Serene living
by Svetlana Racanovic, art historian

The artist Igor Rakčević makes art the way he organises his own life, the way he “arranges” the space he lives in, the way he experiences and responds to all the morbid/painful conditions and “dislocations” of the social organism of which he is a vigilant member. His work, however, is not advocacy of a “hard-line” critical position either in the form of an “active distance” or direct involvement, or of sharp penetration into and dissection of such reality. He has no ambition to unmask, lay bare, forcefully open up or debunk the degrading social reality, or to engage in a polemics or a bitter showdown with it. Neither is it an attitude of resignation and reconcilement out of a feeling of personal impotence, out of the conviction that there is no room for action. This is work which, through intelligent questions, delicately “intervenes” in the context of immediate social reality as subtly couched criticism, as witty, measured provocation, merry parody, relaxed irony, as small-calibre but well-planned and effective strikes.

Just as the artist organises, “arranges” his immediate living, household space according to the “do it yourself” method, serenely getting by under the given circumstances, making do with “what is at hand”, so he obtains objects and creates opportunities for his own enjoyment, through his own ingenuity and “with a little help from his friends”, displaying the knack to find, “insert”, activate, use in a new way the discarded, the inexpensive, the inconspicuous, the incongruent. That is also how he “puts together”, assembles, his artistic work. Rakčević’s work does not stem from a “high style” way of life, i.e. from the lack of concern and calm that a life without financial worries offers, but it is living and working in a “style” which transforms lack into an artistic hit, just the right thing, the most fortunate solution. Having to “live in small doses” is not perceived as doom, as an oppressive drama, nor is it manifested by works featuring “existential anxiety” or “anxiety on account of existence”. Rakčević’s work is, rather, a specific intimacy with the given conditions, the ambience in which one lives, intimacy also as vigilance which discerns and captures the essential. His work also reflects a relaxed approach which is unobtrusive, which is measured, which stems from a feeling of adequacy, ”of having enough” to indulge in and afford “life’s small comforts” without sentimentality and without calculation on the part of the artist, without seeking to profit from not having, from cashing in on his sad Balkan or woeful transition story. Rakčević’s art is cleanly, correctly “cut down” with measure, aesthetically refined without seeking to embellish and adorn. It is serious art while being unpretentious, without invasive impulses or offensive/showy ambitions. It is with that kind of art that small oases of personal freedom are created and protected.