Interview with Urša Vidic

It is hard to recognize the bodies on your paintings, who are they?

It is not important who they are, male or female, what kind of a story is behind them. In this way I can avoid the system of the biological determination, which causes the social determination and classification.

Why do you use human figure, what does it speak about?

I use a human body as a mean of language which is different from verbal language. But first of all the body is used as an instrument, it goes through the process of let´s say decomposing, for developing new spaces and forms which are different, strange, abstract.

Your paintings represent just fragment of the bodies and head is usually missing, why?

In this case the head would be too personal, too didactical. My idea was to speak about feelings, emotions, tensions,...in a silent, non verbal manner. So the hand is a very good sign for reading our inner thoughts. Through the gestures you are avoiding the codes of speech, which belongs in a psychological terminology to the man.

What is the relation of the paintings to eroticism or beauty?

My work is not about erotic, it is about sensibility. At the first sight it could be perceived as beautiful, but if you´ d look closer, there is something strange and maybe surprising in the painting. This strangeness comes from partiality, fragmentation of the body. Except for the hand the rest of the body is loosing its proper shape. It is becoming two-dimensional, abstract and it is loosing its function. So I wouldn’t say that decomposing of the body can be erotic.

How do you paint your works – do you use models or photographs?

The paintings are done according to the photographs. It is me and my boyfriend, but this is not important, since I am not using our portraits. From the photography I choose, I decide which part is interesting for me and then I paint it. But I use only details, the rest of the body has to slowly disappear. The result is dreamy, fogy like space, which points on the illusion or wish.

You are also presenting the video. What it is about?

The video presents the journey through the landscape of one body which is made of many human bodies. The camera moves from realy close detail to the bigger plan, and through that you get the sensation you are flying above something, sort of a landscape, which reminds you of the human body. You feel familiar with it, jet it is disturbing, since it brings different, unknown aspects of the human body.

How it is done?

Video was made in collaboration with Lorenka Stropnik and Aron Boršo. We used the photographs that I was using for my painting and made a 3D landscape out of them. Then we just decided how the camera is going to move. It looks simple but you real have to know a lot about the computers.

Paintings of Ursa Vidic is possible to see in Galerija Alkatraz till 29.3. www.kudmreza.org/alkatraz More of her works you can see here: www.uvslike.blogspot.com

Lenka Kukurova