Aleksandar Dimitrijevic

Central interest in my work so far has been an interest in games as an entry point into analysis of spare or "free" time, and a formal address of artefacts that document this process.

The starting point of my work twelve years ago was a collection of found incidental notes by unknown authors. The paper was divided by vertical and horizontal lines that formed the fields registering their victories (+) and losses (-), and letters M and S (representing two players) at the top of each column. For some reason this series of wins and losses attracted my attention. From that point on, I choose to accept that these found objects with their unconscious, irregular grid marks were a potential work of art. Therefore I directed my creative process towards documenting a reality which lies on beyond the visible. As the process developed further, acquaintances began to bring me their game sores and notes to be incorporated in subsequent work. This collection of notes now numbers over one thousand incidental drawings by unknown authors. This includes discarded bits of paper of varying content and size filled with scribbles, signatures, lists or game scores – dice, tables, ludo, noughts and crosses – found at random. These notes are then transcribed onto canvas and often physically incorporated into the work.

Using colour and line, I sketch, overpaint, erase, build up and eradicate one element over another, creating several layers of images which are imprints of everyday situations. By documenting the process of creation of painting on the painting itself, by recording its date, time, and signing my name, the painting becomes a summary of overlapping meanings and voices. This is purely a painterly process that builds a specific archive of human traces (notes), whose motives are fighting for their place in memory, which I see positioned somewhere between life and art. The result of my work is art that belongs to life and the present moment, which is created from an ongoing dialogue with the past and present.

The idea that lies at the basis of my work is indirectly addressing fundamental relations in the process of the creation of a work of art, and the question whether leisure and its byproducts (for example, the game score notes) can become a legitimate part of artistic practice that problematises and highlights a number of phenomena, in particular those that deal with idleness, the triviality of contemporary life, relationships, free time, etc.