On view: November 6–24, 2024

Text by curator Isidora Banjac
 

The period of adolescence, marked by identity crises, anxiety, and uncertainty, serves as the starting point from which artist Maja Šarenac constructs the narrative and concept of the exhibition In the Right Place. Drawing from her own experience of facing insecurity, anxiety, questions of personal position in the world, and ambition, Maja builds a story of searching, conflict, and overcoming, which ultimately leads her, after periods of turbulence, to her "own place."
 

Maja found inspiration and a framework for contemplating and exploring these questions in Butoh and Sumo culture. The series of works titled Butoh, created between 2019 and 2022, includes drawings, prints, and performances. As the name suggests, the series was influenced by Butoh, a Japanese avant-garde dance style that emerged in the late 1950s. Butoh dance combines expressionistic, often grotesque body movements, often performed in silence. Here, the body is used as a medium to express an inner state, where movement reveals and expresses what is hidden inside. In the concept of Butoh, Maja finds a framework within which she seeks her own inner being, examines her crises, desires, and needs, and tries to find herself.
 

Through dance, as well as drawing and printmaking, Maja explores issues of crisis that many can identify with, particularly regarding one's mid-twenties. On the brink of adulthood, faced with new circumstances and an unfamiliar reality, many of us may feel unprepared and confused, often unleashing a torrent of anxiety and insecurity. In this case, that state served as a trigger for the creative process, where Butoh became the main support for introspection and the attempt to find oneself and one's place. Through her drawings and prints, Maja depicts bodies with a noticeable absence of facial features, focusing instead on the body, movement, and the atmosphere of the scene. These works evoke feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and fear. The absence of facial depiction suggests a loss of identity, which, in line with Butoh, is meant to be rediscovered through bodily movement, ultimately leading to mental stability. This idea of liberation and personal growth through Butoh dance is even more apparent in video works, where the artist, by exposing herself and her body, choreographs her struggle and search for herself, her identity, and stability as her ultimate goal.
 

This search, which begins with drawing and then evolves into Butoh dance, or performance, takes a turn and reaches its conclusion in the series of paintings titled Sumo. The paintings in this series were created over the past year and are thematically and conceptually connected with the previous works. They are also inspired by Japanese culture. The traditional Japanese martial art of Sumo guides Maja further in exploring identity, but here it expands beyond the personal to include reflections on societal and cultural contexts.
 

In these small-format paintings, in contrast to the predominantly black and gray tones in the previous series (with dim or absent lighting in the video works), a vibrant color palette takes over as the defining feature. Depictions of Sumo wrestlers, kimonos, and audiences, either in detail or as wide-angle views, can be read as a specific narrative of struggle, rituals, discipline, and dedication. What was a symbolic and abstract story of crisis in Butoh becomes more concrete here, embodied in the Sumo wrestling ring. Just as Sumo culture represents an important part of Japanese tradition, cherishing values like strength, discipline, respect, and devotion, Maja finds resolution to her personal questions in these values, reaching her ultimate goal.
 

These works represent the culmination of the journey she began with the Butoh series, a final arrival to her place, which Maja has found in discipline, persistence, and dedication to her creative process and work. Although this exhibition is deeply personal, depicting the artist's interpretation and visualization of her own crisis, struggles, and insecurities, it can certainly serve as a guide and motivation for anyone who is in search of inner peace and their "own place."