love
n
1. an intense feeling
of tender affection and compassion
2. a passionate feeling
of romantic desire and sexual attraction
3. somebody who is
loved romantically
4. a romantic affair,
possibly sexual
5. strong liking for a
pleasure gained from something
6. something that
elicits deep interest and enthusiasm in somebody
7. used as an affectionate word to somebody
loved
8. U.K. used as a friendly term of address,
usually to a woman (informal)
9. the mercy, grace,
and charity shown by God to humanity
10. the worship of and
adoration of God
11. a score of zero in
sports and games, for example, tennis, squash and whist
v
1. vti
to feel tender affection for somebody, for example, a close relative or friend,
or something such as place,
an ideal or an animal
2. vti
to feel romantic and sexual desire or longing for somebody
3. vt
to like something or like doing something very much
4. vt
to feel and show of kindness and charity to somebody
5. vt
to have sexual intercourse with somebody (dated)
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia
2002. © 1993-2001
Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Nikola Uzunovski, One
and only, 2005
Combining an aggressive conceptual language and intimate topics, Uzunovski provokes the spectator
and turns him
into a necessary central character of his pieces.
The observer’s experiences, wishes and memories become a fundamental
material of his oeuvre.
Raul Martinez
The Right Way (Rialto), 2004, plexiglas, acryl, 100 x 30 cm, duble
side
(A simple decision becomes impossible,
a gentle flap of a
butterfly’s wing becomes an agitated welter of intent and possible reflections;
The artwork dissolves its matter and it’s
concept, when bracketed, the artwork disappears;
But we are there, incapable of affirmation, but conscious of the total
openness of life …)
Stefano Coletto
A
change in the air changes everything, 2004-, movement of the air, paper,
polycarbonate,
dim.
Variable
The artwork exists although we are not able to see it.
The invisible has the same importance as the visible, because the
meaning is not in the material, it
is in the
change. Every being, every one of us with his movement and presence in a
certain space,
in a certain
moment provokes a change. One change leads to another… in a chain reaction…
Maja Nedelkoska Brzanova
The Walk, 2005, DVD pal, 60 sec. Loop
Video installation reconstructing the effect of a snow storm, and a
sound of the walking on the
snow.
When we are lost in a snow storm, we don’t know if we are going towards
safety or in the opposite
direction, but we know that if we stop we lose every hope.
Everything we do in life is because we believe in it,
we can never predict the outcome of our ideas.
(the author)
Where does humanity begin? What keeps us together? Aren’t that those
moments, those small things
which make us one,
memories of the things we have in common, every tiny instance of our universal
ity? There are some things in the life of every one of us, which are not
just ours, things which belong
to the entire
humankind…
Who would not recall the smell of the ground after a summer rain, a
sunny day in late autumn, the
sound of fresh
snow under our feet, who can’t recall the first disappointments in their lives,
the fears,
the courage, the
love; can we bring the memory of those atoms of our lives, of our humanity to
anyone
to whom we say
,, do you remember…?
We can now understand perfectly, now we know a lot from the lives of the
others, we don’t have an
excuse to remain
speechless and absent in front of the other. Do you remember the sound of the
snow under your
feet?
Filip Piskačev
Snow
Against the proliferation of images and messages that outbreak our
capacity of perception daily,
Nikola Uzunovski’s work seems to reinstate the
value of emptiness and silence. Following Yves
Klein’s steps, the artist directs the spectator with playful and
innocent tricks just to abandon him
afterwards in the middle of nothing. Combining an aggressive conceptual language
and intimate
subjects, Uzunovski provokes the spectator and turns
him into necessary central character of his
pieces. And as it
happens in “Unsaid Wish or Snow”, turns his experiences, wishes and memories
into the main
material of his works.
Taken during the last three years in various locations visited by the
artist, the over one hundred
photographs that conform the series Snow are provocatively identical. Over exposed
and printed
on white
photographic paper – which inevitably remain untouched, question with their
absolute
whiteness and repetitive character the limits of art. Identifiable only through
the description that
goes with them –
which contains technical details and the place and date in which they were
taken,
Uzunovski’s monochromes invite the spectator to imagine and
recall what he has seen or believes
he has seen. At
the same time, they grant with a playful tone the absolute protagonism
to the
watcher and confer the sacred character traditionally reserved to the greatest
works of art to his
most
“meaningless” experiences.
Raul Martinez
The most beautiful and the worst experience of your
life
Nikola Uzunovski participates in the
experimental project – Gallery Evolution de l’Art (a
gallery of
contemporary art focused on exclusively non material art works with no material
residue, arised
from the
collaboration between Cesare Pietroiusti
and SPACE (SK), started in 2007; www.evolutiondelart.
net). The
projects of Uzunovski as well as those of the Gallery
Evolution de l’Art critically
attack the system
of art market and focus exclusively on the contemporary art.
Characteristic for his work is a particular sense for human dialogue,
empathy and a strong
interest in experimenting. One of his projects is to offer to the
visitors/buyers the possibility to
express the best and the worst experience in their lives.
It offers to the visitor the notion that his own personal experience,
which no one else can experience,
is the ultimate
experience.
Lydia Pribisova
The work exhibited at Untitled Exhibition, Milan
The structure of the system of contemporary art is based upon the
material value, which sometimes
exceeds its symbolical or communicational value. Rocko’s
(Nikola Uzunovski) work or antiwork
which was
exhibited at the “Untitled” exhibition analyzes that aspect of contemporary
(western)
art practice.
The interactive aspect of Rockos work requires
from the public an individual interpretation of art in
general.
Nemanja Cvijanović
At the “Untitled” exhibition in Milan (2005) there was no information
whatsoever about the artwork
of Nikola Uzunovski. Anyway the audience participated...
The white walls are the artwork...
The air in the room is the artwork...
The work is yet to arrive...
The snow falling outside is the artwork...
The presence of the artist is the artwork...
... each thought of the visitor, every
imagination created an individual work.
Nikola Uzunovski
Alessandro Mancassola, 2007, Courtesy, Unorossodue, Milano
The spectator has to dig out “Alessandro Mancassola”
in an empty and overlighted room.
Where the hell is he? There is no other reference, apart from a gossip
about a trip to Lapland
of the
mentioned Alessandro… Is it true? Yes as the gallerist
says, somewhere in the snow and
between the rain dears. I have never been in Lapland… I respond. The bright
light of the room is
blinding me...
Matteo Rubbi
Off, 2006
Due to space limitations, ”Untitled
(Off)” by Nikola Uzunovski is not exhibited in Press
to exit
project space.
The visitors interested in experiencing the work are kindly invited to
go to Kursumli An.
“Space off” is a game, which an artist sets up to the audience. In Kursumli An, there is no physical
work, but that is
just the end of the road, for those who decided to go there. The artwork we are
faced with, is the
decision to walk the way there.
With spatial dislocation and physical non existence of the work, the
artist transfers the act of the
work into the
mental space and time of the visitors. It plays with the expectations and
thoughts,
tests the power of
imagination, disappointment and angriness (because of the nonfeasance).
“Space off” raises the questions about the physical image of the work,
the space which has to foster
it and the
audience which has to digest the work. This kind of placement switches the
attention
to the
imaginative part of the work, spreads the space of the work along the road to
the gallery
and makes the
audience active participant of the work.
Elena Veljanovska
Untitled (video), 2004
The video “Untitled” plays on a provocation: the looping phrase
“Everything you will see after
this title will
be just your video” pushes the observer beyond the place where he or she
stands, to
a direct and unilateral
experience of the work of art and toward a coming to consciousness of one’s
own life as
“artistic realization”. The video is thus an impetus, on the one hand, for an
“Ecological
perception” of oneself in one’s own space, that is to say, that through the
perception of oneself in
one’s own
environment, one becomes aware of one’s immediate condition: where one is and
what
one is doing. On
the other hand, it becomes a stimulus for an “interpersonal perception” of
oneself,
through which the individual becomes aware of his or her own social
interactions and the world in
which he or she
lives.
Luigi Giovinazzo
What are you..., 2005, Ink on paper, 12 x 8 cm
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Is it
possible (cf. Jean Starobinski) to
project Newton’s Third Law, which explains the reasons of motion, onto a
psychological and psychoanalytical
plane, rather than
onto one of physics, in order to identify behavioral
type analogies?
If it is, then also the opposite argument would be valid, and thus in
the absence of an “action”,
there would be no
“reaction”, and thus no motion.
Nikola Uzunovski’s paradoxical intervention
focuses on the effects of betraying the expectation for
something to happen, an event, which induces the observers to a state of deadlock
with no way
out. But is not
the neutralization of the process of fruition, in itself, an action? And hence,
the effect
is served, in a
sense, secondarily: the trigger for a reflective action, which shifts the
process to
the realm of “I”.
Self-determination becomes necessary when facing the indefinite,
and it accompanies
the observer to
an awareness of his or her own role and, consequently, that of art and its
procesсes.
Alfredo Sigolo
Оn your way, 2007
“We can not discuss the art as ‘extra-humanÄ
or ‘super-humanÄ without considering one of
its fundamental
features, its constructive power in the framing of our human Universe.”
(Ernst Cassirer, Essay on Man)
Nikola Uzunovski belongs to the youngest
generation of artists. He has acquired his education
at the Academy
of Fine Arts, at the Department of Sculpture, in Naples, Italy, from which he
graduated in 2003. Immediately after that he continued with his post-graduate
studies in visual
arts at the
Faculty of Architecture in Venice where he acquired his M. A. degree in 2006.
This young artist of contemplative nature wants to research. His
researches are complex, of
conceptual nature and through them he shows his interest in the new digital
technologies, spatial
installations, etc., projects of the public art or the so called relation art.
Nikola Uzunovski has so far shown to the
Macedonian public several of his projects. The
project “Birthday Party”, set in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje in
2004, is actually accessing
the domain of
the so called relation art. Proceeding from the form of a birthday party and
concurrently a university exam he poses several questions: can the birthday party be
an exam;
can an exam of a
post-graduate also be a birthday party? Thus he indirectly poses the question
of mixing the
art with everyday life, question that was included, through various statements
and
practical forms, in his other artworks. The exhibition “Drops” shown in May 2005
in the Center of
Contemporary Arts in Skopje is a spatial installation (a variant of his
graduation exhibition) composed
of 30 elements
of various dimensions, made of epoxide resin and
Plexiglas, as an association
of blood and
water: “The starting point for this installation was the world of the
phenomenal, drops
reduced to a sign through the process of conceptualization. The drop as a
natural phenomenon and
also as a poetic
sign where the unconscious sensation is being materialized: as a sign of
transition
from one state
into another, of the changes and the inconsistence of nature, and consequently,
of
ourselves.” Part of the exhibits of his work “Snow” included in the exhibition
“White and Other,
Art Anyway” (Turin, Italy), were also shown at
the 7th Biennial of Young Artists at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Skopje. They consisted of photographs of snow from different
parts of the
world, printed on
paper, that by its physical composition does not differ from the paper before
the
printing, where the monochrome panels are meant to involve the spectator into
the art creation act
as well,
pointing the importance of her/his personal experience in the process of
conceiving and
interpreting the artwork. In 2006, in the gallery “Press to Exit” Nikola showed the
artwork “Without
Space”. A paper note was posted on the door of the gallery informing the
spectators that due the
inconvenience of the showroom the artwork could not be exhibited there, yet all those
who want
to see it were
advised to go to Kuršumli An, in the Old Skopje
Bazaar. However, the artwork was
not physically
exhibited there neither, which was the artist’s statement on the significance
of his
personal decision and his personal experience in revealing and comprehending the
artwork, casting
the spectator
the role of an active agent and part of the art creation act.
Actually, lead by his contemplative nature, Nikola indirectly dives into
the depths of the
super-artistic comprehending of the creative act, thus addressing the issues immanent
to the postmodern
esthetics and contemporary society as a result of the actual processes which in
the past
decades occurred on the international artistic scene, and consequently, on the
Macedonian artistic
scene, as well.
The new age and the technological advancement, the new time and the
intense development
of the new
scientific achievements which lead to serious and subsequent social and
historical
changes, necessarily gave rise to changes or “revolutionizing” of the art,
initiating a long-term process
of reexamination, polemics and discussions, where the positive
and negative attitudes always
collided on the issue of abandoning of the traditional values, the question of
the new artistic media,
the essence and
the position of the artwork in the contemporary artistic processes.
Namely, since the mid 1970s, and especially since the mid 1990s certain
movements were
initiated on the Macedonian artistic scene, differing by their character from the
traditional (classical)
forms of artistic engagement.
Induced by the limited interest of the artist himself he altered
his personal
approach towards the creative act along with the forms of expression, breaking
the
then “modern
comprehension of the modeling artistic procedures”.
He was more evidently abandoning
the artistic
approach of the time where the artwork was conditionally “closed” and he was
more evidently
interpreting the artwork as a “process”, as an unfinished or unclosed
achievement.
The new artistic practice lead to breaking of
the clichés of the traditional understanding of the art
and the artist,
where the artwork is inserted in the very center of
the problem, concurrently opening
a series of
questions that arouse our considerations on the altered role of the artist in
the
creation of the artwork, on the openness of the artist towards the outer
subjects, as well as the
“awareness of the artist of his altered role,
not only as an artist but as a subject of the community
whose part he
acknowledges and agrees to be”.
The latest project of Nikola Uzunovski at the
National Gallery of Macedonia is part of a
series of
exhibitions (projects) he has been working on for some time now and that access
the
domain of the so
called relation art and whose essence (idea) proceeds from the junction, the relation
of art and man,
that is, from the everyday life experience. Namely, through a series of
projects
Nikola tries to start a polemic and a discussion, making an allusion to
the essential moments that
frame our personal
life experience and their role, their influence upon our attitude towards the
art
and the
comprehension of the artwork, that is, the act of artistic creation. So, he
treats people like
a kind of an artwork
through the act of decision (The Real Way (Rialto) 2004), through their choice
to be present
and experience the artwork (Without Space, 2006), pointing the personal,
subjective
moment of
perception (Snow, 2004) and rising many considerations on his position and his
relation
with the artist,
the artwork and the artistic creative act (What’re You Waiting For, 2005): What
is
the artistic
creative act? When, why and for what reason or person is the artist making or
creating
a particular
artwork? Is the artistic creative act a reflection of certain cultural, social
assumptions of
which the spectator
is the final “consumer”? When does the spectator become an active subject in
the creative
act...? What are the motives of the spectator? Etc...
In his latest work “Walking” Nikola is focusing his attention
exclusively on the meaning of
our life experience.
And here again the artwork is not a physical object. According to the artist,
the
artwork is the long experience of the spectator. He believes that in order to
be on a certain place
(in this case the museum) one had to have
previous knowledge or experience that has aroused the
interest for that place. So, that experience which is continuous,
goes further on, making the whole
life of the
spectator an artwork: “The museum becomes a picture frame which proves it. The
only
object in the empty
museum is the spectator”.
The absence of a certain object in the exhibiting room is meant to turn
our unique life
experience into a kind of an artwork. Namely, the spectator, that is, her/his
decision, her/his way,
her/his
experience shaped in the long process of making a proper spiritual space as a
result of the
self-cognizance, becomes part of the artistic act. We can discern the tendency of the
artist to defocus
the attention
from the art object in its classical sense towards the spectator who becomes an
active subject in
the creative process.
“We are today inside the artwork itself, we even participate in its
making, we play and have
fun with it and
with the others and we wreathe it with the aura of the real life. ‘The form of
the
artwork’, as described by Serge Danet, ‘proceeds from
the relation with the world we are capable of
comprehending... each artwork is an offer for cohabitation in the common world.”
Maja Nedelkoska Brzanova
1. Aquille Bonito Oliva
in the preface to the mentioned exhibition where he refers to Nikola Uzunovski and his
researches, Maja Čankulovska
Mihajlovska, “White and Other, Art Anyway”, Art Republika, 2005, no. 5, p. 44.
2. Maja Čankulovska
Mihajlovska, “White and Other, Art Anyway”, Art Republika, Skopje, 2005, no. 4, p. 45.
3. Liljana Nedelkovska,
“Nikola Uzunovski: Drops, installation”, The Large
Glass, Skopje, 2005/2006, no. 19-20,
p. 123.
4. Milan Damjanović, “The Origin of the
Art as a Philosophical Problem”, Makedonska kniga, Skopje, 2002, p.
33.
5. Nebojša Vilić,
“The Artist in Conversation. Who is the Macedonian Artist Talking to?”, National Gallery of
Macedonia, Skopje 2006, p. 41; Ivica
D`eparoski, On the Artwork, Kultura,
Skopje, 1998, p. 174.
6. Nebojša Vilić,
“The Artist in Conversation. Who is the Macedonian Artist Talking to?”, National Gallery of
Macedonia, Skopje, 2006, p. 46-51.
7. Sonja Abad`ieva, “Transformations 2: the
Modalities of the Macedonian Modern and Contemporary Sculpture”,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, 2002, p. 85.
About the authors:
Maja Nedelkoska is a curator at the National Gallery of
Macedonia, Cifte Amam, Skopje, Macedonia
Stefano Colletto
is a curator at the Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa in Venice, Italy
Luigi Giovinazzo is a free lance curator based
in Naples, Italy
Alfredo Sigolo is a curator and an art critic
based in Rovigo, Italy
Raul Martinez is an artist and a curator working in Madrid, Milan, and
New York
Elena Veljanovska is a curator working in
Skopje, Macedonia
Filip Piskacev is a philosopher based in Berlin, Germany
Lydia Pribisova is a free lance curator,
critic and a gallerist, works in Rome and Bratislava
Matteo Rubbi is an artist and a curator based in Milan, Italy
Catalogues
"On your
way", Maja Nedelkoska,
National Gallery of Macedonia,
2007
"Videoreport Italia 2004_05, Galleria Comunale d’Arte
Contemporanea Monfalcone, Italy 2006
"Becoming place”, Luigi Giovinazzo, Lerici, Italy, 2006
"The artist in conversation", Tatjana Bundalevska,
Nebijsa Vilic, Cifte Amam, Skopje, Macedonia, 2006
"The sun on the wall"
Gregor Podnar, LCCA, Arsenal, Riga, Latvia, 2006
"Press to exit project space book one" Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanovska, Press to
exit, 2006
"Tende al
infinito", Stefano Coletto, Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venezia Italy,
2006
"Untitled", Viaventura XV, Alessio Ascari, Eduardo Bonaspetti, ed.
Postmedia books, Milan, Italy, 2005
"Sonance network" Simon Hafale, Vienna, Austria, 2005
“50th Venice biennale”, Biennale di Venezia, Dobrila Denegri, catalogue, ed.
Marsilio, Venice, 2005
"White and other, in any case, art", Achille Bonito Oliva, Palazzo
Cavour, Turin, (Italy), 2005
"Drops", Center for Contemporary Arts, Galleria Kursumli An, Skopje
(Macedonia), 2005
"Play 04",Lelio Aiello, Cecilia Casorati, Donatella Landi, Luca
Valerio, Rome,(Italy) 2005
"7th Biennale of youg Art", Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
(Macedonia), 2005
"Transmission", ProgettoZero+, Kjosk, Bassano dell Grappa, Italy),
2004
"Quaderni del corso Superiore di Arte Visiva", Giacinto di
Pietrantonio e Angela Vettese, Charta, Milano Italy 2004
"Q13-Building", Alberto Zanchetta, Galleria Contemporaneo, Mestre
Italy, 2004
"88-ma Colletiva", Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venezia Italy, 2004
Articles & press
Matteo Chini, Any thing, Flash Art Italia, 263, April
2006 IT
Gordana
Nastevska-Manasievska, Vistinskiot pat e onaa nasoka sto samite si ja izbirame,
Tea Moderna, pp. 36-37, 24.1.
2007 MK
Liljana Nedelkovska, Nikola Uzunovski:Kapki. Golemoto Staklo, n.19-20.2005 pp.123 MK
Maja Cankulovska-Mihajlovska, Belo i drugo, Art Republika, n.4 2005 pp.43-45 MK
Marina Peglieri, L'arte bianca, La republiva To
20.10.2005 IT
Renzo Ozzano, Quando l'arte va in bianco, Torino
Cronaca, 20.10.2005 IT
Roberto Moroni, L'arte contemporanea
con... Corriere di Novara, 03.12.2005 IT
Palazzo Cavour, Torino Cronaca, 9 11 2005 IT
Barbara Gianbusso, Il candore
della neve nell'arte contemporanea,
6.11.2005 IT
Tutti i colori dell bianco,
Lorena Tadorni, Vernissage 11.2005 4 pp
IT
Flash Art News, Bianco, che più bianco
non si può, Flash Art Italia
11.2005 IT
Il bianco e altro, Galatea 2005, 11 2005 IT
Nebojsa Jakonov, Nikola Uzunovski megu velikanite, Utrinski Vesnik, 22.9.2005
pp.26 MK
Gudo Curto, Il bianco
e altro..., Torino Sette,
La Stampa, 21. 10.2005 pp. IT
Nebojsa Jakonov, Interesiranje za socijalniot kontekst na umetnosta, Utrinski Vesnik, 27.10.2005
pp.25 MK
Francesca Pasini, L'artista vede prima di capire. Parola di Nonas, L'unita 27. 7. 2003
pp.28 IT
Notizie, Flash Art Italia, n.244 2004 pp.
71 IT
Press releases
"The artist in conversation", Cifte Amam, Skopje, Macedonia, 2006 MK
"The sun on the wall" LCCA, Arsenal, Riga, Latvia,
2006 EN
"Tends to infinity", Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venezia Italy, 2006 EN / IT
"Untitled", Viaventura XV, Milan, Italy,
2005 IT
"White and other, in any case, art", Palazzo Cavour, Turin, (Italy), 2005 EN / IT
"Multiplo 2, NO Gallery,
"Drops", Center for Contemporary
Arts, Galleria Kursumli An, Skopje (Macedonia),
2005 MK
"Play 04", Rome,(Italy) 2005 IT
"7th Biennale of youg Art", Museum of
Contemporary Art, Skopje (Macedonia), 2005 MK
"Transmission", ProgettoZero+, Kjosk, Bassano dell Grappa,
Italy, 2004 EN / IT
"Quaderni del corso Superiore di Arte Visiva", Milano Italy
2004 IT
"Q13-Building", Galleria Contemporaneo, Mestre Italy, 2004 IT
"Transmission", ProgettoZero+, Kjosk, Bassano dell Grappa,
Italy, 2004 EN / IT
"88-ma Colletiva", Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venezia Italy,
2004 IT