CASE STUDIES: THEMES FROM A GREAT CITIES

I've known Branko Pavic for years as a friend of my friends. I knew that he was a graphic artist, that he won some awards, that his graphics were huge, and that he often makes his own handmade paper. I appreciated his work and liked his graphics. But since I had never been too interested in graphics for I considered it as an exceedingly classical technique and thought that graphic artists were too individualistic authors to be able to participate in my group projects, I had never seriously thought about Branko Pavic in the professional context. I became interested in him only when he did graphic design of the performance Armatura (Metal Framework) - an architectural hymn, musical stage production of the art group Skart (Rejects). On the night of the performance, the hall of the Faculty of Architecture was decorated with flags, posters, and paper caps printed on the occasion of that unusual event.
We first started working together in the spring of 1995. Being the Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, at the Faculty of Architecture, Branko held Workshop 301. By delivering lectures he wanted to make his students familiar with the problems of colour, composition, form and did it also by means of conducting various experiments. One of the experiments was conducted in the following way: two specially selected songs were played on Radio B92 every two hours in the course of one day. Students listened to these songs during the class and reacted to them in a visual manner. In June we opened the exhibition of works whose creation began during the Experiment 301 in the REX Cultural Canter. It was then that I realized that Branko was not just a graphic artist. By the beginning of summer he already had a new idea. The project, quite clear and rather precise, had to do with the independent exhibition of his works which was to take place around half a year later, in April 1996. In October 1995 it was obvious that the exhibition would be held in the Modern Gallery in Pancevo, but that was not enough. The provocative space of REX, the need for a different live exhibition and for including and presenting the friends / artists, who were already constantly there, brought about the creation of THEMES FOR BIG CITIES. We quickly agreed that the conception was acceptable for REX, and that B92 was ready to do the production. THEMES FOR BIG CITIES include two exhibitions:
1) In the Modern Gallery in Pancevo only the works of Branko Pavic were exhibited. They were large format graphics made using wood carving technique (black and white and coloured wood carving) - a combination of wood carving, photography and handmade paper (cast in wooden matrices).
2) In Cinema Rex where a number of authors participated in the realization of the second part of the project. That meant making two large graphics, especially for that occasion, which because of their format had to be done on the spot (Branko Pavic). Close friends and colleagues were invited to be assistants in charge of other media: Cedomir Vasic (Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts), art group Skart (Rejects), Dragan Protic and Djordje Balmazovic (designers) and Ivan Kucina (architect). They all were given the task of making short video works (35 minutes long) inspired by the themes of the graphics and by the music of the band Jarboli (Masts). (Their music has an emotional significance for Branko because it reminds him of the process of creation of those graphics and of the period when they were made).

Themes of the graphics (video works) are clearly defined by their very names: Traffic Light, Crossroads, Light. The graphics were created on the basis of photographs of urban details, which were later magnified, and laser photocopied in order to serve as models. The most frequent motive was the big crossroads near Branko's apartment - at the corner of Takovska and Lole Ribara Street. No matter how many times carrying out of the project was endangered, since the work on it had began, Branko's energy and firm determination that if the work on something began, it must be finished, made its completion possible. The project, which consisted of two exhibitions, films, a poster and a catalogue, was carried out. Successfully, I hope.

Darka Radosavljević (preface of the catalogue)