Lokacija: Galerija umjetnina Split (Ulica kralja Tomislava 15, 21000 Split)

DENIS BUTORAC - Noću je hladnije nego vani

Kustosica: Ana Čukušić

Trajanje: 22. prosinca 2022. - 29. siječnja 2023.

Poslužimo li se definicijama Susan Sontag, fotografija u odnosu na druge umjetničke medije ima najstabilniju vezu s prošlošću. Uvijek je jedan korak iza. Fotografska slika možda nije objektivan dokaz, ali je svjedočanstvo minulog prizora, što fotografa čini suvremenikom kroz čije oči i aparat sadašnje postaje prošlo. Fotografija se pokazala podobnom i za bilježenje povreda. Razvila je sklonost prema odbačenom, beznačajnom i nezanimljivom. Otkrila ljepotu u oronulim ostatcima i ruševinama stvarnosti. Spona između fotografije i smrti ne prati samo fotografije ljudi već i njihovih predmeta. Fotografski pristup Denisa Butorca ne implicira dokumentarističko konzerviranje prošlosti niti autoritativnost autorskog koncepta, štoviše njegove fotografije ukazuju na uzaludnost da se svijet razumije (jednoobrazno). Nešto je drugo prevagnulo – prijedlog da ga sakupljamo.

Dosadašnji fotografski ciklusi Denisa Butorca progovarali su o kompleksnosti sazrijevanja identiteta uvjetovanog geopolitičkim i kulturnim okruženjem. U značenjski slojevitim fotografskim serijama, autor je isprepletanjem dokumentarnog i konceptualnog pristupa propitkivao širok dijapazon tema: od potrage za identitetom koji proizlazi iz prostorne, društvene i osobne memorije, obiteljskih i tradicijskih narativa, preko pitanja funkcionalnosti društva, njegova utjecaja na pojedinca i problematike formiranja raznih rodnih i drugih stereotipa.

Subjekti fotografija iz recentne serije Noću je hladnije nego vani su melankolični predmeti – predmeti s patinom, trule ili raspuknute stvari, uspomene, još uvijek tople od ljudskog dodira – u kojima se razotkriva krah njihove vrijednosti. Potrošni predmeti postaju metafore proživljenih trenutaka, trauma i životno važnih događaja, koje autor lomi u neobične fragmente. Kodirajući, pažnju preusmjerava s objekta na fotografski pristup, konačni cilj postaje uspostava specifična ambijenta i atmosfere, pri čemu pokretački narativ zadržava za sebe. Budući da protjecanjem vremena veza predmeta sa stvarnošću popušta, time blijede njihove vrijednosti i značenja, stoga ih autor od samog početka ne opterećuje definitivnim sadržajnim okvirom, nego otvara svakoj i svačijoj vrsti tumačenja. Sadržaj fotografija tako postaje afirmacija prisustva predmeta i svojstava koji ga čine jedinstvenim autoru, nauštrb njihova zaborava.

Više informacija dostupno je na https://www.galum.hr/izlozbe/izlozba/1761/.

Location: Museum of Fine Arts Split (Ulica kralja Tomislava 15, 21000 Split)

DENIS BUTORAC - At Night It's Colder than Outside

Curated by: Ana Čukušić

Duration: December 22, 2022 - January 29, 2023

If we avail ourselves of Susan Sontag’s definitions, photography, compared to other artistic media, has the most stable connection to the past. It is always one step behind. A photographic image may not represent objective evidence, but it is a record of a past scene, which makes the photographer a contemporary, through whose eyes and camera the present becomes the past. Photography also proved to be suitable for recording injuries. It developed an affinity for the rejected, the insignificant and the uninteresting. It revealed beauty in the dilapidated remains and ruins of reality. The link between photography and death accompanies not only photos of people but also their objects. Denis Butorac’s photographic approach, however, does not imply documentary conservation of the past or the authoritativeness of the artistic concept, his photographs in fact point to the futility of understanding the world (uniformly). Something else has prevailed – the proposal to collect it.

Denis Butorac’s previous photographic series conveyed the complex nature of identity maturation conditioned by the geopolitical and cultural milieu. By entwining the documentary and the conceptual approach in the semantically layered photographic series, the artist examines a wide range of themes: from the search for identity that arises from spatial, social and personal memory, familial and traditional narratives, through the question of the functioning of society, its influence on the individual and the problems of formation of various gender and other stereotypes.

The subjects of photographs from the recent series titled At Night It’s Colder than Outside are melancholy objects – objects with a patina, rotten or cracked things, memories, still warm from human touch – which expose the depreciation of their value. Articles of consumption become metaphors of lived moments, traumas and important life events, which the artist breaks into unusual fragments. By using code, he redirects attention from the object to the photographic approach, whereby the establishment of a specific ambience and atmosphere becomes the final goal, while he keeps the driving narrative to himself. Since the objects’ connection to reality grows weaker with the passage of time, their values and meanings likewise fade, and from the very beginning the artist does not burden them with a definitive conceptual framework, on the contrary, he opens them up to any and all types of interpretation. The content of the photographs thus becomes an affirmation of the object’s presence and the properties that make it unique to the artist, to the detriment of their oblivion.

More information is available at https://www.galum.hr/en/exhibitions/exibition/1761/.