ARTWORK EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY ON ARTIST
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Bosko Boskovic - Gift To His Professor
On the 30 th anniversary of the career of artist and art professor Veso Sovilj, Mladen Miljanovic, his ex-student decides to make him a gift. Miljanovic embarks on a mission to realize a concept that his mentor Sovilj conceived, yet never realized. A simple idea, as most good artworks are, was to make a video while being interrogated in front of a polygraph on the truthfulness of art.
Mladen MIljanovic’s first short documentary film Do You Intend to Lie To Me?, 2011 seeks to reveal the truth about the brutality of life, art and responsibility in post war Bosnia. The life of his art professor and mentor Veso Sovillj (b. 1954 in Zavolje, Bosnia & Hercegovina) is concurrently an homage and a picture of a stagnating social milieu. Sovilj, the main protagonist, participates in the movie about himself without even knowing, while Miljanovic directs and interweaves different segments of society in order to create a grand happening, thus becoming a moderator of reality. About two weeks before the detain of the former Bosnian Serb military leader and accused war criminal Ratko Mladic, Mladen Miljanovic simulates the arrest of professor Veso Sovilj. For the purposes of this ambitious film, he included six HD cameras, one helicopter, five most elite officers of the police enforcement of Republika Srpska, three police cars, an inspector from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a polygraph of truth.
Some may think Miljanovic went too far with his actions to realize a project but Sovilj concludes that it was merely “functional boldness”. Throughout his oeuvre Miljanovic is well known for his motto “in the service of art” and this film is yet another step in his quest of finding out what are the boundaries of art and how unpleasant can it be. He also examines the notion of power, responsibility and truth and how far an artist or society are willing to utilize the same. On the one hand Miljanovic indirectly comments on the inability of the local milieu to do anything for a seasoned artist who used to be one of the most talented individuals in the ex-Yugoslavia art scene of the 1980’s and on the other demonstrates how far he is willing to go to realize an idea. Through the arrest of the artist Veso Sovilj and his interrogation in front of a polygraph, the artist metaphorically brings forward the traumas of post war Bosnia and how a society deals with what happened during the conflict and where does one seek the truth. The French sociologist Marcel Maus argues that gifts are not free but rather create an obligation to reciprocate. Through the gift, the givers give part of themselves, implying that the gift is imbued with a certain power that compels the recipient to reciprocate.!
In the act of simultaneously making and giving an artwork to his professor, Miljanovic comes across as generous and deserving of respect. Perhaps he is giving back to his teacher for all the things he has taught him. This present is not merely a physical one but also has cultural and spiritual properties where the honor of both giver (Miljanovic) and recipient (Sovilj) are engaged.
The film Do You Intend to Lie To Me? is political, mythological, personal and communal. By moving such an object through different social landscapes, the artist models different realities forming the basis of his gift’s power.
New York 2011
Mladen Miljanovic e- iserveart@gmail.com |
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