Radenko Milak struggles against forgetting and historical amnesia by collecting and recreating emblematic images that depict crucial events from the history of the past 150 years. He started to make his watercolour series entitled 365 (Images of Time) in 2013, in which each day throughout the year he painted a specific event related to that given date, based on documentary photos (Julie Kniefer’s birthday, the opening of the 1972 documenta, or a debut date of a studio album Cross by French electronic music duo Justice). In his paintings, he breaks down the found pictures into the tones of black-and-white photos, creating his own story through his paintings, as well as his visual diary using the documents of collective memory. Roman Uranjek started his own diary-like series based on similar motivations in 2002, titled At Least One Cross a Day After 1.1.2002. Through the symbol of the cross, the artist transformed and reinterpreted images he had collected from newspapers, books and various prints. Uranjek interferes with the meaning of the original image with this universal sign, a motive of religious, artistic or political interpretation. Through these motifs and collage technique, Roman Uranjek is closely linked to the early 20th century avant-garde and its artistic and social lessons. The two series and the two artists met in 2015. The activity of processing past and present visual documents has been enriched with another process by their joint work: in response to Milak’s paintings related to specific dates and events, Roman Uranjek sought elements and motifs from his own image archive that can be linked to them by various accidental matches or similarities. In this way, the images capturing historical moments are enriched with new historical or artistic references and free associations.
Krisztina Szipőcs
