The creativity of Želimir Barić undoubtedly falls into the category of so-called “engaged art.” In his work, he almost exclusively addresses themes related to the position of the contemporary human, his relationship to nature and technology, his relationship to himself and others, ecology, and his future. This exhibition of his artworks does not shy away from these topics and engagement, and its primary aim is to draw our attention to the future of humanity and our role in it.
The interplay between media and form in Želimir Barić’s work represents a game between the past and the future, a game between intention and reality – the desire for progress and the slow fall into oblivion. The motifs of fossils, i.e. extinction, faithfully reflected in the carefully chosen medium of technological waste, draw attention to the path we are heading down due to hyperproduction, mass consumption, and the careless disposal of the fruits of tamed entropy. Once the chaos is conquered, we discard it as waste into the environment that produced and sustained us, thus causing our own downfall and future fossilization. The memory of humanity will be immortalized in technological fossils, metal, and plastic, bearing the marks of our ultimately unfulfilled intentions – our desires for control and progress.
In accordance with Sartre’s description of engaged art, which states that it should present to the viewer their own situation and enable them to take responsibility for it, Želimir Barić’s exhibition invites the individual to reflect on their actions, even if only for a moment, and to at least in thought take some responsibility for our future.
The exhibition is open from October 25th to November 2nd, 2022.
Miljana Milojević