Aleksandar Duravcevic was born in Montenegro. He attended the University of Montenegro (1990-1992) and the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence (1993-1994), and received his MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. He is currently a visiting professor at the Hunter College MFA Program. His works are in numerous private and public collections including the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts Boston, among others. Duravcevic lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Come mi manchi
"Aleksandar Duravcevic makes a sketch of a past memory in graphite on black paper – a support much used by the artist for his drawings – a frottage of an incision that is found on a corner of a Venetian palace, a love letter, a hope of love. Come mi manchi." Daria Filardo
ON THE LIPS AND IN MY HEART,
MAY IT BE FOREVER,
IN LIFE AND IN DEATH,
YOUR NAME, OH MARIA
"The mimetic transferring of a centuries-old message is an opportunity to demonstrate the reflexogenic power of the identity game." Anastazija Miranovic
Red
"Articulating the symbolism of the color red in the group of video works that are evocatively titled Red, Aleksandar Duravcevic lucidly and concisely contextualizes the traditional identities of the local area – from the chamber, genre-based still life with pomegranates in a wicker basket, to the skinned animal carcasses, ferocious dogfights and elderly hands which patiently clean and gather pomegranate arils. From the essence of life to the essence of death – be it juice or blood, red is the colour of the Montenegrin flag." Anastazija Miranovic
A scene of a dogfight was taken in Podgorica, where kids were fighting dogs all the time. In other words, instead of fighting amongst themselves, which they also did, they would fight dogs.
Artist noted that the fourth video, picturing the slaughter of a calf in a public market, makes a strong reference to Rembrandt's “Carcass of Beef" that also inspired Soutine's “Side of Beef".
Room No.2
"Room No.2 is a large installation that recreates a room with wooden walls, engraved by the artist. The wood surface is rendered complex by ornamentation, rich with curves, signifying a strong presence of a time saturated with matter. There are no smooth or simple surfaces; it is rather an articulated and abounding place. The room appears blackened, burned along the entire surface that faces the visitors. It is the memory of a ruin, of matter which bears the marks of its own destruction, a place we recognize but for which we no longer have a use, a relic." Daria Filardo
"...this is not a Romantic ruin (in the sense of poetic material decay) but about the ruinous effects of the romantic, undialectical denial of the technological as historical production." Philip Glahn
Identity
"An outsized inscription in which the letters take on a sculptural dimension, this work investigates the idea of permanence by means of classic materials. The act of reading, however, reveals transience and a difficulty to define identity, starting from the gaze of the other." Daria Filardo
Artist noted that this work, remade in bronze, is self-explanatory and it’s playing with stereotypes and with the ways that we see each other in the 21st century.
Waiting
"The only thing left in the intermezzos of relentless waiting, are the memories we treasure. They are always present, never failing us, except when we let them. White shutters and window sills frame the black void and the quiet room filled with the anxiety of waiting appearing and disappearing. As wrong as it may be, the passive role of the woman is dictated by consuetude in the Montenegrin tradition and history. She is the one who waits, trapped in a paralyzing passivity, while He, the unseen "predator", acts as a protagonist and the decision-maker in all matters of life. Woman is the sensitive, safe support for the manifestation of the power of the male principle. The whole Mediterranean life-stage boasts the same stereotypical division of roles." Anastazija Miranovic
The 56th International Art Exhibition
Pavilion of Montenegro
Producer: Nenad Soskic
Artist: Aleksandar Duravcevic
Commissioner: Anastazija Miranovic
Deputy Commissioner: Danica Bogojevic
Production of the exhibition and the catalogue: Centar savremene umjetnosti Crne Gore, Podgorica
2015
