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L E I L A T O P I ĆINFLATABLES 001 (12)

2014.

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AMBIJENTOM SPEKTAR UMJETNIČKI DVO­

JAC ŽIŽIĆ/KOŽUL nastavlja artikulirati svi jest o neumornom i sveprisutnom nasilju i pande-miji konzumerističke kulture. Njihov najnoviji ambijent naslovljen Spektar, predstavljen u NO Galeriji MSU-a, ukazuje na transforma-ciju mentalnog krajobraza i javnih prostora u mjesta namijenjena potrošnji nadziranima isključivo logikom profita.

Vrijednost njihova rada leži i u činjenici što su zaoštrenu presliku globalnih tendencija pre obrazbi javnih prostora artikulirali kroz iskus tvo lokalnog konteksta čitavim spektrom kontekstualno specifičnih simbola. Naime, žarišne točke ambijenta ovaj puta su beton-ski multipli boca i rekvizita za plažu. Dvojac postavlja u prostor dvjestotinjak betonskih odljeva boca gusto zbijenih na postamentu. I dok je u prethodnom ambijentu 0,50 žuđeni objekt bila plastična boca koju je moguće reciklirati i za nju dobiti pola kune, a koja je umjetnič kom transformacijom postala bron-čani, muzealizirani predmet, sada tandem Žižić/Kožul preoblikuje već spomenutu bocu u vojsku bezimenih, no logo multipla, izlje-venih u betonu. Tako svima poznata boca, svima poznate robne marke, postaje dio bezi-menog, sivog prijetećeg mnoštva u potpu-nosti lišena marke tinške prepoznatljivosti ali i muzeološkog glamura prethodnog ambijenta.

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Ambijent Spektar predstavlja tek jedan koloristički trenutak, kolažno/montažnu fotografiju koja prikazuje superponiranu ambalažu svih, na lokalnom tržištu postojećih, marki prženih krumpirića stvarajući tako artefakt koji također postaje oglašivački neprepoznatljiv pro-izvod bez loga. Tekstualni akcent ambijenta, od zrcala premazanog si vom bojom, jest sastavljena slika s natpisom das billigste Angebot (najjeftinija ponuda) koja postaje ironijski osvrt na marketinški posre-dovanu svakodnevicu. U namjeri da ostvari svoj glavni cilj kojemu je sve podređeno, a to je profit, moraju biti zadovoljeni određeni kriteriji poput fleksibilnosti, mobilnosti i iznad svega isplativosti. Usmjerenost profitu u konačnici će rezultirati prevlašću uslužnog sektora u našoj svakodnevici i potpunom promjenom koncepta rada a to nas opet vraća na zimmerfrei simboliku otjelovljenu u grupi sivih luftića i beton-skih artikala za plažu. Oni nisu ovdje samo žuđeni umjetnički objekti predstavljeni poput muzejskog izloška, a beton nije samo materijal ko jim se jadranska obala neumjereno pretvara u apartmanski pakao. Prezentirani objekti snažan su otisak, odljev koji globalni kapitalizam upisuje u naš mentalni i javni prostor osobito stoga što godišnji odmor nije više zajamčeno pravo već povlastica.

Strategija ambijenta Spektar, uz korištenje ready-made objekata i logo-tipova – nositelja određene društvene simbolike, svojevrsna je presli-ka kasnokapitalističke logike, a koju Mark Fisher u djelu Kapitalistički realizam: zar nema alternative?, iz 2009, opisuje kao „sustav jedna-kosti“. Takvo „poravnavanje“, prisutno je u umjetničkoj praksi tande-ma Žižić/Kožul s jedne strane tehnikama brisanja logotipa i s druge strane umnažanja istog do njegove neprepoznatljivosti. Jednako kad je posrijedi religiozna ikonografija, artikli za plažu, odabir auta, flašira-ne vode ili čipsa, kapitalistički realizam ukida sve osim monetarne vri-jednosti ostavljajući, dakako, privid izbora. Otud monokromno sivilo čitavog ambijenta, naglašeno specifičnim potpisom dvojca Žižić/Kožul, sivom izgužvanom folijom koja simbolizira stanovit rekvijem izlozima zatvorenih trgovina koje su prestale biti isplative.

Bogatstvo ne uključuje mnoštvo stvari nego posjedovanje onoga za čim čeznemo, zaključio je Jean-Jacques Rousseau u svom djelu O porijeklu neravnopravnosti ljudi iz 1754. Bogatstvo ovisi o žudnji. Upravo ta žudnja temelj je potrošačkih mehanizama koje komentira dvojac. Marketinška industrija, potičući naše apetite, zavladala je

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našim umnim potencijalom i pogledom na svijet. Promatrajući radove dvojca čini se da suvremeni konzument teško stvara stav o tome što je važno i što mu je potrebno, već se radije priklanja prijedlozima koje mu serviraju oglasi utjecajnih novina, copywriteri odnosno visoko estetizirane poruke jumbo plakata. David Ogilvy, u knjizi Ispovijesti reklamera, iz 1963, zaključio je kako je čovjekov najve-ći grijeh postaviti reklamni pano na mjestu s najljepšim pogledom. Prisegnuo je da će, pod okriljem noći, kada se povuče s Avenije Madison, putovati svijetom i trgati reklame. Ukoliko i ne doživimo umjetnički ambijent dvojca kao ohrabrenje na fizički obračun s oglašivačima (i bivšim oglašivačima), u svakom slučaju valja ga iščitati kao poziv na pregovaračko, pa čak i aktivističko iščitava nje poruka konzumerističke kulture.

SPEKTAR 001

2014.

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WITH THEIR SPECTRUM AMBIENCE, THE ŽIŽIĆ/KOŽUL ART DUO is continuing to articulate the awareness of the unrelenting and omni-present violence and pandemic of consumerist culture. Their latest am-bience named Spectrum, presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s NO Gallery, points to the transformation of mental landscape and public spaces into consumer-oriented spaces controlled only by the logic of profit.

The value of their work is also contained in the fact that they articulated a sharp replication of global tendencies of public space transformations through local context experience, using an entire spectrum of con -textually specific symbols. More accurately, the ambience’s focal points are now concrete multiples of bottles and beach paraphernalia. The duo places about 200 concrete moulds of densely arranged bottles on a plinth in the museum space. And while their previous ambience 0.50, focused on the desired object of a recyclable plastic bottle worth 0.50 kuna, which was turned into a bronze musealised object through artistic transformation, the Žižić/Kožul tandem is now reshaping the said bottle into an army of anonymous, no-logo concrete-cast multiples. A famous brand bottle known to everyone thus becomes a part of an anonymous, grey threatening multitude, fully devoid of both marketing recognisability and museological glamour of the previous ambience. The Spectrum ambience represents only one colouristic moment, a collage/montage photograph depicting a superimposed packaging of all French fries brands existing on the local market, creating an artefact that also becomes a no-logo product, commercially unrecognisable. The ambience’s textual accent, from a mirror painted in grey, is a com-posed image with inscription das billigste Angebot (the cheapest offer) which becomes an ironic review of the marketing-mediated daily life. With the intention of achieving its main objective to which everything needs to conform – profit – certain criteria like flexibility, mobility and

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S P E C T R U M

L E I L A T O P I Ć

ABSTRACTION 001

(300X500)

2014.

above all cost efficiency need to be fulfilled. A focus on profit finally results in the do minance of the service sector in our daily lives and a complete change of the con cept of work, which brings us back to the zimmerfrei symbolism embodied in a pile of grey inflatable beach mattresses and concrete beach gear. Here they are not only desired artistic objects presented like museum exhibits, and concrete is not only a material which rapidly and excessively turns the Adriatic Coast into a summer apartment hell. The displayed objects are a powerful print, a mould inscribed by global capitalism onto our mental and public space particularly because holiday is no longer a guaranteed right but a privilege.

The strategy of the Spectrum ambience, next to using ready-made objects and logotypes as bearers of certain symbolism, is a kind of replication of late-capitalist logic, described in 2009 by Mark Fisher in his Capitalism Realism: Is There No Alternative? as a ‘system of equality’. Such ‘levelling’ is present in the Žižić/Kožul duo’s art practice on the one hand through techniques of erasing logos, and on the other by multiplying them to the point of unrecognizability. Equally so, with religious iconography, beach gear, car choice, bottled water or French fries, the capitalist re alism abolishes everything except the monetary value, leaving, of course, only the illusion of choice. This is the source of the monochromatic grey of the entire ambience, highlighted by the Žižić/Kožul duo’s specific signature. In grey creased foil, which symbolises a kind of requiem for the derelict shop windows of now non-profitable stores.

Wealth does not entail a multitude of things, but only the possession of things we long for, concluded Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his On the Origin of Inequality Among Men from 1754. Wealth depends on desire. It is this desire that forms the basis of consumer mechanisms, commented by the duo. Marketing industry, stimulating our appetites, has taken the reigns of our mental potential and world view. Observing the duo’s work, it seems as though a contemporary consumer is struggling to form an opinion on what matters and what he needs, but rather opts for the suggestions placed before him by the ads in influential newspapers, copywriters, and the highly aestheticized billboard messages. David Ogilvy in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man from 1963 concluded that a man’s greatest sin is to place a billboard at a place with the most beautiful view. He swore that when he retires from Madison Avenue he would travel the world and destroy billboards during night time. Even if we do not perceive the artistic ambience of this duo as an encouragement to attempt a physical conflict with the advertisers (and former advertisers), in any case we should read it as a call for negotiation and activism in interpreting the messages of consumerist culture.

• Izdavač Publisher Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Museum of Contemporary Art, Avenija Du brov nik 17, 10010 Zag reb; Cro atia; tel: +385 1 605 27 00; E-mail: msu@msu.hr; www.msu.hr • Za izdavača For the publi sher Snježana Pintarić • Urednica kataloga Catalogue editor Leila Topić • Kustos izložbe Exhibition curator Leila Topić Tekst Text Leila Topić • Prijevod Translation Ivana Ostojčić • Lektura Language Editing Nada Beroš/ Ivana Ostojčić • Autori postava Display Authors Damir

Grad Zagreb

Republika HrvatskaMinistarstvokultureRepublicof CroatiaMinistryof Culture

Partneri Partners

Produkcija Production

Žižić, Kristian Kožul • Tehnički pos tav Technical Set-up Tehnička služba MSU-a • Produkcija Production Muzej suvremene um-jetnosti i Nomad Museum of Contemporary Art and Nomad Grafičko oblikova nje Graphic design artmashine (Zubić/Jukić) • Tisak Print Stega Tisak Zagreb • Na klada Print run 300 kom

Sponzori Sponsors

UNITS 001 (4X50)

2014.