ART Habens Art Review ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #97 | Page 67

Ante Kustre ART Habens the world in Split every year . Thus , there is more and more split people in the world , and it is worrying . British journalist and blogger Natalie Chal , in her interview in daily Split newspaper , claims : “ Split way of life will become the world hit !” What makes happy ordinary people and tourist workers , concerns me as an artist .
Most of my pieces of arts are expressions of my concerns for future of my city , society and world as whole . And for future of myself and other Split artists . Political structures in Split treat us like suspicious elements , sometimes like traitors or just like parasites . So , we are the last minority in the state which has no protection and which is marginalized and underestimate completely ( as we are some kind of Jewish people ). People in Split uses , by centuries , the name “ Get ” ( which means Ghetto ), for almost all living space in Diokletian ’ s Palace . So , I am living and working in the conditions of Ghetto , which is not surrounded by wire but it is by massive and high ideological and financial walls . Maybe from this experience came out unconsciously the idea for the installation “ My favorite prisons ”?! Or it ' s time again for the refrain of the Elivis Prerslery ' s song „ In the Ghetto “? Anyway , since I was a child , I used to feel the world as disintegrated and that explains my constant need to glue its parts in collage ensemble . This life delivers me on daily bases plenty of materials for various forms of artistic connections and binding , which frustrates me as a man and makes me sad , but on the other side , it stimulates me as an artist .
My artistic process is preceded by accumulation of all these painful stimulants , sometimes until the edges of my endurance . So , in these moments , there is always some trigger or some drop that overflows the glass and there is no other way for me but start working . I admit that before such moments , I try to find some other easier way out but , sooner or later , I accept my artist ’ s duty and enjoy in it . In my younger age , I used to oscillate between “ arto-holic ” and artabstinent , but it was a time when split dominated over me and not me over it .
Objects and materials used in my intalation / s I found not searching for them : on the street , in the flea-market , in the containers … When you are consiously looking for something the worst thing that can happen is that you really find it ! Then you are in the danger to become the master of your piece not seeing that you are a slave of your idea from the beginning . Then your art piece starst to be framed by the borders of your concept , which nurtures your tyranny . In that kind of approach and process there are no surprises and happy conidencies , nor for you or for the consuments of the art piece . In the relationship between me and the found object / material a certain affection ( need , sympathy or love ) is necessary ; that material wants and needs me ( to prolong its life ) and I need it ( to intensify my artistic life ) . Recognition , of which there ' s all about , happens in a part of second , in there is no palce for consciousness ( it comes later ). So , there becomes a vibration of the unconscious that decides which object I wil take in my atellier . I love to call those objects „“ les objets retrouves “ because I have a feeling that I had to lose them first to find them again in the right moment . Sometimes happens to me that ( fe in the work „ My last prison “) the fusion of the two objects from different galaxies / conetxts conjuncts them into the new unit / text almost already after finding them , and sometimes it takes even years to get to the real match ( like for the series of the collages „ Just another wall paper on the wall “, for which the matrials I found in London 1997 ( near by Charity cross ). So emerged object I call " ready-made in Split ". Installation “ My
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