SPATIAL STRIP

WHAT IS A SPATIAL STRIP?

“SPATIAL COMIC STRIP IS THE NEW ARTISTIC FORM, WHICH WON THE SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY FOR INOVATION IN AT THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL COMIC SALON IN BELGRADE. IT IS ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE COMIC AND INTERIOR DESIGN, OBSERVED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SPATIAL DRAWING, MADE OUT OF VARIOUS MATERIALS LIKE PLYWOOD, STEEL, IRON ... “

SINGIDUNUM WEEKLY MAGAZINE

FIRST OF ITS KIND

ON THIS PAGE, YOU CAN VIEW SPATIAL STRIP INSTALLATIONS, RECOGNIZED BY SEVERAL ART AUTHORITIES AS "FIRST OF ITS KIND". THESE INSTALLATIONS HAVE RECEIVED A PROMINENT AWARD ON INTERNATIONAL ART SALOON, AND SIGNIFICANT MEDIA ATTENTION. YOU CAN READ ALL ABOUT THAT ON PUBLICATION PAGE.

(Read more)

~ What was written about the Spatial Strip?

Installations have received significant media attention at that time and this is just a small representative part of reviews:

‚‚The biggest breakthrough in alternative expression has not happened in two-dimensional form, but in expansion of graphic short stories media, out of paper - in installation, spatial intervention and sculptural dimension..."

(Đorđe Milić – member of the jury in a review of Comic Salon)

~ In which exhibitions it was displayed?

This work was presented in numerous exhibitions but most significant solo exhibition took place in Belgrade, under the title Service for spatial dynamics, in which he presented, in most appropriate manner his Spatial Comic Strip.

~ What was the most important review?

Politika - the oldest and most important daily newspaper in Balkans that was established in 1904. devoted a long text in its cultural section about Spatial Strip. This is just a short piece:

“ ...the quality of this exibition is the ambivalent grounds it leads us to. That is and it is not a comic, it is and it isn’t a kind of a spatial drawing and materials, with elements of narrative text. The conceptial aspect of it lies just in that, which links it with history and program character of the space it is presented into, and enables it to be conceptually suitable. That’s how the comic is made out of iron, plywood and sheet metal, which create minimalistic objects, and their insertion into cadre follows. And then, they are bonded together with a text...“

( Newspaper “Politika” )

~ Does the author works only on strip installations?

No. Alexander Ćurić is professionally engaged in comics for more than ten years. Besides experiments with other materials and forms, the author is primarily active in the classical form of comics art, but also in painting and music. Here you can see all of that.

~ What is the topic of Alexander's work?

Thematically, his work is deep and is related to metaphysics and psychology of the individual, which is inspired by Alexander's studying of Andragogy - Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. About the topic of his comic books others have said:

”...strongly and in a very suggestive way, he asks the questions of man, his all psychological aspects and all of it’s civilization legacies man carries with him. That need, to reveal all the deceptions, and to clear misunderstandings leads him into numerous dynamical adventures producing various characters which live through their metamorphosis...

(Milan Antonijevic, academic painter)

“...his work actually represents, and equally shows the right and the only way to original and individual poetics of an artist! Only by a constant and non-stop questioning and re-questioning the values themselves can push a way to a new horizon... “

(Milos Djordevic, graphic artist)

~ Who published the works?

Alexanders work was published in the journal Azdaha and Eon, as well as the e-magazine Helly Cherry, Afirmator and 1zine from Poland. Also, the story of the Spatial Strip has reached the Serbian National Television and many more.

THE STORY OF A PROUD MAN

The most important thing about what I called Spatial strip is the notion of repetition as a new relationship to the story! Whenever I receive a question, how is it possible for media such as strips, made of sheet metal, iron and chipboard, to acquire a third dimension and its role in the dynamics of space, I begin my answer with an explanation of the concept of repetition in the approach to the story.

INDIVIDUAOCID

Spatial strip is a new art form and a new approach to installation and spatial drawing, composed of frames that together form a board, just like in a classic strip. However, what visually separates a spatial strip from a spatial drawing is the story obtained by repeating forms in terms of framing the strip. The form experiences its own deformation and change in each repetition, thus speaking of visual and psychological dynamics, as an experience of a single form, telling the story, just like in the classic strips.

FIVE HEADS AND ONE MUTUAL EYE

For the sake of a more adequate explanation of this approach to the story, I will take the example of an empty theater hall, filled with seats for spectators. Seen from the point of view of spatial strip, the entire hall would be one strip board that tells the story of the headquarters. In this way, each seat would represent a separate frame in the story of a single seat for the spectators. When each seat stands differently, occupying its individual position, then we are talking about framing in strip space, deformation and change of shape through frames and stories on the theme of one seat...

TAO

Likewise, I would like to point out that it is completely irrelevant what kind of material the strip is made of, but what should be paid attention to is the correct psychological and visual approach to its story, frames and boards as a final product. In this way, every physical (or mental) object can be a means of storytelling, as long as it respects the principle of repetition and grouping, which is primarily a matter of the psychological experience of the observer, the game in his head, rather than the mere aesthetics of the work itself.

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