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spa Bojan Mrđenović, The Spa The Spa – a photography of dialectics From 2011, through his camera’s lens, Bojan Mrđenović has been examining the Daruvar Spa complex, built in 1980 on the location of thermal springs known since Antiquity. A spa is a space of communal care: a place where patients come to rehabilitate, but also where the weekend visitors come to have some fun, where friends meet and children learn how to swim. Because of their social function, the health resorts in times of late capitalism seem out of joint – as relicts of another time hidden in the pockets of reality, in the forest and fog. In a world galloping towards complete commodification, especially in the areas of entertainment, healthcare, and tourism, Mrđenović’s photography seems phantasmagorical. At the same time, the spas are real and tangible. They are filled with human bodies, with activities that enable their functioning, with the materiality of architecture. As we walk through the exhibition space, we walk through the space – both interior and exterior – of the spa; we shift angles, we notice details and we assemble the whole. However, this whole, as is usually the case with the work of the artist in question, is something new in comparison to the sum of its parts. Whenever we think we have noticed a message or an idea with which we can summarise the whole exhibition, then the next photograph or its detail dismisses it, a part refuses to fit; to each attempt of delimitation, the photographs reply with the interpretative excess that always directs the gaze elsewhere. These images are full of inner tensions, co-existing opposites – a photography of dialectics. Here we come to the basic topic of the Spa: the thesis, merely postulated, immediately produces its antithesis. This dialectical game underlines the sequence of antagonistic couples: public – private, natural – social, individual – complex, workers – guests, form – content. Individual – complex Who are the people who spend their days in the spa? Bojan Mrđenović offers their portraits, with just a few traits of their social status; the usual signals – hair, make-up, clothes, and shoes – are barely there. The guests are almost completely unclothed: they have their tattoos, jewellery or nail polish, the rest remains unknown. Despite this, they are deeply present; Mrđenović does not romanticize them, nor does he reduce them to a ‘type’; rather he gives them dignity. He is trying to catch the diversity: from children who learn how to swim to older people who are waiting for their therapy; from young, socially desirable bodies to those non-normative ones, such as the old or disabled bodies. Some of them do not differ from those on billboards, others we rarely have the chance of meeting. At first glance, this approach seems ethnographical, as if the photographer uses his camera only to report what he sees, but that impression is deceiving. Bojan Mrđenović is also a brilliant and unobtrusive interpreter. The artist unpretentiously brings the observer deep into the narrative, while building the depth of the characters like a playwright. The persons are imposing their individual presence, but at the same time they function as roles, marked by the network of relationships, both interpersonal ones, but also the ones with architecture and nature: the spa appears as a big symbiotic organism. People are not atomized individuals; they are parts of a bigger picture. In the series of portraits, they occupy a similar position like the scenes of the forest or architecture: we see faces, but they also disappear under the surface of the water, the attention is dedicated to the architectural details and scattered items. The bodies acquire different proportions, in places they almost dissolve, they become indivisible from the water. At the same time, a man is present in their own absence: empty waiting rooms in which we see slippers, waking canes and clothes, a table for physiotherapy with traces of water left by a body that was lying on it. Public – private Still, we are not in a private space. On the contrary, the spa is the ultimate example of public space, enabling the encounter of older patients and younger visitors, a space in which we expose our intimacy – bodies covered only by bathing suits, routines such as taking a shower – and we remain anonymous while meeting complete strangers. There are not a lot of spaces within which it is possible to meet so many different bodies as it is the case with a spa (and the Spa): the late capitalist society is becoming increasingly ghettoized, forming little bubbles in which we only meet those like us. The remaining spaces of encounter are public transport and public healthcare offices (even though these types of spaces are also becoming fewer as private cars and private doctors become the norm for the upper classes). Precisely in this notion of a public realm, where we meet in one of the most private and most intimate states, lies the core of Mrđenović’s work. The spa complexes, which are quite numerous in Croatia, were built carrying different meanings and functions from the ones in which they are now trying to be squeezed in. The big complexes of the socialist period, built to ensure the access to rehabilitation to an ever greater number of people, now lead double lives: this service still needs to be provided to the users of Croatian Health Insurance Fund (whose number has been decreasing because of the galloping pressure on the public financing of the healthcare system), but at the same time these health resorts are expected to transform into some kind of exclusive oasis and spa centers, luxurious and accessible to only a few. These few, who are able to afford going to the spas as a luxurious weekend getaway, do not want to meet users who come from other worlds: the patients for whom the object was primarily built. In parallel, ‘the weekend getaway’ purpose has existed from the opening of this complex but was conceived more inclusively – not as an exclusive space of intimacy, but as a communal space of encounter. Workers – guests While we are watching the photographs of people in the Spa, the sense that we are watching something private, intimate, appears in the most unusual way. While this feeling is to be expected from photographs of people who are taking a shower or swimming, in reality they show the spa in its function: it exists for swimming and showering, the guests are doing what they are supposed to be doing, all visitors expect to see these scenes, they are public. The photographs that surprise us are the ones depicting female and male workers who are not only dressed, in contrast to most of the guests, but are also in their working uniforms – the people on whose work the whole complex relies, but who are often hidden. However, while capitalism provides tourism and service industry with the well-kept façade behind which workers really become invisible (in many hotels cleaners are not allowed to talk to guests, and waiters are not allowed to sit even when there are no guests around), in the Spa the situation is still different. The workers are seen in the moments of rest, while they chat over a cup of coffee on the roof of the building, while they are measuring the quality of water, taking care of the patients, or sitting at the counter. It is evident that the functioning of the whole complex depends on them. Their work is done behind the scenes but has not yet become invisible. This is depicted quite impressively on a photograph in which a cleaner in a pink uniform is standing at the edge of the pool and talking to a guest who is in the pool, over a meter below her. Natural – social Although Mrđenović is primarily focused on photographing the complex and the people inside, his camera is also pointed towards the forest-park in which the architecture is located. The nature around the complex seems almost otherworldly, or at least it seems like it does not belong to this place, it seems like we are in the forest with geysers. The feeling the author achieves by photographing the park in late fall and winter when the steam of the warm outdoor swimming pool creates an ethereal atmosphere. At the same time, by being consistent in his dialectical approach, he does not allow the observers to drift into reverie. The moment they try to, they are confronted by an unexpected element which points to its own opposite. There are organic lines of water or drops of rain that negate the clear raster of the tiles, the concrete tennis tables in the forest, a dried-out lake with the remains of mechanization. The relationship is formally recognized in the clash of straight lines and sharp angles of the files, walls, or windows, and the organic, round, and soft lines of water and plants. This is particularly successful in the photographs in which both modalities are present: in the reflection of trees in the pool through which one can discern the geometrical raster of the tiles, the drops of rain change the texture of the floor, the water diminishes the clay. The health resorts are a product of a social need and a specific political and economic context. Their role is to govern the natural thermal sources, but they also depend on it. The presence of nature is inevitable: the moss is covering the baths, and the glass wall separating the outdoor and the indoor pool is dissolving into the lime scale, steam, and the reflections of the surrounding trees. Form – content The last antagonism that needs to be mentioned (even though every observer will surely find new themes in Mrđenović’s work) is the one between form and content. All previous conflicting couples derive from the content, the possible narrative structures, interpretations to which the photographs invite us. These interpretations would not be possible without conscious and careful formal choices: the chosen frame and lightning, the texture of the motives, the attention given to lines and surfaces. Mrđenović is purposely not making the photographs neat, devoid of excess: without the details that seem to crash into the frame and ruin the clear composition, his photographs would be cleaner, compositionally firmer, but much less interesting. However, the form, again in consistency to the fundamentals of his work, is never a mere support of the content. The function of a line or color is not just to transmit the message clearer, the form sometimes turns out to be the basic theme of a photograph: in examining the raster, the effects of fog, the rhythm of architecture or coloristic encounters between red and blue. Still, in the moment when we are focusing on the form, a detail – an eternal excess in the rounded interpretational circles – reminds us that all those lines, surfaces and colors also represent a certain content. Mrđenović’s photographs are like optical illusions continually tackling the question of what a figure is, and what is a background, what is its basic theme, shape, or motif. If we follow the metaphor of dialectical reasoning, after a thesis creates its antithesis, a synthesis should follow. Mrđenović’s photographs, in line with Hegel’s understanding of synthesis, do not represent the halfway between the two antagonisms, but the level of mediation which includes both opposites while simultaneously abolishing their contrariness. The spa does not depict a bit of nature and a bit of social structure, the elements of public and the elements of private: it offers a completely new quality of occurrence, unpretentiously opening a way to the consideration of new steps – a synthesis becomes a new thesis. It encourages us to think about how to continue, how to examine reality, how to understand the relationship between work and consumption, to consider what public space is, and how nature is always also a construct. By using the possibilities and potentials intrinsic to the form of photography, Bojan Mrđenović sets a frame for acquiring aesthetic knowledge, thus mapping a new dimension and quality of theoretical and political issues. Josipa Lulić, curator
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zdravstvene politike Bojan Mrđenović, Toplice Toplice – fotografije dijalektike Bojan Mrđenović svojim objektivom od 2011. godine istražuje kompleks Daruvarskih toplica, izgrađen 1980. na mjestu toplih termalnih izvora poznatih još iz antičkog doba. Toplice su prostor skrbi zajednice: mjesta gdje bolesnici dolaze na rehabilitaciju, ali i gdje se vikend-posjetitelji zabavljaju, prijatelji susreću, a djeca uče plivati. Zbog svoje društvene funkcije, toplice u vrijeme kasnog kapitalizma djeluju izglobljeno – kao relikti nekog drugog vremena skriveni u džepovima stvarnosti, u šumi i magli. U svijetu koji se galopom približava potpunoj komodifikaciji, posebno u sferama zabave, zdravstva i turizma, Mrđenovićeve fotografije djeluju fantazmagorično. Istovremeno, toplice su stvarne i opipljive: ispunjene su ljudskim tijelima, radom koji omogućava njihovo funkcioniranje, materijalnošću arhitekture. Dok se krećemo izložbenim prostorom, krećemo se i prostorom toplica, interijerom i eksterijerom, mijenjamo rakurse, primjećujemo detalje i sklapamo cjelinu. No ta cjelina, kao što je i inače to slučaj s umjetnikovim radom, nešto je novo u odnosu na zbroj dijelova koji je čine. Kada god pomislimo da smo iščitali određenu poruku ili ideju kojom možemo jednostavno obuhvatiti izložbu, već će nas iduća fotografija ili njen detalj demantirati, neki djelić se neće uklapati: na svaki pokušaj omeđivanja fotografije odgovaraju interpretativnim viškom koji uvijek usmjerava pogled negdje drugdje. Ove su slike prepune unutarnjih napetosti, supostojećih suprotnosti – fotografije dijalektike. Tu dolazimo do osnovne teme Toplica: teza, tek postavljena, odmah proizvodi i svoju antitezu. Ova se dijalektička igra provlači kroz niz antagonističkih parova: javno – privatno, prirodno – društveno, individua – kompleks, radnici – gosti, forma – sadržaj. Individua – kompleks Tko su ljudi koji provode dane u toplicama? Bojan Mrđenović donosi njihove portrete, uz tek poneku naznaku društvenog statusa; uobičajeni signali – frizura, šminka, odjeća i obuća – gotovo da ne postoje. Gosti su ogoljeni skoro do kože: zadržavaju tek tetovaže, nakit ili lak na noktima, osim toga ostaju enigma. Bez obzira na to, oni su snažno prisutni; Mrđenović ih ne romantizira, ne tipizira, daje im dostojanstvo. Pokušava uhvatiti raznolikost: od djece koja uče plivati do starijih ljudi koji čekaju terapiju, od mladih, društveno poželjnih tijela do onih nenormativnih, kao što su stara tijela ili tijela s invaliditetom. Neka od njih ne razlikuju se od onih na reklamnim plakatima, dok neka rijetko kad imamo prilike susresti. Na prvi pogled ovaj pristup djeluje etnografski – kao da fotograf koristi aparat tek kako bi zabilježio što vidi – no dojam vara. Bojan Mrđenović je ujedno briljantan i nenametljiv interpret. Umjetnik promatrača nepretenciozno uvodi duboko u narativ, istovremeno poput dramaturga gradeći dubinu likova. Osobe se u isti mah nameću svojom individualnom prisutnošću, ali i figuriraju kao uloge, obilježene mrežom odnosa, kako onih međusobnih, tako i odnosa s arhitekturom i prirodom: toplice se pojavljuju kao veliki simbiotički organizam. Ljudi nisu atomizirane jedinke; oni su dijelovi veće slike. U seriji portreti zauzimaju sličan prostor kao prizori šume ili arhitekture: vidimo lica, ali ona i nestaju pod površinom vode, pažnja je posvećena detaljima arhitekture i ostavljenim predmetima. Tijela poprimaju drugačije proporcije, ponegdje se gotovo rastaču, postaju nerazdvojiva od vode. Istovremeno, čovjek je prisutan i u vlastitom odsustvu: prazne čekaonice u kojima vidimo papuče, štake i odjeću, stol za fizioterapiju s tragovima vode koje je ostavilo tijelo koje je tamo ležalo. Javno – privatno Ipak, ne nalazimo se u privatnom prostoru – naprotiv. Toplice se nameću kao par excellence javni prostor, koji omogućuje susrete starijih pacijenata i mladih izletnika, prostor u kojem istovremeno izlažemo svoju intimu – tijela pokrivena tek kupaćim kostimima, radnje poput tuširanja – i ostajemo anonimni u susretu s potpunim strancima. Ne postoji puno prostora unutar kojih je moguće susresti tako različita tijela kao što je to slučaj u toplicama (i Toplicama): društvo kasnog kapitalizma sve se više getoizira u mjehuriće u kojima susrećemo tek one slične nama. Prostori susreta ostaju javni prijevoz ili ordinacije javnog zdravstva (iako se i takvi prostori sve više gube, s obzirom na to da su privatni automobili i privatni liječnici postali norma za više klase). Upravo u toj ideji javnosti u kojoj se susrećemo u nekom od najprivatnijih, najintimnijih stanja leži srce Mrđenovićevog rada.Kompleksi toplica, prilično brojnih u Hrvatskoj, izgrađeni su sa sasvim drugim značenjem i namjenom od one u koju ih se sada pokušava ugurati. Veliki kompleksi socijalističkog razdoblja, izgrađeni da osiguraju pristup rehabilitaciji što većem broju ljudi, danas žive dvostruke živote: tu uslugu i dalje trebaju pružati korisnicima HZZO-a (čiji se broj sve više smanjuje zbog galopirajućeg pritiska na javno financiranje zdravstva), ali bi se istodobno trebali pretvoriti i u neku vrstu ekskluzivnih oaza i spa centara, luksuznih i namijenjenih samo nekima. Ti neki – oni koji su u mogućnosti priuštiti si odlaske u toplice kao luksuzni vikend odmor – ne žele pak susretati korisnike koji dolaze iz drugog života: pacijente zbog kojih je objekt primarno bio i izgrađen. Istovremeno, i „vikendaška“ namjena postoji od početka rada ovoga kompleksa, ali je zamišljena puno inkluzivnije – ne kao ekskluzivni prostori intime, nego komunalni prostori susreta. Radnici – gosti Dok gledamo fotografije ljudi u Toplicama, osjećaj da promatramo nešto privatno, intimno, javlja se na krajnje neobičan način. Naime, dok bi takav osjećaj očekivali kod fotografija ljudi koji se tuširaju ili plivaju, one zapravo pokazuju toplice u njihovoj namjeni: toplice postoje za kupanje i tuširanje, gosti rade ono što bi trebali, svi posjetitelji očekuju da će se susresti s takvim prizorima, oni su javni. Fotografije koje nas iznenađuju one su koje prikazuju radnice i radnike, ne samo odjevene, za razliku od većine gostiju, nego u radnim uniformama – ljude na čijem radu cijeli kompleks počiva, ali koji su često skriveni. Međutim, dok je kapitalizam turizmu i ugostiteljstvu donio princip održavanja fasade iza koje radnici i radnice zaista postaju nevidljive (u mnogim je hotelima čistačicama zabranjeno razgovarati s gostima, a konobari ne smiju sjesti čak ni kada nema gostiju u lokalu), u Toplicama je situacija ipak drugačija. Radnike i radnice vidimo u trenucima odmora, dok ćaskaju uz kavu na krovu zgrade, mjere kvalitetu vode, brinu o pacijentima ili sjede za šankom. Jasno je da funkcioniranje cijelog kompleksa ovisi o njima: njihov rad jest pozadinski, ali još nije u potpunosti postao nevidljivim. To je posebno dojmljivo prikazano na fotografiji na kojoj čistačica u ružičastoj uniformi stoji uz rub bazena i razgovara s gostom koji je u bazenu, više od metra ispod nje. Prirodno – društveno Iako se Mrđenović primarno fokusira na fotografiranje kompleksa i ljudi u njemu, kameru okreće i šumskom parku u kojem je smještena arhitektura. Priroda oko kompleksa toplica djeluje gotovo vanzemaljski – ili barem da ne pripada ovom prostoru, kao da se nalazimo u šumi s gejzirima. Taj dojam autor postiže fotografiranjem parka u kasnu jesen i zimu, kad para toploga vanjskog bazena kreira nestvarnu atmosferu. Istovremeno, dosljedno svom dijalektičkom pristupu, on ne dopušta gledateljima da se previše opuste u maštanju: tek što to pokušaju, zatekne ih neočekivani element koji ukazuje na vlastitu suprotnost. To su organske linije vode ili kapi kiše koje negiraju jasan raster pločica, betonski stolovi za stolni tenis u šumi, isušeno jezero s tragovima mehanizacije. Ovaj se odnos formalno prepoznaje u sukobu ravnih linija i oštrih kutova pločica, zidova ili prozora te organskih, oblih i mekih linija vode i biljaka. Posebno je to uspjelo na fotografijama na kojima se javljaju oba modaliteta – u refleksiji drveća u bazenu u kojem se nazire i geometrijski raster pločica, kapi kiše mijenjaju teksturu poda, voda negira opeku. Toplice su proizvod društvene potrebe i konkretnog političko-ekonomskog konteksta. Njihova je uloga da ovladaju prirodnim resursom – termalnim izvorima, ali su o njima i ovisne. Priroda je neumitna: mahovina preuzima staze, a stakleni zid koji razdvaja vanjski od unutarnjeg bazena rastače se u kamencu, pari iz bazena i refleksiji okolnog drveća. Forma – sadržaj Posljednji antagonizam koji valja spomenuti (iako će svaka gledateljica zasigurno u Mrđenovićevom radu naći nove teme) jest onaj između forme i sadržaja. Svi dosadašnji parovi bazirani su prvenstveno na sadržaju, na mogućim narativnim strukturama, interpretacijama na koje fotografije pozivaju. Te interpretacije ne bi bile moguće bez svjesnih i pažljivih formalnih odabira – izbora kadra, osvjetljenja, teksture motiva, fokusiranja na linije i plohe. Mrđenović svjesno izbjegava očistiti fotografije od „viškova“: bez detalja koji kao da upadaju u kadar i kvare jasnu kompozicijsku strukturu, njegove fotografije bile bi čišće, kompozicijski čvršće, ali i puno manje zanimljive. No forma, dosljedno generalnoj potki njegovog rada, nikad nije puka podrška sadržaju: nije poanta linije ili boje samo ta da jasnije prenese poruku, forma se ponekad ispostavlja kao osnovna tema fotografije – istraživanje linijskog rastera, efekta izmaglice, ritma arhitekture ili kolorističkih susreta crvene i plave. Ipak, u trenutku kada se fokusiramo na formu, neki detalj – vječni višak u zatvaranju mogućih interpretacijskih krugova – podsjeti nas da sve te linije, plohe i boje predstavljaju i neki sadržaj. Mrđenovićeve fotografije kao da su perceptivne varke, koje se neprestano poigravaju pitanjem što je lik, a što pozadina, koje je njegova osnovna tema, oblik ili motiv. Pratimo li metaforu dijalektičkog rezoniranja, nakon što teza stvori svoju antitezu, red bi došao na sintezu. Mrđenovićeve fotografije, baš kao ni Hegelovo razumijevanje sinteze, ne predstavljaju pola puta između dva antagonizma, već stupanj posredovanja koji uključuje obje suprotnosti te istovremeno dokida njihovu suprotstavljenost. Toplice ne prikazuju malo prirode i malo društvene strukture, elemente javnog i elemente privatnog: one nude posve novu kvalitetu pojavnosti, posve nepretenciozno otvarajući put za promišljanje novih koraka – sinteza postaje nova teza. Ona nas podstiče na promišljanje toga kako nastaviti, kako promatrati stvarnost, kako razumjeti odnose rada i konzumacije, što je zapravo javni prostor, kako je priroda uvijek ujedno i konstrukt. Koristeći mogućnosti i potencijale intrinzične formi fotografije, Bojan Mrđenović postavlja okvir za estetsku spoznaju, zacrtavajući novu dimenziju i kvalitetu teorijskim i političkim temama. Josipa Lulić, kustosica izložbe