Ethno-avant-garde

Bringing together ethno elements and avant-garde, Obuci grafiku T-shirts are now also available in the souvenir shop of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. This collection was specially made after a collaboration invitation from the Ethnographic Museum, with digital graphic prints by Vladimir Milanović.

Is it possible to bring together ethnography and avant-garde so that that combination would make sense? It is indeed. The artist Vladimir Milanović, Associate Professor at the Graphics Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, designed a map of digital prints inspired by the avant-garde ideas of Ljubomir Micić (1895–1971) already in 2017. Micić, an extremely interesting, and from the perspective of that period a very contradictory person, cooperated with the most progressive cosmopolitan movements of Europe in the first decades of the 20 th century. However, he glorified nationalist ideas and the Serbian peasant as well. Since Micić was also the founder of the “Zenitism” movement, Vladimir Milanović made a map of 16 digital prints “Zenit”, three of which we reproduced on Obuci grafiku T-shirts: Shame, Duet and Leap.

Additionally, the digital graphic print “Knowledge is strength, knowledge is power” with a representation of Vuk Karadžić with tattooed, muscular arms, is another T-shirt in this collection. In this work, the author conveys contemporary aesthetics and symbols by means of a torso, which is often used to convey power. By combining such a display of strength with the bust of Vuk Karadžić, who is a symbol of erudition and knowledge, Milanović offers a synergy of the traditional and the modern, combining them into true strength. This print was made for the front page of the magazine “Liceulice”, its 65 th issue, dedicated to the future of education.