Foto Formia October 1999/2000 number 2 Print

Possessing human identity is a prerequisite of interpersonal understanding. The simplest and the commonest means of proving identity is the identity card. Several data and a photograph constantly follow us as something which we guarantee our identity by. The period since the invention of photography can be also characterised by the practice of identifying a person with their physical appearance, especially the face. Mass visual media, in which faces are abundantly replicated and circulated, record the face that prepares for the photographic imprint. It is enough to see them on a television screen – the face of the speaker is arranged for the screen exhibition: the movement is slowed down even held up as immobility is concidered a sign of dignity. What we are, actually, dealing with here is greater and greater loss of particularity of the face, particularity in general; we see the ideology of levelling at work, uniformity that spreads at the account of diversity. Beside the stiffness of the face, our body, as the only instrument we have at our disposal to confront the world with, is constantly tense and stiffened in order to maintain personal integrity, and, thus, becomes a sign. The hands,” the tools of the soul”, have to serve as to hide the mask – they are nervous, movable, sophisticated... The absence of the face and the presence of the body strengthens the emphasized questions of selfconsciousness. There is still a need for reconsideration and selfobservation. These days when genetic manipulations enable us to actually start the alteration of the man transforming him in a way completely different from what has ever been tried before, there is a danger that succumbing to the automatism of events (cloning human species) leads to fundamental changes which can give, for example, identification a completely opposite meaning- proving to belong to the original. This is the photographic socio-psychological study of the project the photograph on canvas – collage “Foto Formia Oktobar 1999/2000”. Material collected in the only photo studio in Cetinje, Montenegro, is the representative sample of the population of a (any) town at the beginning of the millennium (period October 1999/ October 2000) enables the approach unburdened by art codes so that presenting a possible reality could receive a form of actuality. Technically, Foto Formia October 1999/2000 number 2 (and also number 1, 3, 4.) is part of a complex art work done with photos on black canvas pasted up with vax-bituminous mixture on hot table for conservation.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:10 W x 8 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:15.25 W x 13.25 H x 1.2 D in

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