Vlasta Delimar
Untitled, 1991
mixed media
variable dimensions
MG-6351

In the series of works that Vlasta Delimar began in the late 1980s, combining different artistic me-diums (photography, artistic objects, installations) and materials (wood, tulle, mirror, lace, wheat, etc.), the focus is still on the nude female body. “For me, the body is the most natural and sincere medium an artist can use. Especially a body without any clothes. A naked body does not lie. I have always been interested in what we are when we take off our clothes. I believe that the naked body is our most sincere image,” the artist once stated. Having entered the art world during the wave of social and artistic emancipation that began in Yugoslavia in the mid-1960s, Delimar confirmed her artistic status in the following decade by performing several works with her then-partner Željko Jerman. The appearance of a young artist critically addressing the social position of women could not go unnoticed, especially since Delimar used the naked female body as a symbol of the struggle between social (patriarchal) taboos and renewed individualism.
In the work "Untitled" from 1991, Delimar expands her critical focus to the social role of women as mothers. The photograph depicting the artist and her daughter is adorned with symbolic decora-tions traditionally attributed to women by patriarchal society. It resembles a votive or sacred image, as the woman and child are surrounded by symbols of fragility (tulle), love (rose), beauty (mirror), and fertility (wheat). However, the contrast between the expressions on the mother’s face and her daughter’s face is striking. While the child is carefree and cheerful – her social initiation into wom-anhood has not yet occurred – the mother looks worriedly into the camera lens, aware of all the challenges her child will face. We can say that the ceremonial character of the scene, with its somewhat pompous spatial arrangement that extends the photograph into the observer’s space, is first questioned by the black colour of the fabric and tulle, and ultimately negated by the artist’s concerned facial expression. What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into unease and a warning.

Text: Klaudio Štefančić, senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

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