Aleksandar Milosavljević, Serbia
| Sunday, 26th June 2011 | 18.00 / CCNS, ’Tribina mladih’ Hall |
Roads
The exhibition of photographs by Aleksandar Milosavljević entitled Roads can be followed on several levels leading to the same message – today we are forced to adjust to and fight with our own mistakes and heritage, but no one can take away from us the need for freedom, for a mental refuge.
The photographs by Aleksandar Milosavljević feature three different motifs whose common denominator is the gull: dump/trash, people, sky.
Symbolism is obvious, and it is up to us how to interpret it.
The gull is associated with the spaces inhabited by people – it follows them, feeds on the food they throw away. This is why the gull’s way of life has changed. The flocks of these birds are no longer a sight associated with the coasts and big waters only.
The carefully selected photographs of hosts of birds against the background of even greater masses of waste, with an occasional human figure, caught with a fast exposition of the camera, lead us into the ambiance of the ‘Big City 2011’. In the largest Belgrade’s landfills in Vinča, spreading over 70 hectares, at the turn of the 21st century, a new habitat has formed: pheasants, pigeons, kids... During winter they are joined by over 15,000 gulls of different kind! A fascinating sight of a multitude of various birds implies the unusual course the evolution of this species has taken. This fact, at the same time, points in a completely different direction. Huge amounts of organic and inorganic waste, typical of the contemporary civilisation, provokes Nature’s response. The gull, led by nature, adapts to the need to recycle human stupidity as fast as possible. Both gulls and people are adapting to the given environment where they need to recycle someone’s surplus, with the purpose of elementary survival and maintenance of the natural survival cycle.
From the review by Darka Radosavljević, an art historian
Aleksandar Milosavljević
Born in Novi Sad in 1958, Aleksandar Milosavljević graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Art History Department. He has been a professional photographer since 1979, exhibiting solo and collectively since 1980. He is one of the founders of the Fund for the Protection of Birds of Prey.
