Catalogue > At random

In Vesna At the Monument (2016), a humble middle aged woman appears on the site of a dilapidated, in-the-middle-of-nowhere monument, erected likely in the time when she was youthful and at her most optimistic. The monument was commissioned in order to commemorate the heroic actions of common citizens in their struggle against fascism, and desire to promote and participate in a progressive, utopic state. She shuffles past the monument, and sits to smoke a cigarette. Off screen, a voice is heard, asking her questions such as what is the meaning of this place, this monument, this moment. She does not answer, as though she does not hear the question, even while acknowledging the camera, and the voice itself. It could, one supposes, be the voice of the cameraman or director, a voice in the subject’s own head, perhaps the voice of the monument itself, trying to ascertain the meaning of itself in this day and age. It gets no reply, and eventually (perhaps fed up with the question), she simply leaves, with the interlocutor left in his own uncertainty. The video seems to reject or deny a past, while expressing grave uncertainty to the future.

Born in Novi Sad (Serbia) and lives in Montréal (Canada) since 2005, Milutin Gubash has presented exhibitions in Québec, Canada, the United States, and Europe, including a solo show at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2007) and a ten year survey exhibition co-produced by six institutions across 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 and Fonderie Darling 2013). He was the recipient of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec studio residency in Paris for 2016. His practice encompasses photography, video, and performance, and regularly features the participation of his family and friends, who portray versions of themselves in Do-It-Yourself soap operas, historical rewrites and improv theatre pieces. Using simple means and often absurdist gestures, Gubash reconsiders assumptions about the narratives of our identities, histories and environments.