By Katarina Radovic

Working in the border zone between documentary and fiction, factography and fantasy, Stefana Savic produces her photographic images with the minimum of mise-en-scène, cleverly using material at hand. The content of her re-created reality refers to the importance of private experience and the social meaning of individual lives in the domain of the everyday. Having the appearance of static tableaux, her photographs remind us of irrational short cuts, frozen moments in narratives, which, in spite of the photographer’s presence and the act of shooting, seem to be unfolding out of our field of vision.

It is thanks to the cinematic character of these photographs that we can enjoy even more the simple act of seeing. We have the impression that a hidden camera is registering those moments in which one is involved with one’s own being, moments of daydreaming, but without stepping out of the socially conditioned models of behaviour. Although the actors in these photographs are caught in such states as reflect their confidence of not being seen by anyone, the space they occupy encloses them in a field of psychological force, thus enhancing the voyeuristic pressure. The viewer of these photographs becomes a voyeur, since the voyeuristic look is merely the curious look, which remains disguised. As in mainstream film, where the focus is by and large on the anthropomorphic, here too, the main subjects are the human face and human body, the relationship between man and his immediate environment. Within the boundaries of the everyday, and by describing and re-creating the imaginary real worlds of the tiniest truths, the simplest and the most direct details, Stefana is tactfully introducing the paradox of the most ordinary. As with Hitchcock’s suspense, which is based on the rule that the more ordinary some situation seems to be, the more extraordinary it promises to become, the heroes of Stefana’s work, too, continue living their lives beyond the frame. Although a certain degree of automatization of their gestures apparently implies a temporary break from the real world, we cannot tell if and when some of the elements will suddenly “turn against the wind”. Everything is pointing out to the fact that the story is not yet told.
What we see almost always depends in part on what we expect to see. Things are given meaning when they are looked at.

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Katarina Radović

Promišljeno koristeći materijal koji joj se u datom trenutku nalazi pri ruci, uz minimalno aranžiranje mizanscena, svoje fotografske slike Stefana Savić gradi u graničnom prostoru između dokumentarnosti i fikcije, faktografije i fantazije. Sadržaj autorkine re-kreirane stvarnosti upućuje na značaj privatnog iskustva i društveno značenje pojedinačnih života u domenu svakodnevnog. Naizgled statični tabloi, njene fotografije podsećaju na kratke iracionalne rezove, zamrznute trenutke narativa, koji kao da, uprkos prisustvu fotografa i činu snimanja, nastavljaju da se odvijaju izvan našeg vidokruga.

Filmski karakter ovih fotografija nudi nam mogućnost uživanja u samom posmatranju. Stičemo utisak da se radi o nevidljivoj kameri koja beleži one momente u kojima se čovek bavi sopstvenim bićem, momente sanjarenja po danu, ali bez odstupanja od društveno uslovljenih modela ponašanja. Iako se akteri na ovim fotografijama nalaze u stanjima koja odražavaju sigurnost da nisu posmatrani, prostori u koje su smešteni uokviruju ih u polja psihološke sile, pojačavajući time pritisak pogleda. Posmatrač fotografije se tako izmešta u ulogu voajera, a posmatranje jeste voajersko samo onda kada ne postoji svest posmatranog o radoznalom pogledu. Baš kao što je i pažnja mainstream filmova u najvećoj meri usmerena na antropomorfno, i ovde su glavni subjekti upravo ljudsko lice i telo, odnos čoveka i njegove neposredne okoline. U okviru bavljenja svakodnevicom, kroz opisivanje i ponovno stvaranje zamišljenih realnih svetova najsitnijih isitna, najneposrednijih i najjednostavnijih detalja, Stefana nas diskretno uvodi u paradoks sasvim običnog. Slično hičkokovskom saspensu, čije pravilo glasi da što je neka situacija a priori običnija, to ona više obećava nešto neizvesno, i ovde se drama razvija, a Stefanini junaci nastavljaju da žive svoj život i izvan kadra. Iako određeni stepen ukočenosti i automatizacije pokreta naizgled upućuje na privremeni prekid sa stvarnim svetom, nikada ne znamo da li će se i kada neki od elemenata najednom „okrenuti u pravcu suprotnom od vetra“, jer sve ukazuje na to da priča još nije sasvim ispričana.

Ono što vidimo skoro uvek bar delimično zavisi od onog što očekujemo da vidimo. Sve dobija smisao tek kada je izloženo pogledu.