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In
the current art events in Macedonia covered with the notion "private
narratives", the opus of Slavica Janelieva plays an important
role. In accordance to her previous projects, she continues the
course of clearing her own past and the past of her family, tending
to introduce a different light in the attitude towards them.
But,
this time the evocation of the past is positioned outside the
personal, or, more precisely, by way of posing the problem of
ideology, through her private discourse, Slavica Janelieva
gets out of the domain of the general, that is, the public. The
project "Remembering an Idealist" contains an ambiguity
that stems from the duality of understanding "memory".
In a sense, Janelieva positions the memory as her actualization
of the idealist who, on his side, evokes his own memories of some
situations and events of his life. This actualization of the ideological
aspect of the actions of the "idealist" and his memories
of them opens the basic discourse of this project: the projectivity
as an objective and as its ending. An appropriate understanding
of this projectivity can be found in the definition of the notion
of ideology developed by Branislav Sarkanjac in his book "Ideology
and Subjectivity", where he distinguishes (and, therefore,
defines precisely) the ideology to eidology and ideelogy.
The
photographic - objective - textual triptych of Janelieva
has the elements of this understanding: the eidological is shown
in the part of the pre-war photography of an outing of Macedonian
progressive students near Belgrade in front of which stands the
Order of Labor of Third Class; the ideelogical is shown in the
part of the photography of Janelieva as a pioneer in front
of which stands the traveling bag of the idealist where his notes
and reviews were kept, while the discourse of the ideological
(as a totality of the eidological and ideelogical) is shown in
the part of the photography of the funeral of the idealist in
front of which stands the accumulation "The Complete Works
of J. B. Tito. The three parts are connected with copies of appropriate
texts on the idealist: the first part with the text of the celebration
of the First of May in 1949, the second with the text "One
of the First Tasks" and the third with the text "Care
for the People".
The extraordinary skillful connection that Janelieva makes
with this act completely embraces the question of the relation
of the ideology and the subjectivity: the eidological (as a reflection
of the reality) of the idealist is transformed into ideelogical
(as an influence of the ideas upon the world of things) which
Janelieva lives through and ends with the ideological "packed
into complete works" (as a metaphor of a complete and rounded,
exhausted opus).
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The
portrait of the idealist is made of poppy seed and tautologically
(maybe more precise would be to say semiogically) repeats his
poem "Afion" where the projectivity is included in its
full size. The ideological aspect of this projectivity is presented
in the last, additionally written lines "But, the day will
come...", but it is even more obvious in the pictorial -
objective - textual diptych that refers to the burial of the texts
and the copy of "Beli Mugri" with a personal dedication
to the idealist. The fact that after the war the idealist could
not find them becomes the teleological element of the projectivity.
This aspect of the ideological shows its ideotelia. Or, as Sarkanjac
states, "the ideotelia is inherent to the ideology as ideelogy,
that is, it always offers (or forces to) a certain aim, the telos
of the society (teleology), which is always in the future".
By choosing this part of the memories of the idealist (the not-finding
of the buried), Janelieva expresses not only metaphorically
and symbolically her attitude towards the ideology, but she also
decisively defines it.
Therefore,
the private experience of Janelieva of a certain ideology,
an ideology she has experienced, is used for the problem of the
research to be raised or removed to a general level. The transformation
of the private into public, on its side, defines the duality of
this project as a duality where the private and the public completely
surpass, and therefore, neglect the private and its tabooing,
but at the same time remain as constituents of the project. So,
the convictions of the idealist (no matter how much ideologicized)
in the necessity of representing and supporting the Macedonian
cause (as complete privacy), passes into the spheres of establishing
the critical discourse of Janelieva towards her current
reality. The project is not in itself a critique of the referent
ideology of the idealist, but rather a critique of what is happening
today with the results or the achievements of its representing
and supporting the cause.
This
critique poses specific, yet essential, questions of the relations
with the social which, instead of the militant - critical discourse
towards the ideology and the idea of projectivity, shows an estheticized
critical discourse towards the social as an exponent of the public.
With that moment Janelieva defines and fulfills the meaning
and the function of the engagement in the art and of the artists
of today - a meaning which implicitly demands having an attitude
towards the social reality.
Neboja
Vilic
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