8. Biennial of Young Artists
19.02.2009 - 18.03.2009
Aleksandra Petrusevska, The Last Year as a VRL, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 92х72cm. (x2)
Metodi Angelov, Klajma Era Tutunude Erlight, 2008, photograph, 24х29cm.
Tihomir Topuzovski and Dejan Damjanovik, Capitalism and Identity, 2009, slide photographs
The question of identity "who am I" is today replaced by "where am I". It is rather difficult to answer the question "who am I", so we help answering this question with the answer to the question "where am I". If I am in a male body, I am a man, if I am in a female body, I am a woman, or if I am at a machine in a factory I am a worker, if I am in Macedonia I am Macedonian.
It is obvious that we can not see ourselves, since the viewer can not concurrently be the viewed; the subject and the object would overlap each other. The only picture we can obtain of ourselves is in the swinging reflection in the water/mirror or in the depth of other's eyes.
In the eyes of the other, others acquire the moral codes which reflect and limit the Me... social norms... they are limiting and that's why the history of humanity is also to a large extent a struggle for unarticulated identities of one's place so that the identities wouldn't remain uniform.
What is important for the fine arts is not only their role in rendering personality and form but also in offering differences, since I don't find it satisfying only to model, I also need to distinguish.
As confused citizens of this society, with strong tendencies towards globalization and uniforming, we are in an absurd position to not be able to name ourselves, since naming oneself requires certain qualification. And if this question is an absurd and, so to speak, auxiliary question of the identity (like, for example, what country are you from?), it still urges us in this moment to pose the personal question to ourselves, to each of us: who am I, actually? Where do I start and where do I end? How far do I extent?
Mira Gaќina