Between Reality and the Workings of the Heart

By: Natasa Tepavcevic

Belgrade, July 25 (Serbia Today) - “Between Reality and The Workings of The Heart” is a video installation by Ivana Popov, exhibited in the gallery Cultural Center of Belgrade. The exhibition was opened July 23, 2009.
The Cultural Center of Belgrade is a dynamic cultural institution, within which numerous ideas, topics, poetics, forms and media in various creative domains are united and contextualized every day, fusing into unique programs the wholeness that gives the Center an extraordinary vibrancy and strong profile. The Center celebrates the present time, relying on understanding the past and preparing itself to be a match for the future.
Video and audio installation “Between Reality and The Working of the Heart” is a new work by Ivana Popov, developed during her stay in the MFA in Carbondale (USA) 2007/2008, where she is a PHD student. The installation deals with the nature and emotions. Rich and complex visual symbolism expresses Ivana’s long-term research of the aesthetics of women. Downloading the motives from movies, which are the backbone of visual performances, Ivana developed through video and three-dimensional forms that define the gallery as an art environment. Video projections and objects presented in the form of installations have tactile character of image. These images associate with Eastern philosophy, culture, and rituals.
Boško Bošković wrote some important notices for the catalogue of the exhibition “Between Reality and The Working of The Heart”. He mentioned that there is an element of seduction in all Ivana Popov’s video installations –“ we are engulfed by the space, immersed in the darkness of the room, and our sensitivity is heightened by the possible proximity of strangers surrounding us”. As he is an adept in Ivana’s work, he claims that her video installations are contemplative, intimate, and often include autobiographical elements. “The Artist speaks to the senses, offers an open space for reflection, and invites each of us to meditate on our own lives. Her medium has changed -- she has switched the canvas for fabric and the paint for video -- but certain preoccupations and sensibilities have stayed the same. The new leitmotif of water in the installations might be a reflection on her newly relocated life, a rite of passage from the old continent to the new one. “In most religions water is used symbolically for rites of passage, spiritual purification rituals, and sacred ceremonies. It is also an agent of change, causing dissolution of matter. It is considered the source of life, the medium of death and immortality, the reservoir of wisdom.” Central to the founding myths of America is that you can always reinvent yourself. Perhaps these works are an act of purification, a readying for new beginnings and new avenues in the new home of Ivana Popov.
Ivana Popov was born 1976 in Belgrade, Serbia. She graduated University of the Fine Arts in Belgrade and got the Master’s degree. She is currently on PHD studies in the United States. Ivana Popov has exhibited works on eight one-man exhibitions in Belgrade and New York and participated in more than twenty group exhibitions in Greece, Serbia and USA. She lives and works in Southern Illinois University, School of Art and Design, Carbondale, USA.