Page 114 - Art Review

RaŠa Todosijević Siege of London 2097

Handel Street Projects, London 4 November – 20 January

Apparently it all started with a gymful of Serbs seem to share violent and sadistic tendencies, beneath it claiming it, again in Serbian, as
at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. Invited over but their careers have followed very different The Soul Warming (2000–9). Spiritual comfort
by Scottish gallerist Richard Demarco, a group trajectories: Todosijević represented Serbia at the is just rhetorical spin, Todosijević suggests;
of artists who had in recent years been gathering 2011 Venice Biennale, but of course Abramović or as the cutout words on one small collage
in Belgrade’s Student Cultural Centre to make has been lauded as an icon of performance art, admit: Weltschmerz is My Business (2015).
improvised, informal work away from the has set up a self-aggrandising institute and, more The wall sculpture Vive le Mort (2004) is a box
then-Yugoslavian ‘official’ socialist realist style, recently, has been pushing Marina-flavoured that contains another portable radio, a small red
used this foreign opportunity to make their first macarons. Todosijević has remained in Belgrade, flag that in Cyrillic letters apparently spells out
public performances. Raša Todosijević appar- simply getting on with making work: posters ‘Long Live Death’ and a small tea saucer with the
ently did something with lube and a goldfish; for nonexistent films (such as one included here, words ‘Gott Liebt Die Serben’ (God Loves the Serbs)
his cohort Marina Abramović presented the Murder, dated 1997–2017, which enlists Demarco painted on it. Both slogans are part of long-
first iteration of her Rhythm 10 (1973) perfor- as its lead character and filmmaker Lutz Becker running series of his work, casual but poignant
mance, cutting her hands with an array of as its director of photography), deliberately bad reminders of a history that erupted again re-
knives. What’s presented here, though, at a Picasso knockoffs (My Name is Pablo Picasso, 1980) cently into the news, with the suicide of Croatian
small, cosy solo survey show of Todosijević’s or tongue-in-cheek predictions, such as the general Slobodan Praljak in the International
work, is a room of dour text paintings, collages black-and-yellow cursive text-painting from Criminal Court in the Hague. But this box seems
and assemblages made between 1977 and 2017 which the show takes its title: Opsada Londona a quietly concise emblem for this exhibition:
that are the result of decades of the artist’s 2097 (Siege of London 2097, 2007). a set of worn-out objects, all loaded with symbol-
roleplaying, making series of works alternately The inert, faded objects gathered here have ism and associations, but here too densely packed
as an ironic prophet, provocateur or imposter. a dry sense of dark humour, a wry existential- and sparsely contextualised to fully bring out a
Todosijević is considered a central figure ism: God Exists (2013) is a portable radio on a lifetime of work. What we’re left with are weary,
for the performative strain of conceptual art scuffed-up piece of cardboard, the titular claim almost anonymous relics that appear all too
that formed in Belgrade during the early 70s, written in Serbian in red. In the next room a similar to those more famously left behind
developed by a group that included Abramović worn-out electric blanket is folded and stuck by Todosijević’s Eastern European conceptual
and Zoran Popović. Their early performances on the wall, a wooden painted sign in red contemporaries. Chris Fite-Wassilak

Siege of London 2097, 2017 (installation view). Photo: FXP Photography.
Courtesy Handel Street Projects, London

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