Jelena Blagović Pavičić’s photo essay About Her is a continuation of the author’s intimate family archive and personal history which began with photographic series the “Family Silver” and “Before Me”.
“About Her” is a portrait of the author’s mother presented through photographic sequences. Familiar images of civic lifestyle – furniture, paintings on the walls, family photos, along with barely recognizable motifs in shadows, cigarette smoke and reflections in glass… all subtly create a narrative about her mother. By making small and seemingly irrelevant details equal in meaning with her mother’s face, this series speaks about the nature of human memory. Endless number of small fragments, evidence of presence is equally intertwined in the fabric of the mother’s identity. A whole made out of pieces with no exact definition, subdued colors and blurry contours stand to show that identity cannot be more solid than (somebody’s) image.
Existence requires a reference point, we exist in reflection to others and we define ourselves in relation: to the world which surrounds us, to people, each time slightly different. In one photograph we find the author’s self-portrait, as if hidden in a frame. Jelena places herself in a direct relation. In the mirror reflection, she takes on the role of a mirror. Placing herself as a mark, marking her existence becomes a confirmation for both sides, for both women, a guarantee of the continuity and a discovered proof of existence. (I demand that you are. That I am).
“I am afraid to blink. Afraid that in that second when my gaze is turned off a snake could slip into your place…” writes Kundera in his novel Identity. The reflection of the world, observed with much attention, tenderness and a small amount of latent fear of disappearing, the world well known to the author is presented to the viewer as undefined and wide, timeless, soft and attainable, as the space for inscribing one’s own memories and truths.
The artist photobook “About Her”, from Jelena Blagović Pavičić, was printed in 10 numbered copies. It is a book composed of photographic sequences molded into a format that offers multiple dissolution options for multidimensional narrative reading and thus follows the idea of setting up photos in the gallery space. The publisher of the book is ULUPUH – a The Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts, the text of the lectures is signed by the curator of the project Iva Prosoli and the translation of Dunja Nekić. The book was printed in the Fini print studio with the financial support of the City of Zagreb.
Book promotion and panel discussion participants:
Jelena Blagović Pavičić, Iva Prosoli, Goran Trbuljak, Marina Paulenka
Jelena Blagović Pavičić was born in 1983, in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. She finished photography programme at the Istituto Superiore di Fotografia e Arti Visive in Padua, Italy. Her education continued in United Kingdom where she completed the Undergraduate (BA) study of Photographic Arts, and Graduate (MA) study of Photographic studies at University of Westminster in London in 2007. Since 2010, she has been working at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, as an assistant professor, at the Department of Cinematography – Chair of Photography. She has won several awards and exhibited her work on numerous solo and group exhibitions.