Screenshots from my short experimental movie with dancing, singing, poetry and glitch elements, 

"Nuclear Nymphs", presented with "Leviathan of Desire" on my pop-up solo exhibition in January 2025

 

 

 

25. 12. 2024.

 "Baršunasto podzemlje", Gradska galerija Striegl, Sisak, 2013. (tekst: Alma Trauber)

https://galerija-striegl.hr/izlozbe/petra-brnadic-barsunasto-podzemlje/

 

Mitologija intime: mogućnosti gledanja Baršunastog podzemlja

»…i dok iznosim svoje privatno, ja se zapravo izlažem najviše: ne zbog opasnosti od ’skandala’, nego zato što predstavljam svoje imaginarno u najjačoj konzistentnosti; a imaginarno je zapravo ono čime upravljaju drugi…«

Misaoni isječak iz Barthesovih Fragmenata ljubavnog govora nas vrlo jasno uvodi u strategije autobiografskog upisivanja u prostor umjetničkog djela i iz toga razloga ga svjesno premještam u kontekst čitanja rada Petre Brnardić. Postavljanje pitanja ‘o samome sebi’ i redefiniranje vlastitog identiteta trajno je prisutan problemski prostor u gotovo svim oblicima umjetničkog izražavanja (pri tom stavljam naglasak na vizualne umjetnosti od druge polovice 20. stoljeća: postmoderna, konceptualna umjetnost i suvremene tendencije).  U tom smislu, gledanje i razumijevanje rada Petre Brnardić, ne može započeti bez postavljenog pitanja tko su ti drugiu konstrukcijama traženja i pronalaženja ‘sebe’, a samim tim nužno je obratiti se recentnim teorijskim pristupima koji definiraju pitanja identiteta terminima kolektivnog i autofikcionalnog, ali se i u jednom segmentu, veoma važnom, dotiču tjelesnosti, tj. vanjskih manifestacija identiteta.

Nametnuta uloga ‘drugog’ i ‘drugih’ u formiranju i prepoznavanju identiteta dolazi iz različitih dijelova javnog, intimnog, svakodnevnog, nevidljivog, potisnutog, fikcionalnog. Vizualni kontekst Baršunastog podzemlja,ovisno o intenzitetu identifikacije umjetnice, fragmentarno obuhvaća sva ta izvorišta.  Umjetnica ih tumači i imenuje privatnom mikromitologijom, arhetipskim, ženskim principima, erosom i thanatosom, i to postaju moduli njene autoidentifikacije koje prevodi u umjetnički vokabular.

Baršunastopodzemlje već svojim nazivom uključuje naše kolektivno opažanje i memoriju (povijest rock glazbe, literatura), ali i u svojoj jezično-misaonoj osnovi upućuje na nešto što nam je poznato i s čim se možemo poistovjetiti. Baršun kao materijal je privlačan, mekan i ugodan na dodir, dok podzemlje najčešće doživljavamo kao mračno, hladno, nelagodno, subverzivnih i negativnih konotacija. Upravo taj spoj opozitnih i kontradiktornih emocija, psihofizičkih stanja i društvenih stereotipova je osnovno tematsko i idejno obilježje radova Petre Brnardić prezentiranih Baršunastimpodzemljem. Kontradiktornost kao i napetost uspostavljenih međuodnosa pojačana je izložbenim supostavljanjem dva medija: medija slike i medija fotografije. Ova dva medija svojom prostornom i kontekstualnom interakcijom upućuju na dvije varijante stvarnosti, ali i vizualne mogućnosti autofikcije.

U izloženim slikarskim radovima umjetnica prikazuje sebe u ‘krupnom planu’, bilo da se radi o figurativnim prikazima izrazite ekspresivnosti, fragmentima tijela, tijela multipliciranog, uronjenog i obavijenog atributima (samo)ranjavanja i krvi, s fantazmagoričnim i morbidnim detaljima ili pak izostaje prikaz tijela i umjetnica se transfigurira i poistovjećuje s određenim elementom, npr. s plamenom. Radovi u sebi nose bipolarnost privlačenja i odbijanja. Svojim formatima i crvenom kromatikom radovi privlače, ali istovremeno i imaju potencijalni efekt ‘odbijanja’ zbog intime koja se bez straha i bezuvjetno izlaže i ogoljuje pred očima promatrača. Autobiografska mjesta u slikama potvrđuje činjenica geste koju pratimo u potezu ili fetišizirani predmeti aplicirani na površinu slike kao preostatak autodestruktivnog čina. Ta gesta i taj predmet potvrđuju mjesta gdje umjetnica uistinu upisuje i ostavlja fizički i automatski trag sebe. U slikama umjetnica ostvaruje igru dijaboličnog karaktera, dok s druge strane metaforički utjelovljuje i kritički propituje različite ‘društvene’ identitete žene: »Looks like a girl, but she’s a flame, So bright, she can burn your eyes, Better look the otherway, You can try but you’ll never forget her name, She’s on top of the world… Nobody knows that she’s a lonely girl, And it’s a lonely world«

Nasuprot slikarskim radovima, izloženi ciklusi fotografija i fotokolaža koncept vizualne autofikcionalizacije podižu na nešto drugačiju razinu. Povodeći se Broodthaersovim principom fikcije koji kaže da je fikcija ta koja nam pomaže da shvatimo stvarnost, ali i da shvatimo ono što stvarnost skriva, fotografije i fotokolaži uspostavljaju relacije između odnosa: ja prikazujem sebe– ja prikazujem sebe – ja prikazujem sebe. Te sasvim složene procese u interpretiranju i vizualnom predstavljanju svojih jastava, umjetnica postiže memoarsko-dnevničkim, performativnim, metanarativnim i nadrealnim karakterom fotografija. Fotografije su snimljene u okrilju privatnog interijera umjetnice, čiji izgled ona mijenja i stvara karakter insceniranog prostora, intimne scenografije, ostavljajući dojam budoarskih zapisa. Svojom serijalnošću i repetitivnošću fotografski radovi potvrđuju jedan od identiteta umjetnice u određenom isječku vremena i postaju svojevrsni otisak emotivnog stanja uvjetovanog autorefleksijom. Ciklusi ‘Rubedo’ i ‘Farbanje kose’ imaju i  dokumentarni karakter, jer predstavljaju zapis svojevrsnog performansa kojeg je autorica izvela, ali sa striktno povučenim granicama. Umjetnica strogo kontrolira što želi zadržati unutar kadra, a što izostavlja, otvarajući prostor našoj vlastitoj imaginaciji. U fotokolažima umjetnica se služi dekonstrukcijom i fragmentacijom fizičkih činjenica koje čine njenu vlastitu, ali i našu svakodnevnu stvarnost, da bi kreirala nadrealne i metanarativne kompozicije. Stupanj autofikcionalizacije ovdje kulminira, jer je subjekt umjetnice dezintegriran i počiva na vizualnim paradoksima. Fotokolaži tako funkcioniraju kao ‘idealne’ maske.

Baršunasto podzemljeje izložbena koncepcija koja vas privlači sugestivnošću intime, ali i mogućnostima koje u umjetničkom smislu otvara autobiografski diskurs.

Alma Trauber

 

 

 Petroleum Petrissima Express Semi-Poetic-All-P-Associations Collage (2018)

 Sketches for a realized installation on a group exhibition "Love Piece" (2017)

 

"If In Trouble, Blink Three Times"

or "Dissociation"

or "Fear Pain Sorrow"

or "Scapegoat" -- (SpaceGoat? 👄)

or "The Chosen One"

 Monsoon

 

 "Serafita" (2022), my Instagram

 

My Golden Underground

 

Nuit Mystique (Hot Rain)

 

Nuclear Nymphs

 (click on the cute purple link above)

Short experimental movie with spoken poetry. Author (director, writer, producer, cast, videographer, director of photography, editor, glitch artist, poet, singer, performer): Petra Brnardic. Year: 2024

“Nuclear Nymphs” is a short experimental film, a poetic dance story about love, hatred and revenge. It is a continuation of a “Leviathan of Desire” from 2018. (and, in some fragments, of “Succubi”, “Mermaid Song” and “The Black Swan Flaming Ocean”).

I weave a web of my own microcosmic narrative about fatal sirens, ondines, naiads, sea and water mythical creatures, such as their indirect foremother Tiamat, the dragon goddess of primordial chaos, but also vampires, succubi and aliens. I’ve been dealing with mythological creatures through my poetry and visual art since the turn of the century, and this project would be a testament to my obsession with all facets of female archetypes and the ways in which my fluid and multi-layered identity draws from that rich source and vast pool. The turbulent, dark and deep ocean is a metaphor for emotions, and the violent verbal images of seduction, castration and destruction are sadomasochistic and fetishistic fantasies after the death of a relationship that was meaningful to me or after trauma, which triggered numerous questions, breaks, pain and confusion. I nurture wings to rise from agony like a phoenix from the ashes or fight against despotic authority and the Name of the Father, in the shelter of wild nature and naked elements with which I am making love. I sexualize anger in order to create dramatic tension, and I process all motifs through the reconstruction of poetic language and playing with stylistic figures. I try to create a hypnotic, magical and mystical atmosphere, through linguistic acrobatics and ritualistically repetitive singing similar to a medieval liturgy or madrigal, in order to heal trauma and psychic fractures and to be reborn, as if from salt foam.

It is also significant that my father was a sailor and my name means “the rock”, and here my fictitious (anti)heroine acts as the ultimate siren who fights against what the Father psychoanalytically symbolizes, and in that battle the primal wildness of nature crushes and disintegrates sailing ships as ornate sea phalluses and returns the ocean to its primordial fold. In a way, I touch on Electra’s complex, but inversely: I long for the Father as a structuring monad that I never had, and all the characters of my story are contrary to his image and features of the soul. But trouble, sacrifice and temptation occur when the symbolic paternal backbone is broken and the ocean of Id goes wild and insane. 

The video was based on a poem I wrote immediately in English (I started writing poetry in it during quarantine, when I discovered the gorgeous, metamorphosing and meandering possibilities of a language that is not my mother’s tongue and with which I can play endlessly, juggling derivatives, synonyms and even words which I invented and dreamed up myself).

 I interlaced the film with igniting sensuality, with a focus on oral fixation (biting and sucking/licking, i.e. schizoid vs. depressive position in the psychoanalytic theory of the formation of object relations).

In “Leviathan of Desire”, also a film noir of sorts (although the crimes, collisions and psychological car crashes are blossoming within in both movies), I spoke about my melancholy, longing and desire, and through the relationship between a man and a woman I showed images and scenes of a nostalgic paradise, arcadia and utopia mixed with creepy and anxious. The pictures are memories of a summer vacation at sea on an Adriatic island, which aroused deep emotions in me. I unveiled interpersonal connection, sensuality, ferocious passion and tenderness, opposed to the feeling of loneliness and the fears that are triggered by it. Leviathan is a sea monster that, in my story and interpretation, casts spells on the lovers, and I enveloped everything in a black and white, silvery-pearl haze of surreal apparitions, and the maritime scenery is riddled with flashbacks to man-made elements, as recollections, foreshadowings, parallel reality, allusions or symbols (storefront, tunnel, key, chains, neon lights, glittering underground club tinsel, mirror, glass shards). The monstrosity of the mythological creatures alludes to the fatal nature of attraction, to fascination, but also to the destructiveness, toxicity and poisonousness of the obsession that a love relationship produces. The island, the seaside, the beach, the summer breeze and the darkness were a symbol for love isolation, where the fantasmagoric realities of idealization and disillusionment intertwine in a fervent tango of willful blindness, but also for the alienation of an individual (me) who is eternally searching for something that will truly reflect her core, but her fate is resigned to being in a haunted tower locked in herself waiting to fruitfully face a demon and ride him on the way to a potential happy ending of a personal saga. In other words, I turn my reality into fiction and I use many layers of building suspense, playing with visual imagery and capricious whimsicality of the words. They are my weapon and my surgical knife. And the fusion of both mediums serves me as a torch for navigation through painful imbroglio of the jungles of my mind.

 

Merqueen, Nosferatu´s Bride