Summer Vibes: Holiday
In the uncertain times of the pandemic, for most people summer does not feel like before. The newly-created situation caused delays of planned travels, restrictions in traveling outside countries borders, and for many made vacations impossible. Changed summer plans created the need for escapism into the world of imaginary summer resorts, memories of past summers and daydreaming about the future ones. The aim of this exhibition is to take the audience on one such imaginary trip to rocky sea shores, swimming pools, river islands and sand beaches, so they could, at least for a brief moment, escape the stark reality.
Lidija Delić, Marija Šević and Ana Adamović visualize real geographic topoi they have visit-ed, which are, in their works, endowed with a new, personal dimension. Their experiences of the localities’ spirit, atmosphere, specificities and landscapes have been transferred to the artworks and intertwined with the artists’ reflections, impressions and implications of these places. Marija Avramović, on the other hand, paints an entirely imaginary space, geographical-ly abstracted, but associatively atmospheric enough to semantically serve as a paradigm for a utopian resort. In a certain sense, all the featured places are simultaneously real and imagi-nary, referring to both physical and metaphysical reality.
The artists keep the representational attitude to landscape without reducing its meaning to mimesis. Empty swimming pool or stormy sea, rustling of palm trees, shrieks of seagulls or sunset on a river island are more than just a material capturing of the moment – these ele-ments, in a romantic manner, represent both the inner landscape of emotions and thoughts and general spirit of the place and the meaning of topos.
The works on display create an atmosphere of tranquility – of either contemplation or medita-tion – and, by all means, of the much needed rest. This summer vibe serves to silence the eve-ryday noise – the overload of information, tasks, stress, and over-thinking – and create the impression that a utopian retreat does not necessarily have to be a holiday resort, but also a gallery, a park, a river, or somewhere inside ourselves. Summer is a state of mind.