Milivoj Bijelic
The individual in the crowd
But, says Milivoj Bijelic, his Homo Rebus model is still the starting point and benchmark for many of his projects. On the desk in the studio lie two of these “original forms” made of metal, flat schematizations of a figure about ten centimeters long. Milivoj Bijelic places them next to each other, then foot to foot against each other and he interlocks them: they are an expression of the individual and of society. “The program figure can be described as a geometric version of the proportional figure,” wrote Johannes auf der Lake. “With outstretched arms and legs spread, the figure stands in the center as a scale for Leonardo and Bijelic.” (Cat. Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf 1989) In Bijelic it is also a pictogram in variable use.
Milivoj Bijelic developed Homo Rebus – the presumptuous human – in his first years in Germany. Born in Zagreb in 1951, he also studied at the art academy there, completed postgraduate studies in Antwerp and soon afterwards exhibited at the Sao Paulo Biennale, before moving to Düsseldorf in 1983. In the state capital, Bijelic was immediately integrated into the art scene, and in the same year he exhibited at “The Last Shoot” in the art museum in the Ehrenhof. The first works can be assigned to concrete art, especially since the rebus figure is often divided and therefore abstracted. As a painting, angular color fields lie side by side, fanned out in a symmetrical orientation like a kaleidoscope. With the objects, the figure usually remains present in its entirety. By means of serial arrangement, Bijelic creates expansive layers; For example, he stacked lying stencils in successively tapering dimensions to form a pyramid.
In 1993 he was invited to take part in the Croatian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in the midst of war in his homeland. His contribution is an object several meters deep made up of standing plywood figures of Homo Rebus, over which an elongated surface lies: The metaphor for a highway would be as a unifying symbol, hope for progress and new beginnings and yet a state of desert and devastation understand. - This is also what characterizes his oeuvre to this day: Milivoj Bijelic's contributions are vivid. They address - with a philosophical and sociological background - social questions that concern everyone and should be understandable and communicated directly.
This also applies to the raster images that have been created since the mid-1990s, so to speak as his main work. The rebus figures added in lines create a continuous honeycomb ornament, printed on paper and canvas. They are the grid pixels – 13,888 fields per square meter – for the artistic templates. Bijelic applies the colors as cone-shaped materials. Objectless colored bodies up close, they become a vibrating relief from the side and then again into a representational appearance in the crowd. Whether it's a sunset in the landscape or children playing on the beach: Bijelic also attaches great importance to the readability of the images, right down to the cliché of memory. There is a sign hanging in the studio: “Pictures to order! Bring your motif.” The next, current step follows logically with “I can do that too” - “Reconciliation between art and people”. Bijelic now delegates the execution directly to the prospective buyer, under the guidance of an art student. In November he will present this interactive method in an exhibition at the Matice Hrvatske Gallery in Zagreb.
Milivoj Bijelic opposes pigeonholing and values the idea of home. This concerns another conceptual yet practical project that he has been working on since 2006. He founded an association called “Et in Barbaria Ego” that is promoting the conversion of the old school building in Bribir on the Croatian Adriatic coast into a cultural center. Supporting exhibitions took place in the Bochum Art Museum and the museum in Zagreb, among others. His contribution to this was a “chamber of curiosities,” as he says, with works by Düsseldorf and Croatian artists, yes, from all over the world, among other things, as a statement against nationalism. - And, in the studio, what is he currently working on besides the raster images? He turns to preserving the remnants of the throwaway society. He creates reliefs or objects behind glass from fruit nets and packaging material. The fluctuating colorful folds and shifts once again characterize the iridescent moment: the net-like structure as order, transparency and solidity.
COLLECTIONS:
- ZKM Kunstsammlung (Art Collection)
- Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (MSU) in Zagreb
SOLO SHOWS:
1992. Homo Rebus, Kunsthalle zu Kiel (Kiel, Germany)
1991. Milivoj Bijelic, Kunstmuseum Bochum (Bochum, Germany)
1991. Milivoj Bijelic, Galerie Karin Sachs (Munich, Germany)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2021. Art & Grad – Art Has SpokenLAUBA - People & Art House (Zagreb, Croatia)
2011. In Ein Hod hat es gebrannt BBK Düsseldorf (Dusseldorf, Germany)
2010. Director's Choice Arken Museum of Modern (ArtIshoj, Denmark)
BIENNIALS:
1993. Biennale di Venezia - 45th International Art Exhibition (Venice, Italy)
1981. 16ª Bienal de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil)
ART FAIRS:
1989. Art Cologne 1989 (Cologne, Germany)