Genetic Code Recording

Naturalist Josif Pančić discovered the first specimen of a relic - an endemic plant called the Serbian phoenix flower (Ramonda serbica) on Mt. Rtanj in 1885. The peculiarity of this plant is that just a few drops of sprinkled water can restore it to life even though apparently totally dried up for a long time. Likewise, a few strokes with painter’s brush symbolically imbue dried sheepskin with a new life, said sculptor and painter Leposava Milošević Sibinović, the person behind the Pergament Srbija project (Parchment Serbia).

By Ivana Kladarin Panić

Visual artist Leposava Milošević Sibinović’s ideas have in the Parchment Serbia project and the Mt. Rtanj art colony found their place among art events and aspire to becoming traditional. The goal of the Parchment Serbia project endeavors to connect in multiple ways the traditions of old, nearly extinct crafts with contemporary tendencies in and poetics of representational art, establish cultural mapping of the region’s assets, contribute to intercultural dialogue as well as maintain Serbia’s contact with the rest of the world and reaffirm the country thereof.

The works involved are those created during the art colony workshops held at the foot of Mt. Rtanj as well as those that emerged in the studios individual artists in cooperation with the project’s head, Leposava Milošević Sibinović. The Mt. Rtanj art colony was launched in the year 2000. It began with the realization of a project called Painters Redeem the Sheepskin Sacrifice that aimed at marking two millennia of Christianity. The first works were executed on very soft Napa hide, and then in 2007 a switch was made to painting on parchment manufactured by cottage industry in the nearby town of Boljevac.

The area surrounding Mt. Rtanj is renowned for quality livestock so that immediacy of the materials for painting on sheepskin parchment is quite adequate. Traditional recipes and the manner of processing parchment and miniatures in combination with new, freeform techniques and painting on sheepskin tend to inspire artists to create new works on a material of great cultural significance.

Parchment (pergament) derives its name from a city called Pergamon in Asia Minor where it was made in antiquity to replace papyrus. Parchment is made from untanned animal hide (sheepskin, calfskin or donkey skin) previously freed from fur and any hair and treated to smoothness with lime. It was used as a material for writing on, for charters and miniatures as well as for book pages. As an ancient material, parchment requires a specific approach and that is why the artists chosen for the project include those that nurture respect for cultural heritage and who are capable of imbuing this legacy with new dimensions. Each piece of parchment is unique, featuring a genetic code, a specific charge, singular perforations and one-of-a-kind brilliance. The sublimated layers of its structure bear recordings of geographic site, meadow plants and meekness of redeemed sacrifice. Being one of the most appreciated materials of the past for writing on with quill and ink, it especially lends itself to application of various drawing techniques as well as to exploring light in space. In involves applying the techniques of printing, collaging and different-type concepts in the art of painting ranging from classical to conceptual.

In the process of artistic treatment parchment loses the applied value of hide and takes on a new dimension of meaning. This new meaning precedes any experience. This transposition of the innate memory echo code and depth of artistic impulse merge to create a balanced recording. While incorporating sensitive and sophisticated values, a painting on parchment itself becomes a recording domain. The project’s participants include artists of different generations and artistic credos from Serbia, from the Serbian diaspora and from third countries (Hungary, Romania, Macedonia, Mexico, Germany, France, England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, the US) that interact in a number of directions and at various levels.

The project of Leposava Milošević Sibinović titled Parchment Serbia has been presented at the UNESCO headquarters and the Serbian Cultural Center in Paris. The exhibition embraced works on sheepskin parchments executed by 107 renowned artists from Serbia and other countries between 2007 and 2010. The works are by such artists as Momčilo Antonović, Stefan Bozhov, Karin Brohrmann Roth, Renate Christin, Gordana Djošić Olujić, Vesna Marković, Milica Kojčić, Tsvetan Krastev, Leposava Milošević Sibinović, Branko Miljuš, Jasna Nikolić, Dušan Otašević, Božidar Plazinić, Mileta Prodanović, Miloš Sibinović, Zoran Todović, Radoslav Trkulja, Vana Urošević, Vladimir Veličković, Jarmila Vešović, Suzana Vučković, Ana Zoe Pop… This important presentation of our artists abroad was supported by the Republic of Serbia Ministry of Culture and the City of Belgrade Secretariat of Culture.