At a time of absurdly bad choices made by domestic "cultural politics", autonomy is difficult to defend. Finally, we face a fact that is not new - the political, understood as the dimension of antagonisms, becomes spectacular. The trouble is that, in its spectacularization, the political swallows politics, that is, institutions, and at the same time destroys the remaining forms of community, which now need to be defended more strongly than ever. That is why it is extremely important that in these unusual times we draw attention to those authors, artist, actors and institutions that, despite dominantly irrational decisions, continue to challenge normality, value frameworks and a critical attitude. One such institution is the "Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos" award, but also the competition itself, its propositions and transparency.
The "Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos" award was founded 25 years ago by the "Center for Contemporary Art in Belgrade" and The Foundation for Civil Society from New York. Thanks to the New York partner and their projects Residency Unlimited and Young Visual Artist Award, the prize is now awarded to young artists in ten countries of Central, South-East and South-West Europe and usually bears the name of an artist whose work is highly valued on the local or regional art scene. In a tough competition this year, the prestigious "Mangelos" award was won by an artist Nemanja Milenković (1996)
The conversation with Nemanja Milenković took place just three days after the awarding of the award and five days after the opening of the "Unnatural Speculations" exhibition, which the young artist prepared with Darija Dragojlović in the imposing building of the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Subotica. This is another successful collaboration, which makes Milenkovic stand out on the domestic and international scene.
"WEATHER" Reward "Mangelos", surprisingly, not yet compromised...
NEMANJA MILENKOVIĆ: "Mangelos" managed to remain an uncompromised prize thanks to efforts Traces, Found, but also of all other independent structures that logistically implement the competition. In addition, all finalists passed another novelty, which is the mentoring work. Namely, since last year, the organizing team assigns a mentor to each finalist artist with the aim of the joint work being directed towards the most precise verbal articulation of artistic practice. I was associated with theorist and curator Stevan Vuković. Although we did not know each other before, we cooperated very well and constructively. I received very good guidelines and additionally became aware of certain elements in my work that are actually, it turns out, very relevant today.
photo: elvira kakusziVIVARIUM
They are in the game., Always, i "cultural policy" i "personal poetics". In what concrete way is politics as a general social contract (human and inhuman?) combines with your artistic poetics?
Uh, in different ways that were not clear to me, as an author, at the beginning. However, from this perspective I recognize that even my earliest works were emphatically political. My interest in that connection, which I can most easily describe as the relationship between human and non-human animals, goes back to my childhood. Namely, both father and mother are originally from the south, from a very small village in the vicinity of Pirot, and in my childhood I got to know very well the processes of preparing large family gatherings, preparing food, raising and slaughtering animals. Such a way of coexistence with animals was absolutely normalized. However, since I was born and educated in Novi Sad, I always felt a certain polarity and not belonging. As a teenager, of course, I begin to reflect on my identity and become more sensitive to the simple question: what is the animal position today? Thus began the interest in many forms of animal exploitation through the various industries of food, entertainment, hunting, cosmetics, fashion and the like. This ultimately resulted in a radical decision to stop consuming meat and all animal products, and thus I came into direct conflict with my inherited identity, with my parents and finally with normative coexistence sa animals and life od animal. All this later developed into my dominant theme of artistic research. I see politics in my work primarily at the level of personal conflict with the patriarchal, Balkan identity in which a Balkan man must eat meat and support the culture of his ancestors. I refused it. Later I became interested in hunting as a modern phenomenon that survives today as an industry and is also connected to my childhood. Many members of my family are hobbyist hunters, so we had various smaller trophies in the house, mostly doe and deer, but there were also other bizarre objects like a scorpion cast in epoxy and other curiosities... Hunting is necessarily political because hunters demonstrate their position of power against other species. It is no coincidence that even today many powerful political figures are avid hunters. When I think now about the human relationship to any non-human entity, I automatically see a political battleground. It is a small step between ecology, bioethics and politics.
A traumatic childhood event was also important...
Yes, a traumatic childhood event that is very important and that I highlight in my portfolio as well. That event most likely determined the aesthetics of my artistic research. Namely, when I was five years old, the family dog attacked me and almost killed me. After that I developed traumatic effects and a great fear of animals. I thought the fear subsided when the family adopted a little puppy that I immediately befriended. Only later did I find out that my interesting southern background had a big influence on the whole event. Namely, in order to help me, my mother and grandmother took me to an elderly woman to have my fear cured. It is a magical ritual through which a person gets rid of fear. Maybe that vague memory also influenced my later work, because in my installations I often deal with various substances and materials. Often the result resembles a mystical ambience or a space of magical practice. I think a similar kind of radical mystery can be found in Olga Tokarchuk. Finally, I'm not sure how psychotherapy defines it exactly, but there are specific phenomena when an extreme aversion is built towards the source of the trauma, or a strong commitment to understand and accept the cause of the trauma develops. I went to the other extreme. Today, through my work, I try to think about different models of coexistence with everything that is not human. This is where bioethics plays a key role because it offers us many apparatuses and sources of understanding of what we might call a community that can be interdependent, supportive, but also progressive.
In your work, you often present networks of power relations between various entities and identities. These relationships, however, not strictly defined, they already allow movement and interpretations. Your works are also very poetic, and it seems that such poetics is rooted in literature rather than theory, from poetry rather than from criticism.
There are many influences, for example music, then pop culture. There are also Japanese cartoons, "Pokémon" and "Digimon", popular at the end of the nineties, which were precisely based on the intimate relationship between humans and animals. Since childhood, I needed a close relationship with animals, whether it was my dog or a neighbor's dog, and I always felt such connection as a place of safety and mutual protection. The influence of anime from Studio Ghibli (Studio Ghibli) and how it feels in my early works. Of course, literature soon appeared and had a very important influence. I am inspired by different writers such as Olga Tokarčuk, Jan Martel, Kaspar Koling Nilsen or, most recently, Goran Milašinović. It is very important to me to see how authors who are not visual artists and who use other methods of expression, think about similar topics as I do. I actually see literature as a space from which I can take very useful elements. It's the same with music. I'm very interested to see how musicians visually manage to characterize their project; and in what ways those associative networks are created, which, when connected, create a coherent whole. That's why I think that my poetics is built in relation to all those different influences that I talked about and that's how this strange mix was created that is still in some kind of movement and constant change.
That much, your work is not dominantly associated with any specific art medium or discipline.
However, it seems to me that a drawing or a picture is always some kind of base. Drawing is the most intimate and immediate art medium and that corresponds to my artistic methodology, which is excellent for thinking about certain phenomena and motifs. Right while I'm drawing, I'm thinking about all those different, possible and impossible constructions, so that in the end, ideas for representations of those conclusions of mine also appear through other media. When I exhibit, it is usually about a group of works that were realized in different media, but are placed in strictly controlled relationships, so that the contents are connected and build certain narrative units.
The Subotica exhibition went well. What a feeling?
Darija Dragojlović and I prepared the exhibition "Unnatural Speculations" for almost two years. Everyone started from their individual starting points. We made individual mind maps and through such a format we managed to point out certain motives and phenomena. When we compared the maps, we realized that there are a lot of analogies. By making those analogies, we created a common artistic map and the title of the exhibition was imposed by itself. After a long time working together on the exhibition, we came up with a completely different format from the initial one. At the beginning, we planned an open, hybrid map through which the audience would move and face the different processes of our thinking. However, in the end it doesn't look like we imagined at all. Actually, I think that such changes happen in every artistic process, especially in collaboration. We prepared the eight exhibition rooms that form part of the complex space of the Subotica Gallery as separate entities within which our works meet. In these meetings, in addition to their initial, author's concepts, the works necessarily acquire new meanings. When the observer moves from room to room, he is first introduced to the general theme – the relationship between natural and artificial, and then to the question of whether nature itself is an artificial construct. In each subsequent room, we reflect more concretely on all the phenomena that we derived from that original relationship between natural and artificial. I am glad that the exhibition already attracted a large audience at the opening, which tells us that both Daria, who is also a member of "Led Art" and has participated in many projects, and I have ensured a certain recognition and interest in the problems we deal with. From the position of a young artist, this is an unusual and rare occurrence. Young artists here usually do not get that kind of attention and recognition on stage. We had that kind of privilege.
Earned privilege is another important thing, and that is a two-month stay in New York as part of the award "Mangelos".
It is an incredible opportunity. I have to admit that I did not imagine myself in this situation, but I am very glad that I am in it right now. I think that I will finally succeed in projecting myself and my work into some complex and serious artistic system. I don't know how else to define my expectations. My intention is to first of all familiarize myself with those practices that define contemporary art today. Centers like New York offer different approaches to contemporary art and I really look forward to visiting the collections and museums. On the other hand, I would like to explore the established network of private galleries, various independent spaces, museums and the like. I would certainly like to make a map of the collectives and individuals with whom I would have to cooperate in the future. I could use the acquired contacts to connect with our independent institutions and groups, as well as with students and colleagues from our Academy. It's kind of a basic plan for now.
