Radovič med drugim pokaže, da danes podobe izgubljajo svojo verodostojnost, na primer pri presoji dogodkov po svetu. Ne gre več preprosto za vprašanje resnice ali neresnice.
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UPRIZORITEV IDEJE: PROJEKT HIROŠIMA BOJANA RADOVIČA
Esej: Marina Gržinić
Popolnoma nova fotografska serija Bojana Radoviča z naslovom Projekt Hirošima je nastala na Japonskem, kjer je umetnik preživel daljše obdobje rezidenčnega bivanja. Naslov serije je nedvoumen: Hirošima.
Nemudoma prikliče v spomin ameriško bombardiranje Hirošime in Nagasakija avgusta 1945, ki je pomenilo konec druge svetovne vojne.
Mesti sta bili izbrisani z zemljevida, bombe so ubile na tisoče ljudi.
Življenje in spomin na uničenje ter ruševine kot spomeniki – vsi ti elementi se v Radovičevem projektu pojavijo istočasno in izjemno močno. Na eni strani imamo sodobno japonsko družbo, za katero Radovič uporabi estetiko ulične fotografije, fotografski dnevnik in reprezentacijo vsakodnevnih prostorov in identitet, na drugi pa zgodovino bombardiranja Hirošime. Radovič odlično izkoristi moč estetike »naključnega posnetka« vsakdanjega življenja, kar poveže s svojo intenzivno konceptualno fotografsko obravnavo atomskega bombardiranja Hirošime 6. avgusta 1945.
Ti posnetki so odraz življenja in izjemne vitalnosti.
Fotografije odpirajo prostor novemu razmišljanju o japonski družbi kot simptomu Zahoda, zlasti v medijih, modi, javnem prostoru ali pri uporabi avantgardnih strategij v vsakdanjem življenju. Tu lahko razmišljamo o uniformiranosti in identiteti ali o pop subkulturi, modnih slogih in identiteti. Pri preučevanju paralel Zahod/Zahod (hiperkapitalistična japonska družba) ali Vzhod/Zahod naletimo na primere simptomatske logike zahodnih medijskih strategij in vizualne reprezentacije, ki so povezane na precej sofisticirane načine.
Vse to pa Radovič kontrastira s fotografskim medijem, ki premišlja zgodovino. Toda na kakšen način? Konceptualno. Fotografije ne rekonstruirajo zgodovine, temveč uprizarjajo idejo – idejo trka med življenjem in zgodovino, življenjem in uničenjem.
Radovič uporabi performativnost in ponovno fotografiranje zgodovinskih podob in spomenikov, pri čemer vključi celo vrsto presekov, ki pod vprašaj postavljajo sam fotografski aparat. Ta del je eksperimentalen: Radovič elemente dokumentacije postavlja v nove kontekste. Mimoidočega, denimo, prosi, naj drži ikonično zgodovinsko fotografijo gobastega oblaka po atomskem bombardiranju Nagasakija 9. avgusta 1945. Ali pa raziskuje teksture dreves v Hirošimi, ko s pomočjo improvizirane naprave skenira njihova debla.
Drevesa so dovolj stara, da so preživela eksplozijo, in še vedno živijo.
Telo – človeško ali kot korpus narave – je v središču vseh teh fotografij. Ta telesa so hkrati ekstatična in kataleptična, kar kaže na to, da sta maskiranje, dekoriranje in prekodiranje telesa in zgodovine način komunikacije in povezovanja.
Poleg tega Radovič pokaže, da danes podobe izgubljajo svojo verodostojnost, na primer pri presoji dogodkov po svetu. Ne gre več preprosto za vprašanje resnice ali neresnice, kajti v ospredje stopajo vprašanja verjetnosti in neverjetnosti, ki presegajo klasično dihotomijo resnično/lažno. Zato problem, ki ga Radovič zastavi v projektu Hirošima, ni več vezan samo na mentalne podobe in zgodovinsko zavest, temveč na paradoksalno faktičnost novih medijskih in fotografskih podob.
Celotno delo Bojana Radoviča je zato temeljno usmerjeno v artikulacijo reprezentacijske politike fotografije.
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STAGING AN IDEA: HIROSHIMA PROJECT BY BOJAN RADOVIČ
Essay by Marina Gržinić
Bojan Radovič‘s brand new photo series entitled Hiroshima project is on Japan from Japan, where he spent an extended period as an artist in residency. The title of the series is unmistakable: Hiroshima.
It immediately evokes the memory of the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 by the United States, which ended the Second World War. The two cities were obliterated and the bombs killed thousands of people.
These features, the life and memory of the destruction and the ruins as monuments, appear simultaneously and powerfully in this project by Radovič. On the one hand, there is contemporary Japanese society, for which Radovič uses the aesthetics of street photography, the photo diary and the representation of everyday spaces and identities, and on the other, the history of the bombing of Hiroshima. Radovič makes excellent use of the power of the “snapshot aesthetic” for everyday life, which he combines with his intensely conceptual photographic view of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on the August 6, 1945.
The snapshots create an enormous vitality and an expression of life.
These photographs open up a way to rethink Japanese society as a symptom of the West, especially in the media, fashion, public space or the use of avant-garde strategies in everyday life. Here we can think of uniformity and identity or pop subculture and fashion styles and identity. In examining the parallels between West/West (the hyper-capitalist Japanese society) or East/West, we find examples of the symptomatic logic of Western media strategies and visual representation linked together in quite sophisticated ways.
This is then contrasted with the medium of photography, which thinks history. In what way? Conceptually. Photography is not used to reconstruct history, but to stage an idea, which is the idea of a clash between life and history, life and destruction.
Radovič uses performativity and the re-photographing of historical images and monuments, bringing into play a whole series of crossroads that problematize the photographic apparatus itself. This part is experimental, taking elements of documentation or staging them in a new way. He uses a passerby to hold the iconic historical photograph of the mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, on the August 9, 1945. On the other hand, he explores the textures of the trees in Hiroshima by scanning the trunks of the trees with an improvised device.
The trees are old enough and still alive after surviving the bomb blast.
The body—human or as part of nature’s corpus—is at the center of all these photographs. These bodies are ecstatic and cataleptic at the same time, showing that masking, decorating and transcoding the body and history is a way of communication and connection.
What‘s more, Radovič shows that images are losing their credibility today, for example in the assessment of events in the world. This is not simply a question of truth or falsity. Questions of plausibility and implausibility take precedence over the question of whether an image is simply true or false. Therefore, the problem that Radovič set out in his Hiroshima project no longer has to do only with mental images and historical consciousness, but with the paradoxical facticity of new media images and also photographic images.
Therefore, the entire work of Bojan Radovič is fundamentally concerned with the articulation of a representational politics of photography.
Marina Gržinić is a philosopher, theorist, and artist who lives and works in Ljubljana. She works at the Institute of Philosophy at ZRC SAZU. She is a full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Marina Gržinić je filozofinja, teoretičarka in umetnica, ki živi in dela v Ljubljani. Zaposlena na Filozofskem inštitutu ZRC SAZU. Je redna profesorica na Akademiji za likovno umetnost na Dunaju.