THE END AT THE BEGINNING
performance art

Author: Tatjana Milanov, Serbia

The performance The End at the Beginning, inspired by the novel of the same name by Ivan Raos, is a multimedia project conceptualised as a metaphor of seeking the essence of human existence. The point is not in finding; yet it constantly reaffirms disappearing and appearing, dying and birth... the central symbol is a victim – sacrificing our need to overestimate our own importance, the importance of our rational being, is the only thing which allows us to create; sacrifice requires of us an awareness that we cannot possess something, an awareness of transience... ambivalence, absurd; the search is embodied in a specific use of props, so their symbolism is crucial (curtains, boxes, make-up, belts, handcuffs, whips, wigs, a wreath, a mask, colours...) This persevering question is first of all posed in the form of a search for one’s own identity, then a degradation of an individual as well as a society on the whole; reality is constantly interlaced with art, reality linked to fiction, a game of consciousness and subconsciousness, reflexions and symbols of transiency, death, inspiration, fear, manipulation, fain, suffering, play, joy...      

Tatjana Milanov (Zrenjanin, 1983) graduated from the Section of Acting of the ‘The Karić Brothers’ Academy of Arts in Belgrade in 2007. She is currently on her postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Department of the Theory of Dramatic Arts, Media and Culture. She has gained her professional experience at the National Theatre ‘Toša Jovanović’ in Zrenjanin, played roles in TV series, films and worked in television as an editor and host. She is engaged in acting, painting, writing, photography and dance.