BRACO DIMITRIJEVIC

DIMITRIJEVIC has realized his first installation with living animals in 1981, at the time of his solo exhibition at the Waddington Gallery in London: facing the visitors’ incredulous gaze, the couple of peacocks showed off between gold stones, with their tails spread out, surrounded by Picasso, Monet and Matisse’s paintings. Five years ago DIMITRIJEVIC accomplished a spectacular exhibition at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The Ménagerie’s animals, the lions, the jaguars, the dromedaries, the crocodile or the bisons took part of the 20 compositions. The exhibition was seen by half million people and reviewed by international press of some 30 countries including repeated CNN Television coverage.

The photographic work exhibited for the first time at the Pièce Unique Gallery is an image resulting from “ this meeting by chance ” prearranged by the artist, of a wild animal with an artwork or object charged with cultural references. The artist suggests “this gaze of the Moon”, this way of looking that links beings and things to unify the fragmentary representation of the world. Nature and culture then are placed side by side. But through a different level of reading one can interpret it like the opposition between two cultural models: the occidental model, represented by its artefacts, and the non-occidental one that lives in a truest harmony with nature. The artist’s purpose is to point out the wild animals’ natural elegance and dignity, and get them closer to the symbols of art and culture, associated in our consciousness with the concept of beauty and spirituality. From these encounters a stream of magical images and metaphorical associations may emerge.

The Gallery Pièce Unique exhibits Braco Dimitrijevic’s photographic work in its space of rue Jacques Callot, and at Pièce Unique Variations, rue Mazarine, a group of the artist’s sculptures in bronze inspired by the same theme.