Suitcases
digital photography on photo paper
150 cm x 100cm
edition: 1/5
2018
The Cumulation Project deals with accumulation on the global level while at the same time retaining an atmosphere of intimist mood, which reflects the inner world of the owners through the accumulated antique objects. The heroines of this series are also the actors placed in the centre of the composition on each individual photograph. They are wandering in their infatuation and fascination with all kinds of burdens and, within the psychological explanation of the state, the heroine of each frame flirts with criticism and self-criticism.
The ambiance, costume and attitude of the heroine in this photograph, which is part of the October Salon Collection, as well as the choice of items she collects – suitcases – sheds light on the origin and status of the portrayed woman, and the accumulation of objects looks like an obsessive need and echoes in their inner psychic state, giving the photograph a touch of Vanitas, a symbolic image of the transience of life and the futility of pleasure.
In her photography projects, the artist arranges a mise en scène, relying on costumes and scenography mainly from the second half of the 20th century. With stylistic and iconographic juxtapositions in her works, she leans on the figural clichés of advertising and film photography, adding irony to the aesthetics of the pretentious dreams and pompous images of the media. Her oeuvre is based on the themes of family, relationships, loneliness, alienation, loss of identity, the existence of the woman and her position in relation to the established norms of socially desirable behaviour, all through the contexts of the last years of the 20th century.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-403/8.11.2019.
Inventory No. 1665
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Selected Bibliography:
Dejana Vučićević – CUMULATION. August – September 2018. Text by Jelena Krivokapić, Solo Exhibition Catalogue, Beograd Sales Gallery, Belgrade, 2018; Available at: http://galerijabeograd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/katalog-dejana-vucicevic-screen2.pdf (accessed Mar. 18, 2020.)
56th October Salon, The Pleasure of Love. Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dejana Vučićević (1976, Belgrade, Serbia) graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. She is a member of ULUPUDS (Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia) and a freelance artist. As a visual artist, she has realized several significant solo projects in the field of design and fashion, such as fashion collections, costumes for three feature films and one short film. She does costume design and designs for theatre and TV commercials projects, styling for fashion and art editorials. In the field of multimedia arts, she deals with conceptual projects, realized at solo exhibitions. Her works are part of the October Salon Collection, the collections of the Belgrade City Museum, Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, and the Telenor Collection of Serbian Contemporary Art. More information at http://www.dejanavucicevic.com/