Circles Squared

Alphonse Osberty Sreo sam tek jednu, ili dvije osobe tijekom svog života koji su razumjeli umijeće hodanja, tj. odlaska u šetnju – koji su imali dar, da tako kažem, za lutanje: što je riječ koja je predivno izvedena iz „besposleni ljudi koji su lunjali zemljom za srednjega vijeka, i tražili milostinju pod izlikom da idu a la Sainte Terre ,“ u Svetu Zemlju, dok bi djeca govorila: „Evo Saint- Terrera ,“ lutalice, svetozemljaša. Oni koji tijekom svojih šetnji nikad ne odu u Svetu zemlju, kao što se prave da idu, obični su besposličari i vagabundi; oni koji tamo odu jesu lutalice u pravom smislu. Neki bi, ipak, izveli riječ iz sans terre, bez zemlje ili doma, što bi onda doslovno značilo bez stalnog doma, ali koji se svuda jednako osjeća kod kuće. Jer to je tajna uspješna lutanja. Onaj koji po cijeli dan sjedi u kući možda jest najveća skitnica od svih; ali lutalica, u pravom smislu, nije ništa više skitnica od meandrirajuće rijeke, koja cijelo vrijeme marljivo traži najkraći put d...

Once I was a postwoman. Not for very long, though. None of us had wanted to go back to Belgrade when the festival was over, but in order to stay in Edinburgh, we had to find work. So I got a job as a mail lady. I was excited about my new job, but after a few exhausting days of walking around the city, often lost and not speaking the language very well, I decided to only deliver the envelopes with nice handwritten addresses and throw out everything else—especially the bills. My supervisor asked me to return my uniform. That was that for postal work. Then Demarco asked me if I knew anything about interior design. “Of course,” I said. Of course I knew nothing. He took me to an architectural firm and introduced me to one of the principals. “We are designing a dining room for a luxury cruise ship,” the guy said. “Can you give us your input?” I reported for work the next morning. The first thing I did was to take a pile of white paper and draw a closely spaced grid on each sheet. I...

Pročitao sam sinoć stihove jednog istaknutog slikara a bili su, začudo, veoma samosvojni i nimalo uobičajeni. Iz takvih redova duša uvek čuje savet, kakva god da je tema. Osećanje koje oni ulivaju vrednije je od bilo koje misli koju bi mogli sadržati. Verovati vlastitim mislima, verovati da je ono što je istinito za vas u vašem rođenom srcu, istinito za sve ljude- to je stvaralački duh. […] Trebalo bi da čovek nauči da otkriva i motri onaj munjeviti bljesak koji obasjava njegov duh iznutra, pre nego treperavi sjaj nebeskog svoda pesnika i mudraca. A, eto, on otpisuje i ne zametivši vlastitu misao, jer je njegova. U svakom delu genija mi prepoznajemo naše vlastite odbačene misli; one nam se vraćaju sa izvesnom tuđim velelepnošću. […] U obrazovanju svakog čoveka postoji trenutak kada on dolazi do ubeđenja da je zavist neznanje; da je podražavanje samoubistvo; da on mora prihvatiti, na šta god da izašlo, sebe za svoju sudbu; silna vaseljena, iako puna dobrote, ni zrno pšenice neće m...

An excerpt from the book "The Sacred and the Feminine" by Griselda Pollock and Victoria Turvey Mendieta’s work from 1973 onwards is increasingly related to nature, and the notion of sacrifice is no longer so explicitly linked to sexuality. The assimilation of the body to the earth marks the series Siluetas. Here Mendieta leaves an imprint of the form of her body in the landscape, an imprint either hollow or formed by the assembly of natural elements. These works illustrate in singular fashion the link between the construction of myth and the search for an identity, highlighted powerfully by Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy in Le mythe nazi. In paradigmatic fashion, by creating a fusion with nature, Mendieta affirms, through their common fertility, a feminine specificity. The Earthmother in this respect constitutes an all-powerful, truly mythical generality, in which Mendieta’s body literally melts, and in a certain sense becomes lost; the affirmation of a collective i...