<<                CONCISE FORMS  written by Jesa Denegri                                   The fact that Milica Lukic and Miroslav Perkovic, in the catalogue of the exhibition which was held in the Gallery of the Cultural Center (Belgrade, October 1995), quote a fragment of Marcelin Pleynet's text on Tony Smith (from the study Structuralism and Painting, 1985) instead of an introduction on their own work is indicative for comprehending the origin and meaning of the works of these two Belgrade artists who have been living and working in Spain for a number of years. Namely, the very image of their works (and aided by the above mentioned text) enables us to discern that certain minimalistic presumptions are characteristic for the typology of these works, however not as a sign of Donald Judd's typical minimalistic 'specific object" (a severe series of identical modules in a regular order, extreme impersonalization of the execution, a conscious monotony of the presentation) but rather these two Belgrade artists works are closer to certain pre or post-minimalistic characteristics where the artistic object is a unique "piece", where the allocation of the objects ("pieces") in the exhibition space can be provisional and identical when placed on a wall (as a picture) or directly on the gallery floor (as a sculpture). And what is possibly most important in ascertaining the differences between minimalistic normatives and the current post-minimalistic provisionalism is that in the latter case it is not a question of reduction to the absolutely regular geometric form in the spirit of the "less is more" motto, but rather concise geometrical shapes whose impact is more plastic and visual than purely mental; what we therefore have are works which seem to invite one to see and observe rather than works which are capable of exhausting and satisfying themselves by mere thought. In the case of Milica Lukic this occurs, as she is a painter by education, therefore neither being capable of nor wanting to forsake color in her work. Namely, her objects in metal, distinctly vertical and most frequently of identical format which launch themselves into space from the gallery walls as a rule have, beside the natural surface of the metal, spacious color surfaces as well (two shades of blue, sometimes yellow) and by this contain and preserve the beck for observation which is otherwise primarily characteristic of paintings and fine arts. However, upon observing these objects one cannot go about it is as with painting in a purely frontal, i.e. static manner as they seem to demand exactly what Pleynet shall propose for Smith: that the viewing be conducted in a "wandering, straying, meandering, stepping back..." manner. When one adds the momentary effect of shadows which fall upon the surrounding gallery wall from the object, the effect in each object is always different depending on the spot where the light which causes these shadows penetrates, then the impression caused by observing these objects and the space surrounding them becomes more complete and definitely more sophisticated. That contributes towards the fact that in Milica Lukic's case geometry is not an a priori mental presumption but sooner a consequence of the need to enable the plastic shape, similarly yet not identically as pictures had previously done, to be seen and now also experienced in a tactile manner as well in its evident material concreteness. An even larger degree of deviation from minimalistic austereness is displayed in Miroslav Perkovic's objects, however always in the framework of concrete and concise forms. An architect by education, his partiality towards plastic thinking possibly stems from there in relation to forms which are executed in solid mater ials on the basis of a precise design, in this case steel and aluminium, by industrial metal treatment technological procedures which are available to the artist. As a rule his forms have round and curvy contours, devoid of volume and freed from physical weight, weightless as a metal armor "shell" or reduced to a mere material line of a spatial drawing. Placed in various positions (on the floor, leaning or attached on the gallery wall) they potentionally allow a change of the physical positioning of the object or a change in the image of its immediate surroundings also owing to the role of light and the appearance of shadows caused by the penetration of light on the wall. Constructed from solid and lasting materials, these objects seem to strive towards an impression of dematerialization, therefore their reductionalism is based more on the effect of surprise rather than demanding irrevocable respect of certain undisputed treatment laws. When interpreting this art, another Pleynet quote on Smith springs to mind: "If a structure exists, that structure should be viewed on the level of infinite deviation and not commencing from the normality of a certain code."                                   from pregled br.1, published by center for visual culture, novi sad 1995 objects, show of milica lukic & miroslav perkovic, gallery golden eye, center for visual culture, novi sad 1995