AMBIENCE XVI

Saša Marković Mikrob

1959-2010, Belgrade, Serbia

Masks, 1993-94

Courtesy: private collection

In 1993/94, Marković used his masks as trade tokens. While Đorđe Balmazović (Žole from the artistic group Škart) worked as a newsboy for the weekly Vreme, he and Saša established a special ritual. Every week after the new edition came out, Saša would come around, usually on Saturday afternoon, bringing a new mask in exchange for his copy of the magazine. It was a mutually satisfying arrangement: Saša liked reading the magazine and chatting with Žole and his friends, while Žole had a deep appreciation for Saša’s art. This is how one of the most focused and coherent private collections of 57 objects of art was made.

The main function of the masks came to life during public performances. Although the masks appeared once during Marković’s stage performance at the Club of the Academy of Visual Arts in 1989, these exciting events saw their peak in the years 1996–1999.

Marković’s happenings took place in galleries, clubs, streets, before audiences ranging from a dozen to a couple of hundred. Each performance was preceded with serious preparations in order to produce at least 30 masks to be divided among the audience during the live act. It is quite clear that some of the masks had been made on the expectation that the invited (by telephone) person would appear, but it was not a sine qua non requirement. During the performance, each mask – carefully painted and captioned with a witty text – was accompanied by a vivid and appealing spoken story, or an anecdote about the mentioned person or situation. After an introduction, the mask would be presented to someone in the audience, and at the end, a group photo would be taken. The most significant performances were held in September 1996, as well as during the civic protests in Belgrade (November 1996–February 1997) and again in September 1997.