Nemanja Cvijanovic: power to the people

One of the most striking contributions to the latest edition of the Manifesta art biennial, which took place in Genk last year, was the work of Nemanja Cvijanovic. The Croatian artist had placed a small music box in an old mine building. When you set it going, thanks to a variety of links and loudspeakers, “The Internationale” resounded outside. So one little movement had a major impact, via a chain reaction. Cvijanovic’s work often has a political slant. As can also be seen in his solo show at Delire Gallery, which opened a few months ago in the Bascule district. The artist contacted two art historians and restorers and asked them to restore an old slogan daubed on a wall in the Croatian city of Rijeka. He recorded the painstaking process in a video and a series of eight colour photographs, in which you can see the two restorers professionally restoring the graffiti to its original condition – as if it were a treasure of art history. The artist could be said to have set out to re-activate the old slogan.

The slogan in question is not without significance: W il Potere Popolare means, more or less, “Power to the people”, in a more traditional – and dated – Italian formulation. On the basis of their analysis, the restorers reckon that it was painted around 1943–45. The fact that a Communist slogan was written in Italian – which was the language of the occupier in Rijeka – is notable. It makes the slogan even more layered. A little further along hangs the restorers’ own official report, in which they explain what condition the slogan was in when they came across it and how they restored it. Photographs, before and after, show the development of the restoration. The gesture is simple, absurd, and political. And at the same time there is something poetic about it.

Nemanja Cvijanovic: W il Potere Popolare > 7/7, wo/me/We > za/sa/Sa 13 > 18.00, Delire Gallery, rue de Praeterestraat 47D, Elsene/Ixelles, www.deliregallery.com