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NOLIFEGUARD - Vlasta Žanić
Date From:
30.08.2021
Galery Flora 8.00pm
NOLIFEGUARD - Vlasta Žanić
He is nowhere to be found, neither horizontally nor vertically, neither in realitynor in a gallery interpretation of it.There is no choice then, but to question the good intentions of the universalorder, argue that we are also part of it, and demand our idea of justice or balancebe taken into account, too. Instead of allowing him to leave us dry. To makethings worse, it seems like he is trying hard to convince us of the absence ofrules.But how to doubt him when we know that everything goes according tounquestionably precise universal laws, so although most of its rules are stillinaccessible to us, whatever little we have been able to shape with a formulatestifies to how everything else too is subjected to formulas of one kind oranother.For example, sitting in a pine forest in summer, on an Adriatic island, we areoverwhelmed by the sound of crickets. The crickets have a common rhythm,they rub together their scrapers harmoniuosly, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter.Resembling myriads of infinitesimal but loud handsaws, they cannot cut throughwood, but they chop the air into tiny pieces. Their instrument is so fine andfragile, and the sound could not be heard at all if their body was not both anamplifier and a speaker: it vibrates, the cricket’s body is what we hear. Eachtime a cricket joins in, it takes its place in a string orchestra, where thousandsof them already are bowing in the same rhythm. We could explain this harmonyby the fact that crickets cannot buzz any other way, just as water naturally flowsdownhill, if that rhythm didn’t suddenly fade and the balanced chitter-chatterdidn’t turn into a completely anarchistic rumble – it’s like letting the kids outinto the yard to play, like giving the crickets ten seconds off, to allow each onerub its wings together they it wants. But soon after, each one goes back to itsplace, grabs its bow and carries on: chitter-chatter. In other words, crickets canplay in other ways, not just in the predefined rhythm, so the question is why dothey accept it, why wouldn’t they play each on its own, following its own ryhtm?This means their synchronicity is determined. Just as the navigation of fishor birds in a flock is preordained, in contrast to herds of cattle that follow theleader, they all have the same GPS and move through their medium completelysynchronously.So if we rose above the Earth, more precisely, above the Adriatic coast,we might hear how this sounds. This is not a complex harmony, and we mayrecognize some signals, like in the Morse code; but this is a tune we have yet todecipher. Just as we have yet to decipher the language in which the message wasaddressed.The pataphysicists say that in the sum of two plus two equaling four, onemust account for the speed of the wind. Vlasta Žanić applies this rule in herexhibition: she gets the result by adding the sound message of crickets and its printed translation on the walls, also taking into consideration the warmth of theair. In fact, the higher the temperature is, the louder the crickets are. (Moreover,the heat makes the lifeguard seek shade, so this may be the reason why he isnowhere to be seen.)So just as crickets fill the space with their relentless sound, so the writtenmessage like an infinite crossword puzzle fills the walls. The message toolapses into synchronicity of its own: if we read the text on any part of the wall,horizontally or vertically, we always get the same word, like a tiny fish in a bigschoal.If we read the orderly rhythm of nature’s orchestra as an SOS message, whichwe should pass on to a competent authority because we obviously cannot saveourselves, Vlasta’s interpretation reminds us that we don’t really have anyoneto pass it on to. The universal order has given up on us and the only thing wecan do is document the state of affairs, mark our situation. Ever since mandeveloped self-awareness and the awareness of life, he has felt the need to leavea mark; in ancient times people documented their existence using palm printson the walls of a cave, and a lifetime prisoner scrathes lines in the wall of his cell.In a free and modern world, a report of existence ceases to be direct or literal,and the role of documenting is taken over by the gallery walls. Vlasta, however,uses the walls as a modern cave or an upgraded prison cell; the walls, like insolitary confinement, are obsessively filled with the same text, while the contentcorresponds to the one that once filled a cave, content that speaks to a being ofa higher rank, a spirit of the mountain or a god of fire – in this case, a universalsavior. So just as a caveman discovered flint and assumed the role of God, and ashepherd realized that the spirit of the mountain did not pay any attention to hisprayers but sent wind and wolves on its own accord, we too are faced with thefact that we cannot rely on the spirit’s common sense and compassion. We’re atan impasse, counting on help, but the universal order clearly has other thingsto do, the savior is on a business trip, and what we’re trying to comprehendourselves does not help.For example, we see that the COVID-19 preventive measures do not makemuch sense – the Slovenes had a curfew, we introduced moderate measures, theBosnians had only mild measures, and our statistics were the same. Israel boastsninety percent vaccination rate, and their numbers are going wild. Who to relyon if the universal savior is not there?We could replace the idea of the saviour with the idea of a common humanspirit, i.e., the sum of its most excellent individuals or accomplishments, butin a temporary or lasting period of global crisis we see that there is no suchtogetherness. Israel pays double and takes what the EU should have get, andit turns out that the vaccine stock market is a place of fishy business, a fleamarket ruled by arguments, a dog-eat-dog market. And what characterizes sucha market is not the spirit of togetherness but the profit of individuals. Or, asŠotola says in Družba Isusova: “The traits that adorn a merchant do not exactlycontribute to the calling of a priest.” Or: “Wine spilling over the edge of the glasscreates neither glory in heavens nor greater pleasure in the throat, but only asplash on the floor.” Again, we have nothing to rely on.
At first glance, we are amazed by the synchronicity of the written words,but then we realize that a simple rule is responsible for this: any word, writtenhorizontally and vertically, in any space in the crossword puzzle, is alwayslegible.There is also a formula that clearly determines the connection between thedynamics of chirping and the temperature of the air. This is the law formulatedin 1897 by Amos Dolbear, American physicist and inventor, which says it isnecessary to count the voices of small insects in one minute (N) and then insertthe number in a simple formula: T = 10 + (N -40)/7.Consequently, despite the almost chaotic experience of the space whereletters dance before our eyes and our ears are deafened by the sound, it turnsout that these chaoses are precisely determined by formulas that belong to theuniversal order.In Croatian, we usually translate the word lifeguard as ‘beach guard’, butit literally translates as the guardian of life, that is, the Savior. However, Vlastaturns the handsaw upside down, applies the rule by denying at a metaphoricallevel the one who has set up the entire system, the one who should also beresponsible for its use.It is similar to crickets – we can calculate the temperature, but we still do notknow why, in contrast to flies or mosquitoes, they react to the heat by rubbingtogether their scrapers. So just as Vlasta protests over the lack of the spirit oftogetherness, with which the society should replace the idea of savior, perhapscrickets too raise their voice on behalf of nature, which does not count on us tosave it, but sends an SOS to someone in space.Dogs send it too, so do babies, and the exhaust of an old Tomos moped alsovoices its complaints. The speakers in abandoned factories and hotels howl andgrowl, as well as the roots of old, cut-off pine; the bottom of the sea screamsunder the weight of a cruise ship, loaded tankers cry in the Panama Canal, theirrivets already bursting out. Red alarm!, whales screech in the distance, the Gulfof Mexico is being evacuated. They won’t be able to save themselves, they willbecome the oil that would be extracted tomorrow. And the crickets still roar,rubbing their wings together, scraping like a skipping record; everyone is gonealready, but they still send their protests to someone in space. We scream forand against everything, known and unknown; the nature screams too, so doesthe society, yet no one hears no one.Boris Greiner
Vlasta Žanić graduated from the Department ofSculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagrebin 1991, and has since continually been exhibitingand expressing herself through various media(sculpture, installation, video, performance art,happening, text…) and exploring their commonpoints and inter-relations. She focuses on topicsranging from personal and intimate ones totheoretical and conceptual contemplationson the idea of life nd art, or the meaning andposition of the author, the audience and thepiece.Her works have been displayed in over thirtysolo- and numerous group exhibitions in Croatiaand worldwide. She has participated on filmfestivals, art workshops and performative artfestivals.She has received a number of awards for herwork: the 8th Triennial of Croatian SculptureAward in 2003, the Annual Award by theCroatian Association of Artists in 2005, theOktavijan Award in the Experimental Film at the14th Days of Croatian Film, the Annual Awardby Vjesnik in 2006, the International MultimediaFestival Visura Apperta Award in 2010 and 2014,and the Croatian Section Award at the PragueQuadrennial of Performance Design and Spacein 2015.Her works are held in public and privatecollections of contemporary art, such as theMuseum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, theZagreb City Museum, Museum of Fine Arts inSplit, the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik,Filip Trade Collection in Zagreb, etc.Since 2010 to 2018. she has been assistantprofessor at the Department of Sculpture of theArts Academy in Split, from 2018. she is teachingas a professor at the Department of Sculpture,ALU, Zagreb.contact:[email protected]

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