/ 1968
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MINIMALISM AS AN EXPRESSION OF VISUAL IDENTITY ON THE SEPHARDIC TOMBSTONES AT THE BELGRADE JEWISH CEMETERY

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Sephardic tombstones at the Belgrade Jewish Cemetery provide a significant topic in studying the visual identity of the Jewish community in Serbia. Being symbols of the cultural history of a nation, they are also evidence of a style which became typical of the Sephardic Jews in the entire Balkans in the 18th and the 19th century. With their simplicity and minimalistic monumentality, they induced a certain contemplativeness in the observer, and their refined form inspired those who studied the funerary art to analyse their style which was created as a blend of ’traditions’ of two nations. Here, we will try to connect this style of funerary art with the philosophical minimalism, which in case of the Jewish people occurred due to many historical and social circumstances. Not wishing to overrule the philosophical grounds on which this art school was born in the 1960s, the paper rather aims to recognize its first beginnings in the cult tombstone art, which in time gained on historical and religious value which the newly started art school excluded from its symbolism. If we place these types of tombstones into Einstein’s relative time and space from which they emanate a different energy, then we can evoke the motto of the minimalistic art forms – The Less is More – where a deliberate absence of objectivity speaks louder than the objects themselves. 

/ 1968
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EMOTICONS: WEALTH OF MINIMALISM ON THE INTERNET

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Online communication and all the innovations it brings open up many new fields of analysis in areas such as linguistics, psychology or sociology, as well as all their interdisciplinary combinations. One such innovation, to a greatest extent connected with the virtual world and virtual communication, is described in this paper. Emoticons are first defined and then their origin is presented, including the context in which they originated and the reasons for their popularity. The paper then addresses the evolution of the appearance of emoticons from the simplest graphic icons comprising of only punctuation, to the most diverse pictures and stickers representing various objects and concepts. Finally, three functions of emoticons are described in detail: conveying facial expressions, conveying emotions and expressing pragmatic functions such as positive attitudes, irony or hedges that either mitigate face threatening acts such as complaints or requests, or reinforce face saving acts such as promises or thanks.

/ 1968
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MINIMALISM IN THE SHORT STORIES OF ANN BEATTIE: LIKE GLASS

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This paper analyses characteristics of minimalism – the narrative poetics that appeared in America in 1980s – on the example of short stories by Ann Beattie in general, and specifically her short story Like Glass. Analysis leads to the conclusion that the main features of the Beattie’s narrative coincide with the typical characteristics of minimalism: first of all simplicity in sentence structure, sparseness of motifs and vocabulary, small number of characters and absence of classical elements of narration like the plot or description, which give way to discovery of visual content i.e. to the visualisation of the narrative as a characteristic technique of Ann Beattie, giving her story such a typical non-linear structure.

/ 1968
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STRATEGIES OF FILM MINIMALISM AND THE TRANSCENDENТAL IN THE SCIENCE FICTION FILM ARRIVAL BY DENIS VILLENEUVE

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Science fiction as a film genre often employs strategies of minimalism – through elements such as narrative structure, shots, camera angles, camera movement, composition, lighting, colour, costume, set design and sound narration. The minimalistic technique manifests transcendental style – the way Paul Schrader uses this term in his study Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (although it doesn’t cover this genre). This technique involves the principle of reduction in all possible forms, as well as repetition, abandoning decorative details and expressive techniques, conveying the film narrative to a stasis – a point where sparse means collide. Ontological query posed by SF dramas such as Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, where suspense derives from human contact with the Universe and from transcendence of earthly existence, also frames the film narrative Arrival directed by a Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Consistently executing minimalistic strategies, Villeneuve guides his female protagonist through contact with extra-terrestrial beings into the sphere of transcendental experience. This paper interprets those strategies in a film medium which follow minimalistic practices of painters and visual artists (Frank Stella, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and similar) as well as techniques of music minimalism through sound design and original soundtrack. The protagonist’s contact with heptapods (extra-terrestrials with seven limbs) not only results in deciphering their written language but in her own epiphany: going through transcendental experience she is given a gift of foreseeing her future and making life changing decisions.

/ 1968
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DUAL IDENTITY AND LEARNING THROUGH STAGE EXPRESSION

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The art of theatre is a specific and harmonious synthesis of a variety of arts, which is why it has its effect on the viewer not only through words immersed in emotions at the time of their articulation, but also by the aesthetics of the mise-en-scene. This provides the theatre with great capacity for artistic expression as it simultaneously affects the senses, the mind and the emotions of the spectator. The theatre is also very appealing to children, none less than the adults. This is partly due to the fact that the stage presentations mostly feature a sort of ‘purposeful obviousness’ which is also a basic principle of general methodics in any educational work involving children and youth that allow sensory impressions to trigger a child’s imagination, learning process, critical and divergent thought and experience of the reality. Children are therefore especially receptive to the stage art which can deeply mark their personalities. Theatrical production for children as well as the methods and contents of their stimulation are described in the book Mudrost čula peti deo – dečje dramsko stvaralaštvo (The Wisdom of Senses Volume Five: Stage Productions for Children) (2010), which is part of the edition Mudrost čula (The Wisdom of Senses). This paper presents the determinants which constitute the methodics of stage production, also described in this book, with a particular emphasis on the methods.

/ 1968
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BEHIND THE MASK: ADULT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE

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The paper aims to highlight the importance of play and performance for development and learning at all ages, both in early childhood and in adulthood. The mask and playing with the mask in this context appear as some of the possible tools and means for facilitation of play within the educational process. Performing with masks not only supports learning and development, but represents development in a nutshell: wearing a mask we are at the same time who we are and who we pretend to be. In this way, the mask can be an educational tool that can be used in all phases of the educational process, be part of the process or serve to present it. A mask can be given in advance or made while the process is going on, be one of the activities or serve to summarize the activities, and its use depends on the sensibility of the adult education practitioner.

/ 1968
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HOW DID A CHARACTER BECOME A MASK

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On the example of four modern Serbian dramas created after 2000: Šine by Milena Marković (The Tracks), Skakavci by Biljana Srbljanović (Locusts), Pomorandžina kora by Maja Pelević (Orange Peel) and Moja ti by Olga Dimitrijević (Dear you), the paper analyses different approaches to the character as a mask and the appearance of a narrator in a dramatic form, as a mask for the playwright. The author finds theoretical foundation in the works of Jean-Pierre Sarrazac, Anne Ubersfeld and Erika Fischer-Lichte who discuss the importance of the idea of mask in modern dramaturgy. In her play Šine (The Tracks) Milena Marković examines the position of women in a modern version of the patriarchal matrix: every female character in her drama, no matter what age, education or nationality shares the same name – Rupica (Dimple). Biljana Srbljanović in her drama Skakavci (Locusts) disfigures the so-called social elite where patriarchal matrix and violence are carefully hidden behind a form of refined, urban city life. Maja Pelević in her drama Pomorandžina kora (Orange Peel) examines the influence of the media and the environment on the formation of a modern woman`s consciousness. Olga Dimitrijević in Moja ti (Dear you), through a story of love and friendship between members of older generations, seeks to revitalize their values. By not showing their characters as whole beings but rather as masks, the playwrights demystify the act of writing and relate freely towards the drama form. Characters that are masks, enable writers to examine different social phenomena which are hidden beneath media mystification, projecting desirable images of the society and ourselves.

/ 1968
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FACE OR MASK IN THE LIFE AND WORKS OF LAZA KOSTIĆ

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The paper analyses the phenomena of masking, costuming, disguising and discovering identities in the personality and the works of Laza Kostić. These features, strongly or less strongly expressed, are contemplated on different levels and in different forms: in their character, behaviour, dressing, speech. Also, the phenomenon is observed on a metalanguage level: the mask and its derivatives (disguise, hiding, and grotesque) have also been the topics of his poetry (Beseda, Gavrilu Egrešiji, Na parastos Jelene Bozdine…) and his theatrical pieces (Gordana, Maksim Crnojević). Since the appearance of tragedy, the mask has been connected with the theatre as a sign of metamorphosis of the individual-actor, who by using it, becomes a herald of (higher) forces, emphasising that the man is lost behind the role, i.e. behind a figure. This is why, in this paper, having in mind a passionate preoccupation of Laza Kostić with the theatre (with due caution towards the methods of positivist biographism), different forms of masking, mimicry, disguise and unmasking will be subjected to analysis as elements pointing to some of the inner genesis factors in his poems, including his magnificent penitential poem Santa Maria della Salute.

/ 1968
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MASKING AS SEXUALIZATION OF SIGHTING – ONTOLOGY AND RESISTANCE

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The image of a woman in visual arts is profiled and limited by social constructs, which are shaped and represented in accordance with the needs of a male author on the one and the observer on the other side. The image of a woman is produced in such discursive frames that it deviates from essential femininity, insisting on masking and camouflage strategies, in order to satisfy the imposed norm. When it comes to artistic practices that defy strategies with a masculinized approach in the representation of a woman’s body and identity, feminist studies of images recognize several forms. One is aimed at presenting what the dominant discourse excludes – articulating marginal identities, others focus on the deconstruction of the masculine-centred language and the space as a representational framework, while some are directed at mapping the space beyond hegemonic discourse to the discovery and performance of discursively unrecognizable identities. All these practices are common in that they are critically related to the construct of gender and gender differences, by providing resistance to the masked image of a woman in visual arts, and by defining new, specific, decentred subjectivities in their work. The greatest contribution to feminist strategies for the realization of idiosyncrasies was precisely the surrealistic picture, in which the decentralized subject as a paradigm encouraged their own deconstruction, by removing all those layers imposed by the canonical patriarchal culture, by changing, transforming and transgressing in the field of feminist self-representation.

/ 1968
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THEATRE MASK: DISCOVERING OR UNCOVERING OF THE ACTOR

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The main objective of this paper is to research and analyse the role and significance of the theatre mask. It will include a theoretical study of the mask and its use in some of the most important periods in history when the mask and the masking represented an essential theatrical convention/form, props, part of the costume used by an actor to build a role, by a performer to express himself/herself in front of the audience. It will research into how and why masks were used in the prehistoric theatre, Antique theatre – when the mask gained an important role of reinforcing the idea of tragedy i.e. comedy, giving actors monumental and godly images. In the period of Renaissance, the symbolism of the mask changed, especially in folk stage productions of the Comedia dell’arte. The second part of the paper will analyse the productions and specific uses of the mask in the Avant-garde theatre – the theatre in which the mask is both formally and essentially the core of its performance. In particular, the role of the mask in the dramas Pere Ubu by Alfred Jarry and the use of the mask in the performances of the avant-garde theatrical company Hleb i lutke (Bread and Puppets). The key research question of this paper is whether the mask is just part of the period costume or whether its appearance on an actor’s face carries much deeper significance representing one of the authentic and autonomous elements of the theatrical production.