STANISLAV SHARP WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ART PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA IN THE LATE 80’S. HE WAS KNOWN FOR PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES, ATHLETES AND ARTISTS, HE TOOK FOR EX-YU MAGAZINES, ESPECIALLY FOR THE MAGAZINE “START”. ALSO, HIS OPUS CONSISTED OF ANTI-WAR PROJECTS, VIDEO WORKS, AND PERFORMANCES.

It was unknown to the general public that Stanislav Sharp was not a real, but a fictional person whose author and protagonist was Djordje Milekić. More than a pseudonym, Sharp was an art project and an experiment.

STANISLAV SHARP EXPLORES THE THIRD DIMENSION OF PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGH “PHOTO OBJECTS”. PIECES OF WOOD, METAL, TEXTILES ARE PROCESSED TO MAKE A SUITABLE OBJECT THAT WILL FRAME AND COMPLETE THE PHOTO.

The final product is a unique work that is easiest to understand if it is considered as a sculpture.

HOW SHOULD AN ART LAUNCH BE ORGANIZED IN BELGRADE IN 1993? IN NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES THIS KIND OF EVENT WOULD HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN GALLERY OR A MUSEUM. BUT, CIRCUMSTANCES IN 1993 SERBIA WERE NOT NORMAL… EVENT WAS HELD ON THE RUINS OF POPULAR ART GALLERY, DEMOLISHED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL FROM MILOSEVIC’S REGIME TO BUILD HIS BUSINESS ENTERPRISE. PHOTO: NEBOJŠA ČOVIĆ

Ruins symbolically represented the cruel reality of destruction in the former Yugoslavia in the ’90s.

MAJORITY OF WORKS PUBLISHED IN THE “IMPOSSIBLE” WERE PART OF THE EXHIBITION BY STANISLAV SHARP, HELD IN ELITE “SEBASTIAN” GALLERY IN 1992. UNFORTUNATELY, EXHIBITION WAS CLOSED BY FORCE, GALLERY WAS SHUT AND WAS SOON AFTER DEMOLISHED, LEAVING A HUGE GAPING HOLE IN THE VERY CENTRE OF BELGRADE. THE SURVIVING PHOBJECTS WERE ATTACHED TO THE HALF-RUINED WALLS THAT THEY HAD BEEN EXHIBITED BEFORE, ONLY NOW THEY WERE ILLUMINATED BY THE LIGHT FROM BURNING TORCHES INSTEAD OF SPOTLIGHTS.

THE EXHIBITION OF PHOBJECTS “BREATHING OR SILENT REVOLUTION” IN THE SEBASTIAN GALLERY WAS EXCEPTIONAL SUCCESS WITH MORE THAN 40,000 VISITORS DURING TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE EXHIBITION WAS CLOSED. PHOTO: GORAN BASARIĆ. BELOW: INVITATION FOR THE “IMPOSSIBLE” LAUNCH.

GORAN BASARIĆ, PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILM CAMERAMAN, DESIGNED THE PHOTO PERFORMANCE JUMPING IN THE PLACE FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE “IMPOSSIBLE”. THAT EVENING, GORAN PHOTOGRAPHED MANY BELGRADE RESIDENTS JUMPING, SIMBOLICALLY RAISING ABOVE SCARCITY AND TURBULENT CIRCUMANCTES.

They tried to do the impossible and to rise above the gloomy reality in Serbia in the 1990s.