Catalogue > At random

Language Lesson (2016) intercuts two tracking shots -- a shaky handheld approach to the Yugoslav dictator’s mausoleum, with a smooth following shot of my Yugoslav mother walking through her Canadian apartment corridor, and entering the small living quarters in which she will almost certainly pass the remainder of her days. If she’s not exactly an exile, she’s certainly cut off from her past, her friends, the sites where she grew up and feels most familiar, or so we may imagine just upon hearing her accent, which comes in the form of voiceover, where she gives us a little lesson in speaking Serbian. She says things like, “This is here, this is mine, this is shit, I don’t like this…”, alternating in English, then Serbian (subtitled in French). The thoughts expressed range from neutral, to (perhaps) happy, to disappointed or displeased. As she walks, her thoughts seem to change. Similarly, a change happens on the approach to the mausoleum, which at first appears lavish, in sparkling marble. We don’t know at first where we are, other than in a cemetery, the burial site of someone very esteemed, wealthy, important. After short bursts of the approach, we eventually see the name of Tito, which perhaps causes us to reflect on opulence in a land where there was seldom plenty. The camera drops quickly to the ground, where we apprehend a struggle between a colony of ants, which crawl in and out of the cracks in the marble base of the crypt, each fighting for the corpse of a fly. Notions of sacrifice and fellowship in the common pursuit of attaining a progressive, egalitarian social order, rapidly give way to an each-for-their-own, eat-or-be-eaten state of affairs.

Milutin Gubash est né à Novi Sad (Serbie) et vit à Montréal (Canada) depuis 2005. Il a présenté des expositions au Québec, au Canada, aux États-Unis et en Europe y compris au Musée d’art contemporain (2007) et une rétrospective coproduites par six institutions au travers le Canada (Rodman Hall Art Centre 2011, Carleton University Art Gallery 2012, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery 2012, Southern Alberta Art Gallery 2012, Musée d’art de Joliette 2012 et Fonderie Darling 2013). Sa pratique englobe la photographie, la vidéo et la performance et inclut souvent la participation de sa famille et amis qui incarnent une version d’eux-mêmes dans des feuilletons maison, des réinterprétations historiques et de pièces de théâtre improvisées. Par des moyens simples et des gestes souvent absurdes, Gubash questionne nos suppositions au sujet des récits de nos propres identités, histoires et environnements.