Do Not Go Gently Into That Good NightLittle Parisian DiaryHigh OdiumFragile SoulsOld SchoolParallelsCamera ObscuraWho Is Mia?

“Do not go gently into that good night ‘’ represents the verse of the American poet Dylan Thomas, which I borrowed for a name of my project. The work consists of a pair of photographs, an actual portrait of a person, and a “portrait” of his or her sleeping place which has kept the shape and warmth of ones sleep. In this way I tried to find

similarities between the person and the way he or she behaves in an unconscious state of sleep. I portrayed my subjects a short time after awakening or just before bedtime, so the somnolence can be read on their faces or their gestures. These pieces of work had emerged in the period when I suffered from insomnia, and showcased a kind of a therapy

and a way to overcome my problem. At that time I often wondered about the concept of sleep and what it means to different kinds of people - to some a bed is a place of rest and peace, tranquility, something like a warm den or a safe boat. To others it is a battlefield, a place filled with discomfort or uncertainty and fear.

Little Parisian diary

When thinking of the most challenging city to throw a young artist with a camera (and confuse him/her completely!) “the city of Light” would be my weakness.

Arranging visual impressions from a city like Paris is as almost difficult as coming back to reality from it. The form of collage perfectly cor-responds to a psychological state I found myself in- pieces of colors, smells, clips of facades, chic designs, colorful leftovers, marzipan crumbs in my pocket, scrawled notes with the names of wines, streets, museums… But how to present all this in a form which is coherent but without losing the vital diversity of impressions and material artifacts? I came up with the idea of scanning all these small memories from which it was so hard to part and in that way preserve even the tiniest souvenir.

This work is dedicated to Remarque’s Paris, the first Paris I fell in love with.

At boulevard Belleville

Maja, Père Lachaise cemetery

Mathias

Metrosophy

“High Odium” represents a series of photographs done in the 50s style as a visual documentation for a performance called “High Odium- ready to kill” by May Creative House. The plot takes place in a large house where the characters just seem-ingly live in harmony - behind their stylishness and polite manners lays an obscure nature of fatal lust

and obsession with one person. In the presented portraits I tried to depict subtle dualism of their characters.In collaboration with May Creative House.

The form of diptych satisfies the eye of an ob-server who likes to hear stories. The two pho-tographs that are related by their close position in the frame, leave just enough space between them , for an observer to fill it in with his or her assumption. That assumption could be a verse, someone’s laughter in the back, or subdued music

from a player of a person beside you. It is of great importance what will be the filling between the photographs, because that is the missing „puzzle“ of the story. I cannot influence the way you think or change your piece of the story. What I can do is to suggest it, indicate it, maybe even lead you to a false trail with the author’s bias or subjectivity.

But don’t let me fool you. These stories are not just mine. (“And every time, this thought hit me: It wasn’t a record she was handling. It was a fragile soul inside a glass bottle.”)

“Old School”This project deals with the problem of ageism as a dominant issue in the West European culture of today. The problem refers to discrimination of people based on their age, primarily discrimina-tion of old persons. The project is divided in two stages- The collection of visual and textual data,

and transferring these to young designers as an inspiration for visual solutions (posters, illustra-tions, fanzines etc.) The process included visits to nursing homes where we contacted elderly people, and in the form of conversation, interview, photography or short story documented facts from their lives.

As a photographer, I tried to approach this project sincerely and heart-to-heart, since the subject’s stories were not always that easy listening and cheerful. In the given circumstances I did series of portraits of people from the nursing homes, feel-ing that, in some way, I am reliving their experi-ence. I noticed a specific glow in their eyes, lighted

with the stories of the past, family tales, love adventures from the youth, and probably the fact that there is someone eager to listen.

Mrkovački Ljuba, 82 years old

Parallels are a piece of work which is always in progress. Looking for corresponding shapes in nature became more than a habit, an urge, maybe even my creative obsession. Sometimes it’s not just the shape, visual form, but a certain atmo-sphere of a scene for which I find a matching im-age. The chemistry between images in some cases

occurs immediately, the other time It takes longer for them to connect.

The work made with a pinehole camera or „camera obscura“ gives the usual, quo-tidiane object or scene a certain touch of mistery, wrapping it often in a vesture of a crime. An empty city square interrupted with just one lonely ray of light, or some-one’s shadow suggesting a trace of life, but not revealing it in full. Working in this simple technique, without the redundant interference of an advanced technology made my search for the exact emotion concise- It was the feeling of solitude. Whether it was the Mediterranean oak tree standing alone in a square on the is-land of Rab, or a human figure seemingly preoccupied with some action, the sense of abandonment convincingly spreads over the images. The magic box of camera obscura becomes a tool for creating visual poetry, invoking De Chirico’s metaphysical atmosphere of dream-like cities, in which you can hear echoing verses of Borges.

Mia Ćuk

Born in Novi Sad, Serbia, 1988+381 64 587 41 10Address: Đorđa Magaraševića 4, 21 000 Novi Sad, SerbiaMiacuk.art@gmail.com

Education

2007-2011 BA Photography/ Department of Fine Arts/ Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

Workshops/Seminars

2008 Underwater photography, island of Mali Loshinj, Croatia 2009 “Camera Obscura” workshop, Balatonalmádi, Hungary2009 Guitar Art festival, Novi Sad, Serbia2010 Theatre play “Three little pigs” Emilija Mrdaković, Youth Theatre, Novi Sad2010 Theatre play “Love life of Woody Allen”, Branko Dimitrijević, Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad2011 “Old-school” project, CK13, Novi Sad, Serbia

Exhibitions

2008 Museum Night, Museum of Contemporary Art, Novi Sad2008 Selected photographs from the underwater photography workshop, City Hall of Kastav, Croatia2009 “Book through photography”Exhibition of photographs inspired by the books of Geopoetika publishing house, Belgrade 2009 “Balatonalmádi” camera obscura works, “UPIDIV” gallery, Novi Sad2009 II World biennial exhibition of student photography, Commercial & Sports centre, Novi Sad2011 Exhibition of Fine Arts department of the Academy of Arts, Gallery “Macut” Novi Sad 2011 “The beginning of impossible” theatre photography, Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad2011”Exhibition of small drawings, gallery Rajko Mamuzic, Novi Sad2011 The graduate Exhibition of Fine Arts department of Academy of Arts, Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad

Awards

Annual Fine Arts Department Award for the best photography project in the school year 2010/2011.

Personal

Languages I speak: Serbian, English, ItalianKnowledge of: analog and digital technologies, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Windows operating system. A strong theoretical background in the history of photography and art history. Experience in teaching.

Other recognitions: Certamen Ciceronianum Arpinas, Arpino, Italy 2006Affinities : Literature, Film, Art History, Theater, Fashion, Jazz music, British humor, Dogs, Umbrellas, White Chocolate, Antique shops, Bookshelves, Museums, Optimism, Trains, Plains, Bicycles, Movement.

FINE