Milena Jovicevic

Sugar Free

 

I've been carrying an impressive image in my head for a long time and it refuses to leave me. A smooth looking gentleman in a suit is walking his dog in a nearby park, in front of his building in the 15th arrondissment, in Paris. Above the gate of the park there is a plate depicting a man with a small shovel, scooping up the excrements of his dog to keep his neighbourhood clean. The plate reads:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is exactly for this reason that i play with man who thinks he is God.

In his journey from the works of renaissance, with their perfectly proportioned physiques (sketch accord-ing to Vitruvius, by Leonardo da Vinci) to the “new aesthetics” of the modern age, my man dissolves and loses his identity. “Almighty” and haughty, he lives his illusion. He believes that by possessing a exaggerated, plastic body he obtains a divine power to defy the process of aging and postpone death. Quite understandably, being so “powerful”, he claims the right to the entire living world that surrounds him, applying his clichés and new life formulas to his pets. What is the next step? Silicone implants on the bodies of pets? It is not said in vain that a dog resembles his master. We are living in a society saturated with the media, with an exaggerated production to satisfy the exaggerated consumption.

The time of depression and sedatives, shopaholics, betting addicts, Internet addicts, pornholics…lay out our path through life for us, again, under the auspices of the “new freedom”, which keeps us captive. Unfortunately, the dog too is determined by the fate of its “master”, without being able to decide on its own. Everything is poised on the edge between the real and the virtual. The essence is in the application and simulation. Spiderman, a hero and a benevolent spirit, who saves the world, has left the scene and forth comes the Spiderdog. 

 

​translated by Vladimir Vulanovic

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