Exhibition 'Junk Journals'

The false archive, which is the central motif of this exhibition, is composed of recycled materials. This recycling concerns all materials and processes used in the 'Junk Journals' project. Memory segments in photocopies, test prints, and discarded pieces of furniture and materials that make up the substrate are merged into a new context through surrogate graphic techniques.
Mimetically recognizable landscapes and architectures appear in patches with the aim of conveying the frustration caused by inaccurate and fragmented memory. The worn base or dirty and torn paper, on which an imprecise image from the past is transferred, smells musty and looks old, suggesting or implying some unjustified respect due to apparent historical or sentimental significance. By evoking the authenticity of experience but not providing depth of memorial meaning, some of these works such as the 4 windows from the 'How Long Is Now?' series or 'Baker Beach' (2023) and 'Full Metal Blanket' (2024) remain ambiguous or indeterminate. Instead of meeting any criteria to achieve the status of an aesthetic object enjoyed by a classical painting or print on the wall, they remain stumbled in that struggle as the observer notices detached entrance doors or bed frames hung on the wall. Instead of being a document, the result has an unstable status. On the other hand, a few works such as 'Altar to the Earth' (2023), 'Archetypal Environments - Forest' (2018), or 'Coast' (2018) present the same autobiographical content rearranged and collaged anew, so that in the final appearance they retain only the image of collective memory and familiar archetypes.
The need for cataloging and collecting as basic archival procedures unites this intersection of artistic research. The ephemeral and unconvincing experiences that make me human, slipped out of consciousness a moment after being noticed. They are not before me to manipulate - before me is the junk that makes up my journals.
Mina Rakidžić Dostanić (1991, Belgrade) graduated from the undergraduate program (2013), master's program (2015), and doctoral studies (2021) at the Graphic Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She furthered her professional training at the Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria (2015), in the Graphic Base in Guanlan, China (2016), at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California, USA (2018), as well as at the Jan Matejko Academy in Krakow, Poland (2019). She curated eleven solo exhibitions and participated in over seventy group exhibitions both domestically and internationally. She has received several awards and scholarships. She is employed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.