Common Awakening and Transformation

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Organizations: Alternativna
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The coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing. It has caused sudden changes in all of humanity, but also in nature which seems to be the only one not threatened by the virus. Moreover, nature is thriving now more than ever, both due to it being the middle of the spring, but also because of the decreased presence of those who have been endangering it. How does a painter experience this thriving of nature? Snežana Manasić used nature as inspiration for her exhibition „The Fifth Element“. Water, earth, air, and fire – these are the four elements of nature. The entire cosmos is made of them.

Who is the Fifth Element?

“I am the Fifth Element,” Manasić says.

“We have been in self-isolation for more than forty days, but nature is changing, whether we like it or not,” she adds.

“As we can see, even though the man was not (physically) present during these forty days, nature improved through metamorphosis. The way nature thrives and goes through its metamorphosis, despite the man journeying into nature way less than he did before, was particularly interesting for me. Here, I am the Fifth Element that observes all of it, passes it all through its emotions, experiences, and processes them. In fact, creating paintings using its emotional state,“ Manasić explains.

Nature is an element often found in the paintings of Snežana Manasić, who mainly deals with abstract art. She works using sand, glue, and paints – acrylic. The art pieces found in this exhibition have been created on paper, using a combined technique.

According to Manasić, she tried to keep her works from being excessively narrative, while simultaneously preserving the sense of nature in them.

“Since I spent very little time in nature, I had to think and concentrate a lot to transfer it (on the paper),” she adds.

The state of the environment is an issue that has been repeatedly raised in public during the coronavirus pandemic. There is also a belief that the pandemic is, at the same time, nature’s response to human negligence. It seems that, in the time of corona, all humanity is endangered – but not nature.

“Unfortunately, the man has become quite alienated from nature and has forgotten that he is a part of it. If he acts graciously towards nature, nature will give it back tenfold, but if he acts aggressively, nature will reciprocate in the same way,” our interviewee believes.

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