• 03/11/2023/

• Terra Gallery

Nemanja Milenković  “One of the many stories about disappearance”

In the Gallery “Terra” on Friday, November 3, was opened the exhibition of Nemanja Milenković  “One of the many stories about disappearance”

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Nemanja Milenković, (1996, Novi Sad), completed his basic academic studies (2019) and master’s academic studies (2021) at the Department of Painting at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Since 2021, he has been employed as a professional associate at the Department of Painting at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He exhibited at 13 solo exhibitions and at over 30 group exhibitions in the country and abroad. He is a member of SULUV (Union of Associations of Visual Artists of Vojvodina) and Shock ZaDruga, within which he arranges the art program.

Drama: “The Red Books – Who Writes Rhem?”

Introduction

There are four scenes on exhibit at Terra Gallery. Every scene has a distinct storyline that, when combined, provide an understanding of one of several disappearance stories. All the protagonists depicted in the drawings and installations are symbolically represented by the principal figure, the main protagonist. The protagonist is the one who vanishes and undergoes various changes. The person who is endangered or facing dire circumstances.

Scene I
Plot

The protagonist stays close to his group, is nearly never alone, and moves on four legs. Regardless of rank, he travels a great distance and passes through a variety of phantasmagorias and sceneries. He encounters dilemmas which he never encountered before. Some of the group’s members start to assume strange forms. They are enormous, changing colour as they meander over the protagonist. Their eyes are crimson, they proliferate, and take on forms of legendary creatures. The protagonist is surrounded by a variety of hybrid species, and he smells trouble. He becomes aware that a red dot is trailing him, removing his closest companions one by one. This red dot haunts him over and over again. This moment is like an eye, luring the protagonist in like a hook; this moment is a large hand playing tricks on the protagonist. He flees. On thin ice, blazing fire, devastated fields, in perished forests, with his group, increasingly strange and smaller by the minute.

Scene II

Culmination

The protagonist is lonely. We can barely make him out. Almost everything else is lost to us, but for the red dots pointed at his head, forelimbs, and hindlimbs. The phantasmagorical nature from the previous scene becomes a reality. The changes that influenced the protagonist also have affected it. The protagonist flees the impending threat, which up until yesterday was his best friend, on the broad horizon. Something’s gone wrong. He feels scared as smoke engulfs the vast stretches of space and the wind drags everything ahead of him. He fears going missing and being abandoned by his group. The protagonist occasionally possesses the power to fly, but even in those situations, he is unsure of his ability to escape danger. Rarely does anyone manage to save or protect themselves in these circumstances. This time the protagonist has nowhere to hide.

Scene III

Turning Point

The protagonist has gone missing.

We are given some hints to reconstruct the event. We can make out where the protagonist previously stood, as well as his footprints and direction of travel. We are unable to determine the cause of the protagonist’s absence based on these clues. His traces are made of salt. Why did he leave a trail of salt?

Scene IV

Resolution

Salt. It surrounds us. Beneath the legs that traversed this area, beneath the stories previously mentioned, but also beneath a plethora of additional stories about vanishing.

Will salt cure and absorb the consequences of disappearing?

To illustrate the number of lost individuals, how much salt is required?

This text was created by interpreting visual content in space.

Darija Dragojlović,

Visual Artist