installation

2003

photographs

poison container… … everyone will agree (majority even from their own experience) that the children culture is largely shaped by the rules and expectations of the adults… there are people who believe that the children are active participants in defining their own identity, but the prevailing opinion is that in that stage they are mainly carriers of conflicting values, goals and desires of their relatives and the society… psychologist lloyd demause, explaining the the main psychological mechanism functioning in every case of child (ab)use, symbolically describes the status of the children as “poison container” – a place where parents and the community dispose their “undigested” mental material… “be brave”, “be careful”, “be honest”, “try to manage by yourself”, “this is for the boys”, “this is for the girls”. “this is good”, “this is bad” throbs and twists in the minds of children, not leaving much space for some other rhythm or image… the child lives in the world which is in some way created for it by the people who in some way take care of it… kaludjerović’s heroine carries a message of resistance to that world and to clichés of the society, in which she is supposed to fit, although she is surrounded by the decor and the attributes also invented and comprehended as symbols of rebellion by the adults… presented even as a miniature version of the ones who dictate the rules of the game, it seems that she shares their destiny and is left with a possibility of only two choices: to resign herself to the same destiny, forever trapped in the vicious circle of cause and effect, or to be self-willed like a real child and with an attitude: F*** OFF, THIS IS MY LIFE…

excerpt from the text by miroslav karić