Šikuti u MSU by Andi Bančić

ŠIKUTI U MSU

Ĺ IKUTI U MSU Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb 21. - 30. 12. 2012.

Šikuti Machine: Videodokumenti (2000 – 2012) dokumentarni film /video, instalacije, performansi Branka Benčić

Doima se kao urbana legenda predaja o tome kako su Šikuti Machine izveli prvi performans Fitness točno u podne u nedjelju na Vazan (Uskrs) 2000. g. na trgu u Savičenti, vjerojatno uz negodovanje starijeg stanovništva i čuđenje brojne publike koja se u to vrijeme okupila ispred crkve i okolnih konoba; u najboljoj tradiciji istarske uskršnje akcije, koncerata Gori Ussi Winetoua / Francija Blaškovića, provokatora, u oštariji “Lipi i grdi” u nedalekom Kanfanaru, od kojih je prvi organiziran još 1986. godine. Sljedećih je godina Franci bio čest gost u Savičenti. Kod Šikuti Machine radi se o “afirmaciji prirodnog i seljačkog života, demistifikaciji umjetničkih postupaka i postavljanju ruralne kulture na umjetnički i civilizacijski pijedestal”.1 Tako su u Fitnessu rad u polju doveli u ironijsku relaciju s njegovom “urbanom” varijantom, fitnessom u teretani i imperativom zdravog života i atletskog tijela.

U središtu interesa nalazi se lokalna svakodnevnica, život okoline te događaji i aktivnosti vezani uz prirodno okruženje, poput sezonskih radova i njihovih cikličkih izmjena, uobičajeni lokalni “rituali” vezani uz tradiciju zajednice. Radovi grupe, istraživanje i inspiracija temelje se na neposrednom promatranju sredine u kojoj žive, a zaokupljenost spontanim i neposrednim eksperimentima logična su posljedica poimanja i interpretacije vlastite životne sredine. Gotovo paradoksalan naziv kolektiva Šikuti Machine ukazuje na spoj starog i novog, u spoju ruralnog toponima i tehnološke odrednice, kao spoj mehaničkog i organskog, prirode i kulture, ruralnog i urbanog, koji ukazuje na supostojanje dva svijeta, dva principa koja možemo postaviti kao vodeću preokupaciju i princip djelovanja skupine, gdje machine pretpostavlja tehnološki sklop kao kompleksan sustav elemenata.

Od prvih performansa i videa iz dokumentarne triloVideo i foto dokumenti okupljeni u izložbu u Muzeju gije Cuki, Praščina, Teza, koji istovremeno na poetisuvremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu predstavljaju pre- čan i naturalistički, istinit način tematiziraju dijelove gled dvanaestogodišnjeg rada Šikuti Machine od pr- seoske svakodnevnice i poslove oko svinjokolje (kovih performansa i videa do danas – dokumentarnu linja), berbe bundeva u polju, prizora iz štale (istarski trilogiju Cuki (2000), Praščina (2002), Teza (2004), vi- teza) kao filma i kao instalacije odnosno ambijenta deodokumentacije performasa Kolo (2010), Fitness s “autentičnim mirisom”, performansa Manjadura (2000), videoinstalaciju Vogrda (2011), te fotodoku- koji se ikonografski i kompozicijski temelji na motivu mentacije performansa Darka Pekice Samanj od krav posljednje večere, simboličke gozbe, zatim perfor(2006) i Istarske vile (2008) kao i Kravarij (2012), novi mansa Kolo u kojem guranje bale sijena podsjeća na rad realiziran za medijsku fasadu MSU-a. Sizifov posao, dok se u realnom vremenu uz sudjelovanje posebnog gosta, radijskog voditelja Marija Benčića, prenosi u eteru Radija Pule, a Samanj od krav se izruguje izborima ljepote, do video instalacije 1 Mladen Lučić, katalog Šikuti Machine 10 lit, 2010.

Vogrda i Kravarija, novog rada na medijskoj fasadi u kojima su glavni protagonisti Pekičine krave – radovi Šikuti Machine dio su umjetničkih praksi koje “za prostor svojeg djelovanja uzimaju područje ljudske interakcije i njenog socijalnog konteksta”.2 Primat umjetničkog predmeta počinje se gubiti dok društveni odnosi, procesi, iskustva, preuzimaju središnji značaj, a tragovi egzistencije materijal su umjetničke intervencije, performativno-konceptualnih uprizorenja. Umjetnik postaje katalizatorom različitih odnosa, a prakse i mediji kojima se koriste - performans, hepening ili akcija, karakteriziraju efemernost događanja, njegovu jednokratnost ili privremenost.

lirana estetska činjenica, već postaje mjesto propitivanja međuodnosa prostora, povijesti, memorije ili identiteta. U trenutku kada predmetna i društvena stvarnost nestaju u nasilnim «obnovama», vođenih tržišnom ekonomijom i okrutnim interesom gdje komad zemlje predstavlja nekretninu, parcelu, društveni interes za ekologiju je marginaliziran, o čemu govori i fotodokumentacija performansa Istarske Vile. U radovima Šikuti Machine video se ističe, riječima Nicolasa Bourriauda, kao lingua franca – univerzalan zajednički jezik i razumljivo općeprihvaćeno mjesto kojim umjetnici različitih nacionalnosti, porijekla ili društvenog, ekonomskog i kulturnog konteksta komuniciraju na globalnoj umjetničkoj sceni, iskazujući kulturne razlike upisane u kontekst jedinstvene tehnologije prikazivanja.3 Osim toga kustos i teoretičar Mark Nash govori o “dokumentarističkom zaokretu” u suvremenim umjetničkim praksama, kao načinu kojim umjetnici žele uspostaviti specifičan odnos sa stvarnim, redefiniranjem vizualnog jezika, estetike, eksperimenta, radovima koji reprezentiraju društvenu stvarnost i osobne, individualne priče.iv4 Velik broj vizualnih umjetnika poseže za metodama i alatima dokumentarizma, koji se javlja kao referentno mjesto u suvremenoj umjetnosti. Dokumentarni film na taj način postaje široka i elastična kategorija, sredstvo posredovanja odnosa sa stvarnim. Aspekti tako shvaćene dokumentarnosti u središtu su interesa ne samo filmskih praksi već i suvremene umjetničke produkcije, kao način interpretiranja stvarnosti i svijeta koji nas okružuje. Neke ideje, ishodišta i podudarnosti umjetničkog konteksta u radovima Šikuti Machine pronalazimo kod Fluxusa, Arte Povera, Land Arta u smislu postupaka korištenja neestetičnosti materijala od kojeg je sastavljeno djelo, do ironijskih strategija i demistifikacija suvremenih umjetnika. Izvedbeni segment

Jedan od posljednjih realiziranih radova, video Vogrda, nosi naziv po livadi na kojoj protagonist (Darko Pekica) leži i čuva krave zadubljen u čitanje. U poetičnom, gotovo pastoralnom prizoru s kravama i zelenilu suncem okupane livade, možemo detektirati trenutak dokolice, opuštanja, refleksije ili predaha od radnih aktivnosti, čitanja poezije kao duhovnog i osjetilnog iskustva, dok krave pasu. Otkrivamo kako je predmet čitanja poezija američkog pjesnika Walta Whitmana, značajnog američkog pjesnika, čija se poezija obraćala i govorila svima i za sve, pjesnika slobodne forme i jednostavnog izraza, bliskog epskom, pjesnika prirode i svijeta, pjesničkog glasa koji je bio razumljiv i prihvatljiv, a Šikuti ističu kako “pjesnikov zanos i ushit u sveobuhvatnom prikazu čovjeka i prirode koja ga okružuje nalazi svoje mjesto na sitnom komadu istarske zemlje. Rad je posveta pjesnikovom nasljeđu i preispituje stvaralaštvo Šikuti Machine u kontekstu njegove umjetnosti.” Radove Šikuti Machine dovodimo u vezu i s interesom za prirodni okoliš, pejzaž kao proizvod zapadne kulture koji omogućava posredovanje odnosa čovjeka i prirode (vanjskog svijeta) kao što predstavlja modele čovjekove konceptualizacije prirode, da bi se reflektirala različita raspoloženja i složeni odnosi. Pejzaž nije izo-

3 Nicolas Bourriaud: The Radicant, Sternberg Press, 2009. 4 Mark Nash: Experiments with truth, katalog, Fabric Wokshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2004.

2 Nicolas Bourriaud: Relational Aesthetic, Les presses du reel, 2002.

djelatnosti angažira performativnu komponentu uz koju se veže izvođenje jednostavne, prepoznatljive i rasprostranjene radnje, aktivnosti tautološkog i simboličkog ili metaforičnog karaktera, u kojoj dolazi do dvostruke artikulacije, ogoljava se, kako rad težaka, tako i umjetnički postupak, dok istovremeno može ukazati na subverzivnost njihova djelovanja. Šikuti Machine djeluju kao umjetnički kolektiv, ali i kao organizatori u kulturi, realizirajući sada već dobro znane “jednodnevne izložbe”, u neformalnoj i privremenoj galeriji u Šikutima. Na taj način uspjeli su formirati prepoznatljivu, kompleksnu i specifičnu hibridnu praksu koja izmiče definiranju i pojašnjavanju, a različite aktivnosti koje izvode, usko su povezane i neodvojive jedna od druge. Njihovo djelovanje možemo shvatiti kao projekt, kao kolaborativni model, suradničku praksu, kolektivnu platformu ili kao work in progress. Kao sve to zajedno. Jedan od ključnih segmenata njihova djelovanja označava formiranje različitih modela društvenosti i komunikacijskih situacija. Nestabilnost termina i značenja, kao i nemogućnost njihova sigurnog i fiksnog definiranja, karakteristična je za mnogostruke prakse koje uspostavljaju kao i pozicije koje zauzimaju.

The Šikuti Machine: Video Documents (2000-2012) Documentary film/video, installations, performances Branka Benčić

It sounds like an urban legend: the Šikuti Machine made their first performance, Fitness, on Easter Sunday, 2000, at midday, around the square in the town of Savičenta, probably to the disapproval of older citizens and bewilderment of numerous public that gathered in front of the church and nearby pubs at that time. They staged it in the best tradition of Istrian Easter action, i.e. concerts of the provocateur band, Gori Ussi Winetou / Franci Blašković, in the “Lipi i grdi” inn in neighboring Kanfanar, which began as early as 1986. In the following years, Franci was a frequent guest at Savičenta. With the Šikuti Machine it is all about “affirming a natural and peasant life, demystifying art procedures, and raising the rural culture on the pedestal of art and civilization”.1 In this way, in Fitness, they established an ironic relation between working in the fields and its “urban” variant, i.e., working out in the gym, and the imperative of living a healthy life and having an athletic body.

and Istarska vila (2008), as well as Kravarij (2012), which is a new work, realized for the media façade of the MCAZ. The centre of interest is local everyday life, living in the neighborhood, and events and activities related to natural surroundings – for instance, seasonal works and their cyclical changes, and usual local “rituals” related to community traditions. The works of the group, their research and inspiration are based on close observation of the surroundings in which they live; immersion in the spontaneous and firsthand experiments is a logical consequence of understanding and interpreting their environment. The (almost) paradoxical name of the collective, the Šikuti Machine, points to a convergence of old and new, connecting a rural toponym with a technologic determinant, the mechanical with the organic, the rural with the urban; this indicates a coexistence of two worlds, of two principles that we can posit as the leading preoccupation and the acting principle of the group, where machine presupposes a technological set, seen as a complex system of elements.

The video and photo documentation that is gathered within the exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb represents a review of the twelve-year work of the Šikuti Machine, from their first performances and videos to the present – the documentary trilogy Cuki (2000), Praščina (2002), and Teza (2004), the video documentation of performances Kolo (2010), Fitness (2000), the video intallation Vogrda (2011), and the photo documentation of Darko Pekica’s performances Samanj od krav (2006)

Since their early performances and videos, from the documentary trilogy Cuki, Praščina, Teza, which in poetic and naturalistic, truthful way thematizes some parts of peasant everyday life, including chores related to slaughtering pigs, picking pumpkins, scenes from the barns (teza in Istrian), as a film as well as an installation, an ambient with an “authentic smell”; to the performance Manjadura that was iconograph-

1 Mladen Lučić, Šikuti Machine 10 lit catalog, 2010.

ically and compositionally based on the motif of the Last Supper, a symbolic feast; to the Kolo performance, in which an act of pushing a stock of hay that reminds us of Sisyphus task was being broadcasted in real time by Radio Pula, aided by its host, Mario Benčić, as a special guest of the group; to the Samanj od krav, which mocks beauty contests; to the video installations Vogrda and Kravarij, the new works on the media façade in which the main protagonists are Pekica’s cows – the works by the Šikuti Machine collective belong to artistic practices that “take the field of human interactions and their social contexts as the space of its actions”.2 The prime importance of the artistic object begins to dissolve, while social relations, processes, and experience take central importance, and the traces of existence become the raw material for artistic interventions and performative-conceptual shows. The artist becomes a catalyst of various relations, and the practices and the media which he or she uses – performance, happening or action – characterize the event’s ephemeral, nonrepetitive, and transient status. One of the most recent works, the Vogrda video, is named after a meadow where the protagonist (Darko Pekica) lies and tends his cows, while reading. In the poetic, almost bucolic scene with cows, in the greenery of meadow that bathes in the sun, we can detect a moment of leisure, of relaxation, of reflection or taking a break from work, of reading poetry as a spiritual and sensual experience, while cows are grazing. We discover that what is being read is poetry by Walt Whitman, an important American poet, whose poetry addressed and spoke to everyone and for everyone, a poet of free verse and simple, almost epic expression, a poet of nature and world, whose voice was easily comprehensible and acceptable; the Šikuti maintain that “the poet’s enthusiasm and rapture in the all-encompassing

representation of man and nature that surrounds him find their place in a small lot of Istrian land. The work is a dedication to the poet’s heritage, and it questions the creative work of the Šikuti Machine in the context of his art.” The works by the Šikuti Machine can also be related to the raising attention to natural environment, to the landscape as a product of Western culture that mediates the relations between man and nature (the external world): it also represents the models of man’s conceptualizations of nature, in order to reflect various moods and complex relationships. The landscape is not an isolated esthetic fact, but it becomes a place for questioning the inter-relations of spaces, histories, memory, and identity. When objective and social realities vanish in violent “renewals”, led by market economy and cruel interest, when land represents only real estate, a plot, any social interest for ecology is marginalized; the photo-documentation of the Istarska vila performance speaks about this. In the works of the Šikuti Machine, to borrow Nicolas Bourriaud’s words, video is the lingua franca – the universal common language and an understandable, universally accepted place where artists of various nationalities, backgrounds and origins communicate on the global art scene, in various social, economic or cultural contexts, manifesting their cultural differences, inscribed in the context of the common representation technology.3 In addition, the curator and theorist, Mark Nash, speaks about the “documentary turn” in contemporary art practices, as a way in which artists want to establish a specific relation to the real, by re-defining their visual language, their esthetic, and experimentation, in works that represent their social reality and personal, individual stories.4 Numerous visual artists draw on methods and tools of documentarism, which becomes a referential

2 Nicolas Bourriaud: Relational Aesthetic, Les presses du reel, 2002.

3 Nicolas Bourriaud: The Radicant, Sternberg Press, 2009. 4 Mark Nash: Experiments with truth, catalog, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2004.

point in contemporary art. The documentary in this way becomes a wide and elastic category, a means of mediating our relations to the real. Seen from this viewpoint, some aspects of the documentary are in the center of interest, not only in film practices, but in the contemporary art production as a whole, as a way of interpreting reality and the world that surrounds us. Some ideas, starting points and convergences of the artistic context in the works of the Šikuti Machine can be found in Fluxus, Arte Povera, and Land Art, in the sense of using the non-esthetic materials for the works, as well as ironic strategies and de-mystifications of contemporary artists. The performative segment engages the performance component, related to staging a simple, recognizable and widely known action, an activity of tautological, symbolic or metaphorical nature; in it, a double articulation appears: both the peasants’ work and the artists’ procedures are being stripped bare, which can also indicate a subversive nature of their activities. The Šikuti Machine work as an art collective, but they are also culture organizers who realize their already well-known “one-day exhibitions”, in the informal and temporary gallery in Šikuti. In this way, they were able to form a recognizable, complex and specific hybrid practice that eludes any definition and explanation; various activities they perform are closely connected and inseparable one from another. Their activity can be understood as a project, as a collaborative model, a collaborative practice, a collective platform, or as a work in progress. Or, as all this taken together. One of the key segments of their activity is forming various models of sociability and of communication-situations. The instability of terms and meanings, as well as the inability of their defining in a safe and fixed way, is characteristic of manifold practices they establish, and of positions they take.

Radovi | Works

Šikuti Machine Fitness performance

Žlinja, Savičenta 26. 4. 2000.

Darko Pekica Muhe | Flies

izloĹžba i performance | exhibition & performance Ĺ ikuti 18. 8. 2000.

Šikuti Machine Mučnina | Nausea performance

Žlinja, Savičenta 23. 7. 2001.

Ĺ ikuti Machine Teza | La stalla | The barn video instalacija | video installation 2001.

Ĺ ikuti Machine Cuki | Pumpkins

dokumentarni film | documentary 2001.

Ĺ ikuti Machine SaviÄ?enta in the morning fotoroman | photo novel 2002.

Darko Pekica SaviÄ?enta in the morning knjiga | book

ilustracije | illustrations: Nadan 2002.

RojniÄ&#x2021;

Šikuti Machine Manjadura performance

Loža, Savičenta 24. 7. 2002.

Šikuti Machine Praščina | The pig

dokumentarni film | documentary 2002.

Darko Pekica Medigovo

instalacija | installation LoĹža, SaviÄ?enta 22. 7. 2004.

Ĺ ikuti Machine Teza | The barn

dokumentarni film | documentary 2004.

Darko Pekica Samanj od krav | La fiera dei bovini | Cattle fair performance

Ĺ˝linja, SaviÄ?enta 25. 7. 2006.

Andi Bančić Savičenta

fotografije | photographs 2006.

Darko Pekica Istarske vile

instalacija i performance | installation & performance Forum, Pula 9. 9. 2008.

Andi Bančić Festival plesa i neverbalnog kazališta, Svetvinčenat fotografije | photographs 2009.

Andi BanÄ?iÄ&#x2021; Portreti | Portraits fotografije | photographs 2010.

Šikuti Machine Kolo performance

Žlinja, Savičenta 4. 4. 2010.

Ĺ ikuti Machine Vogrda

video instalacija | video installation 2011.

Andi Bančić i Darko Pekica Pekine krave u krupnen planu | Peko’s cows in close-up fotografije | photographs 2011.

Darko Pekica Postelja za Ä?etiri | A bed for four knjiga | book 2011.

Ĺ ikuti Machine Kravarij video

multimedijska fasada Muzeja suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb 21. 12. 2012.

Darko Pekica Neven Peršić Denis Lenić

Mauro Macan Elvis Lenić Andi Bančić

Galerijski prostori

Galerija Ĺ ikuti

Oštarija poli Ferlina 61

IZLOŽBA | MOSTRA | EXHIBITION

Za nakladnika | For the publisher: Darko Pekica, predsjednik udruge | chairman

21. - 30. 12. 2012.

Urednici | Edited by: Šikuti Machine Tekst | Introduction by: Branka Benčić Fotografije | Photographs by: Andi Bančić Ivona Orlić (str. 14, 15) Emil Živolić (str. 42, 43, 58, 59) Neven Lazarević (str. 39)

Muzej suvremene umjetnosti, Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

Ravnateljica | Director: mr. sc. Snježana Pintarić Kustos | Curator: Tihomir Milovac Postav | Exhibition set-up: Tihomir Milovac, Šikuti Machine Montaža videa | Video editing Matija Debeljuh, Marko Račan

Prijevodi | Translated by: Maja Šoljan Grafičko oblikovanje | Designed by: Andi Bančić Naklada | Copies: 300 Tisak | Printed by: Tiskara Nova

Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske

Istarska županija

ISBN 978-953-56282-2-4