Vitar Drinković returns to Hvar, but this time instead of sculpture, visitors to the Kravata Gallery will have the opportunity to experience the installations that are the result of a multi-year continuous research by the artist. Namely, Drinković's works are of an interactive nature; the viewers must "try" them in order to experience it. In this exhibition, as in all of his previous exhibitions, the visitor is the key factor in "launching" the art work. The artist has been researching and creating conditions for a different perception of everyday life in recent years. Using interactivity as a medium, he creates the conditions for communicating through audience participation via his fantastic devices; Drinković's installations are machines that serve as mediators in search of sincere human non-verbal communication. Only by linking the mechanical and the artificial with the biological component of the participant, a complete work is created.
A part of the artist’s opus in Jelsa will be presented through two works, Identity Eraser and Conductivity of Perception. With Identity Eraser, the artist manipulates the user's voice within a reflective helmet and, simultaneously, projects the image of their eye in the gallery. At the same time, with the help of an electric stethoscope, the visitor may hear the beating of their own (or someone else’s) heart in the helmet. A person wearing the helmet loses a part of their identity as their face, voice and body is covered. Also, this person reflects the identity of the environment. They are moving away from their being, whereas they can see their infinite reflection between two surfaces. Their biological processes are projected outward: they look at their own eye on the wall of the gallery as if the eye belongs to another person, and they hear their heart as an external sound. The artist thus manages to perpetuate human perception to fundamental biological processes, and the miraculous intertwining of the outer and inner world offers a multidimensional experience where the boundaries between "me" and "others" are wiped out.
The second installation, titled Conductivity of Perception, is complementary to Identity Eraser. As with the previous one, this work shifts the visitor's focus on their breathing, with the aim of raising awareness of their own biological processes. Drinković's works often contain a meditative moment that requires concentrating on one’s own body, successfully leading the user into the act of introspection. Namely, the person is "responsible" for the lighting the artworks with their breathing. The strap around the torso registers movement and displays changes in different light intensities from the reflector above the work. Also, the work notes slight changes in the moisture of the finger skin which is reflected in the change of color from blue to red; as the person is more relaxed, the colors are "cooler", while the excitement changes the light to red. The installation shows how our body responds to the environment, thought, and communication at an unconscious level, and evokes our own biological processes that are directly related to everything that is happening around us.
With Drinković, the issue of the role of the audience is completely redundant. Not only is his work perceived, but he also influences the concept of the passive observer, promoting it to a crucial element of his art. You, the visitors, are the artists, the initiators of his work and an indispensable element of his art.
Lana Beović
