A Fine Tuned Conversation with Zeljko Jancic Zec
Courtesy of the artist
Zeljko Jancic Zec is a performing, visual, and media artist. He was born in Rijeka (HR). He has been educated at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Netherlands. He creates art to explore such issues as daily life, the human condition, and the complexity of existence.
He has performed and exhibited in Europe and America as a multimedia artist. He is a member of UPUH Croatia (Croatian Dancers Association) and IG Freie Theaterarbeit (Austrian Association of Independent Theatre), and IG Bildende Kunst (Austrian Association of Independent Visual Arts). He founded the art association PART OF ART in Vienna and is Co-President of the World Art Games (WAG) Austria.
Since early 2000, photography and video have been an essential and constant part of his artistic activities. He has produced several photo series: Piedina, Treno Terreno, Showroom, The Ghost Has No Home, Urban Leisure, Blind Through Life, Cult of Diva, Goli Otok – The Bare Island / Vision In The Shadow. By working on performances, he developed his photographic and cinematographic perspective. This work allows him to play with various cinematic techniques, expression, and performance.
He has produced many short experimental films successfully shown at international film festivals: Waterish, The Second Man, Comeback, Blind through life, and Embodiment. He won an award for the film Waterish at the Choreographic Captures International Competition 2008 Joint Adventures festival and for the film The Second Man at the 41st KRAF Festival in Rijeka.
I had the pleasure of asking Zeljko about the similarities between performance art and visual arts, how poetic choreography is poetic, and so much more.
UZOMAH: How would you describe your artistic process to someone unfamiliar with art?
ZELJKO: Starting from my beginnings as a painter in the early 90s, in the middle of that decade, I discovered an interest in performing arts and in examining the interrelationship between photography, short experimental film, and video art when these are directed toward Body-Art, performance art, mime, i.e., towards experimental the theater. The characteristic of my artistic work is creating art with the research aim. I deal with issues of everyday life, the human situation, and the state and complexity of existence. A large part of my artistic work thematizes and questions a set of external influences which model individual identity.
I am a media, visual, and performance artist, and the field in which I work is very broad. The topics I deal with are mostly social, political, and existential in nature. They guide me towards which medium I will use. Sometimes I work on one topic in several media, as in the case of "Waterish," which I realized as video work and performance. The themes somehow impose themselves through the work, step by step, as a natural path to my maturation as an artist and a person. Later, I choose which topic I will dwell on longer and go deeper into the research. Some of the more important themes that run through my work are the search for individual identity, the questioning of social and personal values, the status of man in society, and human existence.
U: How did working on performances help you develop your photographic and cinematographic perspective?
Z: I often see my entire art in some way as a performance. In search of interesting locations, which I just photographed first, I created a scenario for a performance at a specific location. For me, the logical sequence was working on a video film that combined the two mediums of performance and photography into one. I would like to mention my video film COMEBACK, which was created just like that by photographing the ruins of an abandoned village on one of the numerous Croatian Islands.
untitled, 69 x 50 cm, mixed media on playwood, 2022
U: What are some of the similarities between performance art and visual art? What are any differences?
Z: As a multimedia artist, I usually start with an idea and then choose the medium in which I will elaborate and present the topic I am dealing with. Performance is most often performed in front of an audience, while visual art and painting are created without an audience in a studio. Although for me there are no rules regarding how and when art is created, for me, it is important to what the artist wants to say and what message his art carries.
" here I am ", mixed media plywood, 88 x 75 cm, 2019
U: What about choreography is poetic?
Z: The movement choreography is poetic and musical in itself, which we dramaturgically put into one whole, which is a play or performance....we can find poetry in every type of art. The universe unites us like everything in nature, which is interestingly poetic in its original form. It is people who separate things in order to easily label a certain thing. Mixing more things into one is wealth and harmony for me. Of course, this is not easy to achieve.
untitled, 75 x 50 cm, mixed media on plywood , 2022
U: How do you choose colors to bring out their contrast?
Z: Most often, I use the feeling of warm and cold colors, but also the feeling of shadows in several levels of painting techniques, from painting to drawing. For me, nuances in color and painting play a big role in expressing yourself.
U: You wear many artistic titles; which is one you have found you are most fond of in terms of the one that best describes your creative process?
Z: It's hard to say and single out. I think it's about my artistic phases and my artistic nature, which are being upgraded and, thus, artistic titles. A lot is behind me. Next year I will complete 30 years of artistic work.
untitled, 100 x 80 cm, mixed media on canvas , 2020
U: Can you name some films that have had the most significant influence on your filmmaking?
Z: I would like to mention a movie that I like; its title is I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK, directed by Park Chan-Wook. Many other films inspire me, for example, Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Europa, directed by Lars Von Trier; and My Left Foot, directed by Jim Sheridan. And many more films.
untitled, 195 x 150 cm, mixed media on canvas , 2022
U: What is the difference between how a brush captures a scene and how a camera captures a scene? How do you use those differences or similarities to depict best the art you wish to create?
Z: There is a big difference in the execution, technical approach, and, therefore, the preparation of the work to make art. Also, working on a film using a camera is usually a team effort, and painting a picture is always done alone with a white canvas in front of me. It's really a challenge and a challenge to work on diversity in the media, which enriches me a lot in any case in my work.
U: What makes creating art vital for you?
Z: Art has the power to occupy my mind, which means completely surrendering myself, devoting myself to art and creation completely, and forgetting about everything else at the moment of creation. Through art, I get to know myself even better and guides me in discovering new creative worlds. For me, it is the richness and vitality of life.
To find out more about Zeljko’s artwork and films, please visit his site, also follow him on Instagram and Facebook.
