SEQUENCE 1916 Painting

Following the culmination of cyclical historical event through its revival in the form of the centennial anniversary, we meet with a preserved vision of the events of 1914 made in the 1920s. This kind of conservation in today's time of reviewing the past, causes the need for historical revisionism. Unlike revisionism that requires a new interpretation, this art concept is dealing with deconservation, by questioning the process of official selection of photos, film footage and images selected for the official interpretation of the assassination in 1914. Sources for the paintings are based on photographs and film sequences up to 2 or 3 frames, which gives the paintings a unique composition compared to the original sources. All images were made through visual euphemism, which is deliberately intensified in order to avoid a more subjective and narrative dysphemised approach and my own subjective interpretation of the same events through historical fragments (more source images instead of only one) ''Because each image is only a fragment, its moral and emotional weight depends on where it is placed'' (1). Therefore, the paintings created represent a testimony of the conservation process of the events of 1914 and by questioning it (deconserving it) the paintings provide a unique and collective representation of the same event. The moment when the assassination of 28th June of 1914 occurred is not shown in the paintings, but is emphasized through the events that preceded it and by the consequences that followed it, ranging from 1894.-1939. This allowed the paintings to create a more realistic view of the same event and subsequently the selection of photographic and film sources for the later historical interpretation of it, whose credibility is always called into question,e.g. like the photograph called The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa. Which puts a conclusion that the photographic image is not an evidence of history as itself is historical (2) Sources used for visual composition of the painting are from Croatian State Archives (HDA), Croatian History Museum (MPM), Austrian State Archives (OSA) and the Yugoslav Film Archive of RS (JKRS). (1) Susan Sontag,''Essays on photography'' (2)Peter Burke, ''Eyewitnessing, The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence''