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Bojana Knezevic Zakir
http://www.bojanaknezevic.com
Bojana Knezevic (1985) is Serbian artist. She lives and works between Belgrade and Sao Paulo. She graduated from the Belgrade Faculty of Fine Arts, painting department in 2009. She explores human relationships with nature, culture, animals and plants. Her art creates new insights for contemplation about societal and environmental issues. She has had several solo exhibitions showing her large-scale paintings and installations. Her work has been included in numerous group shows and events. Besides painting and drawing, her current work combines photography, street art, sculpture, and video.
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Catpeople-Jaguatirica , photography & digital print , 2015
In my new series of mixed media portraits named Catpeople I placed myself in the role of “shaman”, and I have connected Man and Animal, both physically and metaphorically. I was looking for the people with “totem of the cat”. I turned the camera on myself to make “Catpeople—Jaguatirica” portrait in which I am both “actor and director”
Unbridled nature of Feline species led me to people who come from punk, metal, reggae culture scene, fighters, skateboarder etc. With their distinctive look, aesthetic rituals, integrity, individualism they often face with discrimination based on ignorance, prejudices and negative stereotypes. Because many people fear what seems strange or unknown. “They all belong to the certain type that dwells on the dangerous borders of daily experience, and whose human condition is dangerously threatened by their revealed, catlike nature. Emerging from plain, white background, depicted in hues of grey, these portraits of Bojana and her models are both social statements and emblematic figures whose existence is the enactment of constant opposition. That’s why in this series of portraits coming back to primitive is actually attempt to establish the alternative mode of living that will oppose the reigning system that sustains conformity, mediocrity and humility. And that’s the main reason why her lions, tigers and tomcats are standing en garde, ready to attack.” *