Published on 14.11.2023

PP Talk: Krsto Gligorjadis

The conversation was made in July 2023 as part of the PrivatePrint Meets program. Krsto Gligorjadis (b. 1996 in Skopje) talks about painting as the best medium for expressing his ideas, its performative qualities, and the collaboration within the framework of PrivatePrint VR Studio 2023.

You work in graphic design and painting. What interests you in art and outside artistic practice and is vital to your creative work?

Most often, my artistic practice reflects the human position in society. Its political condition, social condition.

You generally paint?

Yes, however, there is an aspect of ritualism in my art. And through those rituals and performance acts, I try to represent what I'm not able to say. And mainly through them, in repetition, I face my conflicts as part of society.

When I work, I work in layers. And I don't finish the work in one day or one week. Also, one work contains several images. So, the fact that I work in graphic design, too, can be noticed at the end of the process. That is, I always control my abstractism and expression with that background I have.

How do you develop the ideas in your process? Is it by layering, or do they build from start to finish?

None of my work is a deliberate construction. The only thing I know is the current thought I have at that moment. And I don't know how the work will end, nor what it will look like. I don't even know what colors I will use or what techniques. I believe that the way I want to express myself has a dose of experimentation, and I believe that, for me, art is, in a way, an experimental laboratory. The current thought that goes through my mind while I am doing the works is always something that touches me, something that I want to say, something that I have experienced, something that I will experience.

Why painting?

I have also worked in other media, but I choose painting because of the part with the ritual I mentioned. I can only experience myself when I paint. When I work with any other technique or prepare a poster as a designer, there is a process, but it is not so personal. I consider all my works quite personal. I'm emotionally attached to them. Because those works, not always, but often, are a picture of memory, how I felt, and what I wanted to say.

Do you think other people read it? Do you leave signs? Or is it enough to feel that rituality or expression?

Very often, the subject I deal with, if it has one meaning or one value for me, can have something opposite for the audience. That doesn't mean my work wasn't successful, but it does mean it awakened something completely different in another person. And I think that's what makes art so versatile.

What topics interest you in your work?

Very often, the basis of all my ideas is vanitas. A movement in history that speaks or sings of the futility of pleasure and the majesty of death. Most of the time in my works, you can notice some dose of morbidity, but in a completely different way. I try to stay positive to find happiness and joy in other things. Still, I always come back to that glorification of death, power, and success as tools that have been used in history to manipulate certain situations.

How is this conveyed in the ritual of painting; do you want to represent it, or do you want to run away from it?

I want to capture that and have closure. Through the process I go through, I repeatedly return to the trauma I've experienced, and I feel the pain until I wear myself out. And then I decide, this is it, now it's at this work, and I end up feeling that pain. So, I leave it out there for someone else to consult the image and for someone else to feel that. I don't think everyone can feel the same, but I think the weight of my pain and the weight of other people's pain, I believe they have the same intensity.

Is there a work that you have as an idea that you can’t realize?

I am currently exploring the theme of when collectivity takes over its narrative. And considering how I can present it, the current conditions don't allow me to do it as I want. When the collective comes together and realizes when someone needs help, someone needs care, and when the collective takes care of an accessible path for people with disabilities. When the collective will try to take to the streets when there is a problem. When the collectivity unites into one. It isn't easy to present this idea, so I think the opportunity to realize this project in the virtual world made that process much easier.

Besides being in a virtual world, we create VR Studio through a collaborative process. How do you see that process in your practice?

There is no selfishness when it comes to art. When you collaborate with other people, there is a beautiful moment when you analyze your artistic practices and compare them with another artist. From those moments, many beautiful things and significant projects can be born. Imagine if I had the power to represent something; what would it be like if the two or three of us collectively could represent the one thing bothering us all?

Do you have such a sense of belonging to our cultural scene?

A sense of belonging. I think it is essential, and for someone from a different culture in the society where I am currently, it was challenging for me to build that sense of belonging. Over the years, things sort themselves out, and the sense of belonging doesn't have to be a concrete and specific thing or group. Still, it's a sense of home and comfort among the people you want to be with, in an environment where you are valued and respected, in a community where you can take a stand and get feedback. A rather complex issue is the feeling of belonging. However, I come back to the fact that the sense of belonging should be very close to the feeling of the team and the collectivity in which you are.

The photographs of the works are courtesy of the artist.
--
PrivatePrintMeets is a series of meetings with emerging artists from N. Macedonia and is part of PrivatePrint's project activities funded by the Prince Claus Network Partnership programme. 
VR Studio 2023 is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia and made possible through our activities in the PrivatePrint Meets series funded by the Prince Claus Network Partnership Programme.