No Big Deal, Mom

14th June – 29th July 2019
Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic of Srpska – Gallery Plus
Solo Show
Photo: Nemanja Mićević

The exhibition ‘No Big Deal, Mom’ is a digest of Dragoslav Malinić’s preoccupations and explorations during his time as an undergraduate student at the Academy of Arts of Banja Luka University. Staged at Gallery Plus, the exhibition is part of the prestigious award presented by the Museum of the Republic of Srpska for the best end-of-year work of senior students.

The exhibition, divided into two parts, presents Malinić’s art as a wide variety of artistic expression. In terms of production, his interests range from digital illustration to intermedia art.

The first part comprises illustrations, from those made using the traditional technique of charcoal on paper, to digital illustrations. Here, the artist arranged cubist shapes executed in vivid colours and suggestive of female bodies across digitally made illustrations, demonstrating excellent control of composition, form and concept, as he uses cutting-edge technology to produce the final result. Malinić proves to be just as adept when it comes to the traditional art of illustration. His sketches may be observed separately, as stand-alone works, but taken together, they make up a composite, practically organic whole.

The second part of the exhibition is a conceptual installation consisting of works ‘Ode to Mother’ and ‘Series’. They are the results of the artist’s work in the Intermedia Art module, where he experimented with conceptual art. ‘Series’ is a group of 25 photographs that show metaphorically issues connected with the material and social production of everyday reality. The photographs are records of a performance staged as part of ‘No Big Deal, Mom’, which are given a new, conceptual meaning, as they form a barrier to ‘Ode to Mother’, a video performance in which the artist plays with curses referencing mother, as representative of the kind of vulgar culture encountered in our society. As the artist utters these common curses, they are followed by laughter, which instantly and automatically rids them of their original meaning, which is distorted. The artist thus attacks not only the individual, but also what is essential about society, which ruthlessly imposes its totalitarianism.

Curator: Mladen Banjac