Vladan Radovanović's "syntheѕic art"

Abstract

In the course of his artistic career, which has lasted for more than fifty years now, Vladan Radovanović (b. Belgrade, 1932) has created works in the domains of electroacoustic music, mixed electronics, metamusic, visual arts artifugal projects, tactile art, literature, drawings of dreams, polymedial and vocovisual projects, as well as art theory. Central to his poetics is the theme of synthesic art. Based on a synthesis of the arts and a fusion of media, the flow of his opus disturbs the limitations of art. His synthesis of media-lines is neither a product of rational decision, nor is it inspired by the works of other artists. Its initial form appears in the mind of the artist as a sensation or a representation that emerges from sleep and dream or from his exploration of the mysteries of his inner being. In an attempt to create a classification of the arts that would suit his understanding of the nature of art, Radovanović has suggested a basic division into single-media and multi-media arts. Single-media arts include music, poetry and painting, whereas the remaining arts belong to the multi-media group. The latter contains works created by an expansion of mixed forms such as theatre, opera and ballet, but in which the media involved accomplish greater integrity - mixedmedia (for example: happening, fluxus etc) multimedia (opera, film, environment) and intermedia (a term which possesses two meanings: a new media that is in-between media, or a new media in which all the elements are equal and integrated). Radovanović prefers the second meaning, but he uses the term polymedia for such works. This term is analogous to polyphony, because Radovanović has aimed to create a polymedia form in which separate media lines would be treated in counterpoint, in order to remain complementary and mutually dependant. In 1957, Radovanović began to sketch his theoretical thesis, initiated by his concrete artistic output. Although he had distinguished his diverse artistic output according to formal and designative characteristics, later he subordinated his work to the term synthesis art. Synthesic art is, according to Radovanović, one of the models of multi-medial arts. We have analyzed the works of Vladan Radovanović, which do indeed belong to the category of synthesic art, on many levels. First of all we tried to locate his opus in the context of Serbian and European art. Radovanović's avant-garde poetics was born in the context of Serbian art in the second half of the 20th century, which was dominated by 'moderate modernism'. His works did not fit into the existing world of art, and therefore were marginalized and underestimated. Despite his innovative spirit, hunger for novelty, and aim to transcend the materiality of materials, which are all characteristics of high-modern avant-garde poetics, Radovanović claims autonomy. His latest works do not fit into the current world of art either, because he does not want to place his poetics in the domain of contemporary post-modern poetics and theories. His intentional evasion of fashionable currents is a product of his conscience, which asks that he remain faithful to himself and his inner artistic vision. Another theoretical challenge when addressing the works of this artist was to locate his synthesic art within the larger historical and contemporary manifestations of the total world of art, especially where his works compare with Richard Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk. Radovanović believes that his concept of synthesic art is similar to Gesamtkunstwerk, but in no way equal. Therefore, we have examined all the controversies about the usage of the term Gesamtkunstwerk, as well as different theoretical approaches to this concept and its evolution; then, we have analyzed it in terms of the theoretical and practical realization of synthesic art. By formulating in detail his theory of synthesic art, Radovanović has given us a key for the understanding and analysis of his works of art. For example, we have analyzed several of his earlier multi-media works (Dreams, vocovisual works Desert (Pustolina), Polyaedar, Ball, Change and Vocovisual omages, and polymedia projects Electrovideoaudio, Building of Rooms-Signs, The Great Sounding Tactyzone, Polim 2, Polim 3, video-work Variations for TV) as well as one of his latest synthesic works, Constellations, in order to describe the practical realization of his theory, and to demonstrate how his poetic model is equally precise and flexible. Radovanović both realizes and recognizes his artistic output and theoretical thought as a united product as they were both created in his synthesic mind.