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64
Les Prairies's artists
NEŠA PARIPOVIĆ
N.P., 1977. Collection Kontakt, Vienne. Courtesy de l'artiste.
N.P. 1977, 1977. Courtesy of the artist and galery Kontakt, Vienne.
Collection Erste Group and Erste Foundation, Vienne.
Neša Paripovicćis ´
an important figure in Serbian conceptual art of
the 1970s. Much influenced by the critical theory of the Praxis school
(who maintained that Leninism and Stalinism did not respect Marxist
orthodoxy but had hi-jacked it in the interests of party ideology), he
was the heir to an avant-garde modernity. At the time he executed
a number of works in which he made great efforts to deconstruct the
identity of the painter, or even the artist. The first film in the trilogy NP
– his initials – is a significant example. Standing in front of the camera
with his face painted he launches into a silent series of gestures
in mockery of his status as an artist. In NP77, the film presented
in Les Prairies, he strides quickly through Belgrade following an
imaginary straight line, jumping over barriers, climbing over roofs,
crossing a motorway, going through courtyards and gardens. Although
conspicuously political, the performance also has an aesthetic
and ironic side to it that smacks of dandyism – the artist wears a
fashionable suit and walks nonchalantly along in polished shoes.
Nevertheless, he embodies a conceptual attitude. His gesture defies
the architecture of the city which he flattens as if it were a surface
for him to draw a line on with his body. This critical and playful
situationist gesture openly flouts the rules.
M. C. tr. J. H.
Born in 1942 in Belgrade (Serbia), where he lives and works.