Slobodan Zivic

Slobodan Zivic

EXHIBITIONS - Interrupted Moments Memory Bank Rabbit Hole (2017) - Solo Show. Skomakeriet, Stockholm. - Birger Jarl Rmx (2017) - Group show curated by Ilja Karilampi and Martin Kozlowski. - So long st salong (2017) - Group show curated by Alexandra Karpilovski and Christian Cherry Ling. - i-CRACKED (2016) - Riche, Stockholm. - Public Audio Image (2016) - hangmenProjects, Stockholm. - Group Shows (2010-2012) - Galleri Jonas Kleerup. SLOBODAN ZIVIC (b.1976) Zivic’s longstanding work in digital imagery is an engagement in which he continually questions the normative definitions of visual communication and diverse digital aesthetics. Between the years of graduating from high school in the mid90s and by the turn of the millennium, Slobodan Zivic embarked on a controversial journey through the subculture. He started a graffiti movement in Norrköping, the city he grew up in. Most importantly he also founded what would become the largest legal graffiti wall in northern Europe, situated in the port of Norrköping – an open space free for anyone who wished to express themselves. After years of engagement and dedication, his passion for the subculture where he found his first visual haven slowly faded and he got more into exploring various creative areas like club culture, music, contemporary art, design and graphics. He moved to Stockholm and the aim was a start-up with a friend and partner with a significant step away from graffiti. The purpose of this new venture was to execute computer based graphics by large-scale painting for design and interior commissions. The duo was active for several years, with a focus on graphical room interventions. In subsequent years they developed a more efficient methods where all productions were completed digitally, not only the sketches. They stopped painting altogether and the process was replaced by printing. As an aesthetic autodidact - Zivic had now mastered all the relevant software and was ready for the next step. At this point he had started indiscriminately experimenting with all kinds of visual media, moving images, graphic design, photography, illustration and various video formats. He had mastered his own “hybrid” of various formats and disciplines. With the intention of always moving towards the unexpected, away from the established, he continued to find ways of exploring the outskirts of norms, regardless of the project. Implementing design and art direction for culture and lifestyle oriented establishments - working cross disciplinary to realize this vision. With ties to the music industry his body of work sees the visual identities of several noted artists and ventures, as well as a Swedish Grammy-nominated music video. His visual preferences began to make sense and Zivic explicitly sought to work cross disciplinary, a form he found appealing. The new direction was commercial and communicative through applying modern cultural values, and maintained a strong artistic integrity at its core. He began claiming a more independent, self-actualizing and most importantly a self-critical approach in his work. In May of 2016 he held his first exhibition (curated by C-print) - at hangmenProjects in Stockholm, where he took aim on connecting sound with image. Ten works were presented, in which he collaborated with ten music producers, names like Axel Boman, Bella Boo, Familjen and Harald Björk. The composers created a sound-work to go with each image, independent of one and other. The result was a three-day experimentell anti-manifesto addressing the most pervasive digital condition of today: the complete availability on social media and streaming platforms. Shortly thereafter Zivic participated in the group exhibition “So Long St. Salong”, curated by Alexandra Karpilovski and Christian Ling. This was followed by the project “Birger Jarl rmx” by Martin Kozlowski and Ilja Karilampi and another solo show in 2017 at Gallery Skomakeriet in Stockholm - there he showed digital prints on layers of hand cut plastic sheets, hanging freely in the space. This fall (2018), he executed a guerrilla installation which served as commentary on the urban congestion problem and environmental deterioration in Stockholm. Where he covered parked vehicles with tarps, expressing the simple yet loaded message: “Breathe.”