“Magic from Orlando”
Exhibition “Magic from Orlando” is a retrospective view on the first actions of the artist Aleksandrija Ajdukovic to materialize her guiding idea in the spirit of original and subtle strategies of exposing the reality phenomenon in which fashion, society, media, sports and the market are intertwined.
In the early phase of her artistic work, the artist started a photo series of people with branded caps of American National Basketball Association (NBA) clubs, such as the Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic, Portland Blazers, Houston Rockets. Taken in 2002 near the Flea Market in Novi Beograd, photographs captured a complex cultural phenomenon present on the streets of Belgrade, which dates back to the 1990s. These photographs transcend sports achievements of the former Yugoslavia and national feelings in the war-torn country, to what they are certainly referring, because Ajdukovic was interested in the unusual, less visible aspects of the event. Perverting the expected, she approaches the sensation from the unsensational angle, while giving special media status to the “ordinary” people, raising the question of expansion of global market trends, branding, winning the public and private spaces.
Portraits of people with NBA caps incite the observer to stop and rethink the behind-the-scenes functioning of the current “magical world of pictures.” Featured in the Street Gallery, in the backstage of the former distribution of global film industry brands, they themselves appear to be filmic, open and accessible, clearly pointing to the dynamic position of the photographer and background of relations which made the photographs possible. Aleksandrija Ajdukovic also exposed to viewers the filmic McGuffin structure which she recognized within brands, media and modern myths. She reminds us that McGuffin could be anything or nothing, around which the action is being built, and is in conjunction with the appearance of suspense, tension experienced by the observers, who are at the same time superior since they know and are powerless for they cannot intervene and change the course of events. The context encrypted in the portraits of people with NBA caps was very intriguing for the artist also in the years that followed, and so she actualized a number of exceptional works with the intention to detect and motivate deliberation on the social movements and trends, as well as the position of individual who may know (something), but, seduced by the picture, cannot use the mechanisms of resistance.
Mara Prohaska Markovic
Izložba „Magija iz Orlanda“ predstavlja retrospektivni pogled na prve postupke umetnice Aleksandrije Ajduković da materijalizuje svoju ideju vodilju u duhu originalnih i suptilnih strategija razotkrivanja fenomena stvarnosti u kojoj se prepliću moda, društvo, mediji, sport i tržište.
U ranoj fazi svog umetničkog rada umetnica je započela seriju fotografija ljudi sa brendiranim kapama klubova američke nacionalne košarkaške asocijacije NBA, kao što su Chicago BullsOrlando Magic Portland Blazers Houston Rockets. Snimljene 2002. u blizini Buvlje pijace na Novom Beogradu, fotografije beleže kompleksan kulturološki fenomen prisutan na ulicama Beograda, koji datira još od devedesetih godina dvadesetog veka. Ove fotografije prevazilaze sportske uspehe bivše Jugoslavije i nacionalna osećanja u ratom razorenoj državi, na šta svakako referišu, jer Ajduković je zainteresovana za oneobičene, ne toliko vidljive aspekte događaja. Pervertirajući očekivano ona pristupa senzaciji iz nesenzacionalnog ugla, dok “običnim” ljudima daje poseban medijski status, otvarajući pitanja ekspanzivnih globalnih tržišnih trendova, brendiranja, osvajanja javnog i privatnog prostora.
Portreti ljudi sa NBA kapama navode posmatrača da zastane i promisli zakulisne igre funkcionisanja aktuelnog “magijskog sveta slika”. Predstavljeni u Uličnoj galeriji, backstage-u nekadašnje distribucije brendova svetske filmske industrije, i sami deluju filmično, otvoreno i pristupačno, jasno upućuju na dinamičnu poziciju fotografa i pozadinu odnosa koji su fotografije učinili mogućim. Aleksandrija Ajduković izlaže pogledu i filmsku McGuffin-ovsku strukturu koju prepoznaje unutar brenda, medija i savremenih mitova. Ona podseća da McGuffin može biti bilo šta ili ništa, oko čega se gradi radnja, a u vezi je sa pojavom suspensa, iskustvom napetosti posmatrača koji je istovremeno superioran jer zna i nemoćan jer ne može da se umeša i promeni tok događaja. Kontekst koji je upisan u portrete ljudi sa NBA kapama je, i u godinama koje su usledile, bio veoma intrigantan za umetnicu, te je realizovala niz izuzetnih radova sa namerom da detektuje i motiviše promišljanje društvenih kretanja i trendova, kao i pozicije pojedinca koji možda (nešto) zna, ali, zaveden slikom, ne barata mehanizmima otpora.
Mara Prohaska Marković
Foto: Žolt Kovač