Bogdan Borčić: In principio erat Dachau

11. Exhibition in the Graphic Cabinet of Bogdan Borčić

At a young, impressionable age, Bogdan Borčić himself was a victim of the systematic terror of World War II, as he was detained at the Dachau concentration camp. Surely we are all aware of how intensely the experiences of a young soul, still learning what life is about, imprint themselves; few – yet far too many – know of the deep, painfully branded mark that the experience of a concentration camp leaves. Artists tell us their stories in different ways. Some are radical and provocative, while others are politically loyal and affable; some touch upon globally relevant political topics, while others remain in the sphere of the intimate. All of them, however, process their autopoesis through a prism of their own experiences. Bogdan Borčić is among those artists who have devoted themselves to man’s intimate existential depths, to a place where there has never been room for ideological pamphlets or political radicalism. Over the course of his opus, his world of artistic expression has slowly slid into a minimalism of silence. Into an intimate world that knew how to issue a loud cry for attention, when needed, using elements of silence. Many theorists have labelled him a foremost figure of Modern art in Slovenia, and have pointed out how, in his opus, he uses his wealth of technical skill, as well as his exceptionally broad theoretical grounding, to his advantage. This was clear and obvious in the numerous citations of and references to the great masters that Borčić liked to use in his art; and yet, the fundamental motif, which is present in every single one of Bogdan Borčić’s works, is his experience of the concentration camp. It was the experience of a soul fenced off by force, of a soul that was archetypically oriented towards the blue expanse of the Mediterranean.

Curator: Goran Milovanović