biljana Djurdjevic's works
seem to have no direct contact with: the subjects seem to occupy
a dimension which is at once unrelated and abstract from both
our and their own existence. The adolescents of Biljana
Djurdjevic works, their children, seem to have just awoken from
a dream, caught in the passage between a hypnagogic state and
reality - it remains an ambiguity: what is the real dimension,
what is the oneiric one?
The show remains open from September 30th to November 15th 2006,
Tuesday to Saturday, 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Galerie Davide Gallo
Linienstr. 156 - Berlin