Studio of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Pula (2015)

Marko Vojnić, an artist from Pula and Zagreb, is presenting himself for the first time at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria. Less than two months ago, in Zagreb's Kranjčar Gallery, at the second exhibition from the thematic series Mental Structure (follower - mentor), I presented this young artist from Pula together with the doyen of Croatian and world contemporary art, Julije Knifer. Such a choice was conditioned primarily by Vojnić's artistic creativity, which is of a very similar vocation to Knifer's. Namely, both authors are inclined to conceptually-minimalist procedures devoid of any narrative and literariness, and strive for the ultimate reduction of artistic elements. Regardless of the generational difference, these artists follow the path that Kazimir Maljevič inaugurated in fine art, and continued by numerous artists who were interested in art as an extra, that is, who sought and explored its essence through their numerous artistic-aesthetic-philosophical procedures. Marko Vojnić is on the trail of these researches, and in his work he constantly questions the experiences of numerous avant-garde artists of such trends, such as Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein, Juli Knifer or the Art & Language group. From all of the above, it is evident that Marko Vojnić nurtures a conceptual approach to art, that is, primarily a thought process that results in minimalistic, predominantly painted forms that represent the author's superstructure of quotes from the aforementioned artists. We have to understand the word superstructure here exclusively figuratively, because Vojnić essentially reduces the already reduced artistic template to its existential, i.e. iconographic minimum. Marko Vojnić is also known to his Pula generation as an ardent supporter of the punk movement, and he has not renounced it even to this day. Looking at Marko's strict, almost asthetically disciplined artistic procedures, it is difficult to connect them with the rebellious and loud punk movement, that is, to combine these differences in one person. However, this is not about any dichotomy because the punk rebellion is a social rebellion against social diversity and the rule of technocratic corporate powers, and the conceptual reflection of art is an individual protest against the institutions of the same subjects and the petty bourgeoisie and consumerism they produce. The diptych by Marko Vojnić Brać, which is now exhibited for the first time in Pula, speaks eloquently about everything that has been said. The end product that corporations have been conducting very successfully for centuries is war, and it has not bypassed Croatia either. Marko's brother was in the Homeland War, and on his camouflage T-shirt Vojnić painted the logo of the iconic Los Angeles punk group Black Flag, a kind of minimalist-reductionist version of the bar code designed by their then bassist and fine artist Raymond Pettibon. That logo is almost identical to Knifer's pre-Meander compositions, therefore very close to Mark. With this diptych, Vojnić closed the circle and, applying an abstract artistic sign to the most powerful symbol of world hypocrisy, spoke about the need for a unique rebellion, regardless of whether it is loud, destructive and cursing or arises in self-concealing intellectual reflection, which is manifested, among other things, in artistic meta language.

Mladen Lučić