GLIGOR ČEMERSKI'S PAINTING

Introduction

Čemerski has said: ”Byzantium discovers the painting in its primary form and in its totality…The miracle of this kind of painting lies exactly in the identical ease with which it swallows and digests mathematical speculations about the universe and the veristic and crude anecdote about the thing perceived and, simultaneously, leaves it all in the space of perfect balance between the domains of the spiritual and the senses. The visible as love, love as comprehension, comprehension as thought, thought as order and all of this as the defiant order of the dream, a whole series of the affective and the ritual are only the elements of this kind of painting whose property is the all-powerful translation into a painting - the miracle of the painting.” Thus, it seems as if Čemerski, practically at the very beginning, sublimates his own totality, his own cosmic horizons and his own personal miracle. These words are to a large extent Čemerski’s painterly credo, his philosophical and creative stance and aesthetics with which he identifies himself. In other words, “Very early on, Čemerski announced his crusade to the front lines of his generation. His personal investment was all his talent and his fanatical commitment to creating works with a clear personal mark, thus soon demonstrating the features of his personality and strong individuality.” Therefore it is not an exaggeration to say that from the very beginning his path has been specific, personal and practically outlined by himself, as it is characteristic of all great authors.

Opening up the Region

Speaking of Čemerski’s early days, that is, the path he chose in the period between 1961-1964/5, it must be emphasized that he escaped the ‘embrace’ of Informel, and the same can be said of the new trends in the painting of that period. More specifically, it is true that he observed and felt the new - the new realism, the new figuration and the like, but again, this was not his choice because he did not want/does not want to be like someone else, to belong here or there, to be classified, categorized…Since his early days he has insisted on personal expression, on leaving his own mark and on his own style of painting written with the capital initial letter! This is precisely the kind of magic that has captured since then not only the general public (the viewers) but also art historians, art critics, aestheticians, his colleagues and others. This is so because the painting of the young Gligor Čemerski even in his early days glided on, his personal sails pushed forward with strong winds, submerging itself in some kind of its own, amazingly new and magical (perhaps Postmodern) world, explored civilizations and cultures, blended in with nature and discovered - itself! And even then, this discovery was a painterly miracle because it was submerged in premonitions, passions, pulsation and intoxication that were, until then, unknown to us (to the Macedonian painting) as layers of images, feelings…Or, as Ćelić puts it in his Foreword to Čemerski’s first exhibition in Belgrade, this kind of painting is “of special taste and special intoxication if we can, at all, be intoxicated with fresh juice, the juice that cannot be squeezed from over-ripe and rotten fruit.” Until the emergence of the young Čemerski, Macedonian painting had not come across this new ‘type’ of sensitivity, such passion and mythical zeal and this kind of a completely new perspective of the world and understanding of painting. “In the early days of his career Čemerski embarked on a search for the traces that the Antique spirit had left on our soil: ancient Greek satyrs, the she-goat that nursed Zeus, Pan who was half-man, half-goat, Orpheus with the sound of his instrument who could bring stones to life, there is Icarus in his ecstatic and tragic flight. The action depicted in Čemerski’s paintings dating from those years are events and sights of a unique mythology which, in the concept of this artist, insists on the link between untamed nature and the mysteries which, through the reflection of this nature, reveal the presence of the divine powers in it.” Or, if you wish, they reveal the painter’s childhood days spent on the scorched slopes of the Tikveš region in and around Stobi, the echo of the dance of the satyrs and other mythological creatures processed through the artist’s imagination, the colour scheme soaked in by the child and the many layers of images from the Region / Nature. On several occasions Belgrade art critics identified the overall spirit in Čemerski’s paintings from this period with the pastoral resounding of “…some verse from Hesiod…” claiming that “the powerful forces of the earth, the plants and the people have been transposed in these paintings with an almost mythical force into a pastoral in which everything has been cleansed from the inside with a certain ancient, belated light.” And yet, although primarily imbued with Dionysian forces, the works dating from this period intrinsically possessed that uneasy existential anxiety, that pungent taste as well (S. Ćelić), those quivering traumatic forebodings…that later became even more dominant. In the beginning, his colour scheme is fairly restrained, sparse in a ‘cold’ and controlled manner, only to ‘melt’ later into a wide range of warm earth-coloured umber and ochre hues, red and yellow nuances…mightily orchestrated sections that seem impatient, as it were, to resound with a thunderous resonance. Čemerski’s early (anthological) works date from this period and spring from the sources described above; they include Self Portrait (1961); Shiva’s Strange Arrival (1961); Evil Landscapes (1961); Evil Landscapes (1963) and particularly Twilight Ring-Dance (1963/65); Little Icarus (1963) and other works should also be included in this period. Twilight Ring-Dance, a kind of underground Danse Macabre/Dance of Death even today appears incredibly modern and painfully tense and charged with energy. Moreover, it is astonishingly well developed in a masterful manner from a sketch/drawing not larger than 10 x 15 cm! Or Little Icarus, painted immediately after the catastrophic earthquake struck Skopje (as the majority of other works from this period), who is depicted so pathetically, capturing the moment when he still has not flown up in the skies, eternally diving down towards the earth (as the Icarus from 1967). Of course, other works from this period should be listed as well: Waking Up the Stone (1964); Panic (1965); Summer Game (1967); Icarus (1967) and others, since they contain many of the features that are to be developed in Čemerski’s later painting: Biblical invasion of strange insects, the embryonic Expressionist charge, ‘distortion’ of the form and the line, etc.

Painterly painting

In 1971, aged 31, and quite unusually for the circumstances characteristic of that time in Macedonia, Čemerski was commissioned to paint a fresco for the interior of Stopanska Banka in Skopje. In a few months, practically in one breath (at least it seemed so), he painted the fresco Warm Land on the surface covering approximately 40 square metres, a stunning merging of his pursuits in painting until then. It remains to this day one of the greatest achievements in the domain of visual arts in Macedonia. This is due to the fact that the fresco Warm Land should not be perceived exclusively as a work of art in the context of Gligor Čemerski’s output, but inevitably as an expression of the avant-garde spirit of the times and a creative effort to overcome the local, often provincial, appraisal of art. In April 1971, Čemerski was invited to participate in a competition announced by the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences (other participants who were invited included Borko Lazeski, Spase Kunoski, Rodoljub Anastasov, Dimitar Kondovski and Blagoja Nikolovski). The task of the artists was to offer a project for the artistic design of the wall in the Ceremonial Hall in the new building of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the subject matter proposed was From the Past and the Present of Macedonia. Čemerski submitted a finished work whose scale was 1:1, the monumental canvas entitled Macedonia with the dimensions 6 x 12.30 m. Due to a number of “objective and subjective” reasons, this competition was never formally finished; hence, this work had a somewhat “strange” fate. Nevertheless, his Macedonia found the place it was destined to have, and from a rolled-up canvas it spread, as if it had wings, into an epic at his exhibition held exactly on the premises of the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002 where it stands to this day! Macedonia, a monumental painting, is conceived as a triptych, consisting of Pillar of Suffering (left), Victory Day (centre) and Pillar of Resistance (right). Each part is a paraphrase of a particular segment from the historical ‘narrative’ of Macedonia. The once dark twilight ring-dance is elongated along a vertical of the centuries-long oppression, terror and suffering and the bones of the ancestors as a vow/reminder for the next generations; it also captures the moment of nationwide rebellion against tyranny, taking up arms as the only possible response to repression, the accentuated warm earth embodied in the central motifs of Victory, Freedom, the celebration of the New Day, the inevitable shawms and drums, the ring-dance once again, this time as a ritual and optimistic sign of togetherness, the Maenad, etc. Here, all those changes touched upon in Warm Earth are emphatically multiplied and transformed into a figurative and colouristic foundation for the Expressionist explosion in Čemerski’s work in the decades that followed. The intensity of feelings and energies literally circulate in/through this monumental canvas, echoing with the mighty sound of the shawms and twirl in the rhythm of the drums. The crescendo is sublimated in the figure of the Holy Mother of God Orant, woman/mother who is ‘cleansed’ on the level of an essential painterly symbol as she spreads her arms as wings. It is from her and through her that we see the outpouring of the symbols of fertility, femininity and abundance. At the same time, this work also anticipates the synthesis of elements from various forms of aesthetics that will later be profiled, with different intensity and extent of influence, such as that of Mexican muralists, Maya and Inca art, Art Brut, the sensitivity of El Greco, the fullness of Léger’s forms, the dramatic features of Picasso’s work…and, naturally, the art of Byzantium! Or, if you wish, it seems as if world painting has been created only for him and nobody else and he simply draws it into his story, into his painting, with incredible ease, making it feel Great. And today, the viewers are drawn into it in the same manner, standing unhindered in front of this Macedonian historical and aesthetic monument in the domain of painting. In terms of the drawing/line in this period, they are quite different in these two monumental works by Čemerski. They are, after all, as different as the concept from which they emerged. Namely, Warm Earth still, to a large extent, operates with the painterly logic of the ‘pastoral’, although characterized by evidently new Expressionist echoes and the hard, nervous line. In Macedonia, on the other hand, the drawing/line are different, they follow the ‘narrative’, they describe, they emphasize…they anticipate a completely new expressiveness in Gligor Čemerski’s creative output.

Byzantium revived

We have already referred on several occasions to Gligor Čemerski’s multi-faceted fascination of many years with the visual/pictorial and painterly features of Byzantium and Kurbinovo as its Macedonian pinnacle, a fascination that is, after all, only natural. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was guided by the experiences and lessons he had learned from the exceptional monumental projects and the evident immersing in his steady maturity as a painter; in the decades that followed, all this bloomed into neo-Byzantine refinement and convulsive Baroque-styled art, into concentrated energy and pathos and thriving mastery of the art of painting. The Angel from Kurbinovo will never be repeated in the same form: on the contrary, it will be multiplied in its Expressionist opposite “where all key elements are positioned with emphatic contrast and brought to a pronounced expressiveness, to convulsion, to turbulent brushstrokes, form and colour scheme. There is no gracefulness and elegance in them, no harmony or asceticism, that is, they are there again, but filtered through a different optics and sense. Hence, the prevailing feeling is that of their alteration: contractions and force, disharmony and Baroque-like features, pathos and rudimentary features…and yet, all of this breathes with a unified (heretic) spirituality.” The iconography or, as Gjuzel puts it, heraldry that is developed in Čemerski’s works that date from this period is, to put it mildly, strange, Biblically familiar in an unfamiliar way, often frightening… In an almost psychedelic and euphoric state of mind, through that “genuine explosion” as Stanić puts it, Čemerski’s expressiveness created practically in a single year the cycle Pathetic Iconostasis/Picture Wall. As a matter of fact, the beginnings of this cycle date from as early as the late 1970s, that is, a year or two before Kočani, somewhere along the route Paris-Sobra-Skopje. It was even then that the “miracle bringers” appeared and the already familiar hypertrophied insects and then, after Kočani, waiting in the wings, they pour out as “star-headed” images, “pathetic heads” and “large heads” which look as if they came down from Nerezi or Kurbinovo, grasshoppers, chameleons and other strange reptiles and jumping creatures of this earth (or are they?). And, as Vlada Urošević puts it, “in these paintings we see a continuation of that which has already been entitled in the work of this artist as the Twilight Ring-Dance - the dark dance swirls, through convulsions and passions, as a mixture of the earthly Dionysian ecstasy and Apollonian ascension towards light, of that which is of the body and that which is of the spirit, the battle for man between Eros and Thanatos.” From this moment onwards, Eros and Thanatos completely open up and their ambivalence begins to imbue as an essential Existential thought practically all of Čemerski’s future work; it will twirl and screech, all convulsed, from his every brushstroke. Their interplay, their passionate but self-destructive interplay will ruthlessly brand his every canvas in the years to come. This passion will prove to know no limits and restraints and will eventually be transformed into fierce clashes and only seeming reconciliation, only to begin once again the cycle of new hellishness. Perhaps at this point we should draw attention to another essential characteristic of Čemerski’s art, and that his attitude to Beauty or, if you wish, his promotion of exactly the opposite, the ugly as an aesthetic principle. It seems as if his each brushstroke is intertwined with Breton’s outcry “Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all." Čemerski perceives reality exclusively through the prism of disharmony, tension, convulsion and whirlwinds…In his works, all forces extol precisely this “other side” of Beauty: order retreats in front of disorder, the straight steps back in front of the distorted, tranquility gives way to anxiety. Everything is in distress, in upheaval, out of joint…form is broken, the head is twisted, the eyes stare! The beautiful or, as Čemerski says himself, “the so-called realistic or illusionist European art” has no place in his works. His brush paints the world behind closed eyes!

St. George and the Dragon, and later

Čemerski’s St. George was ‘born’ in 1990/91 in Paris, on paper, in the shape of relatively small black and white drawings, as exceptionally suggestive, strongly expressive and dramatic depictions of the holy warrior slaying the dragon. The artist’s hand was in a nervous trance, it was unstoppable in its ‘ploughing’ of lines on the paper, it twisted them in syncopes, it built and dismantled. Here, all the subtlety and harmony, all the aristocratic exaltation of the Angel from the early 1980s leads to the opposite direction - to grotesque and caricature! The Dragon is (still) with one head, crocodile-like and blood-thirsty. And the destiny intended by the artist for the holy warrior is to defend the world and his own life unarmed, because his intention was to show that warriors of this caliber do not need weapons and that their holiness, beauty and spirituality suffice to vanquish evil. “Departing from the canon and leaving the holy warrior unarmed, Čemerski practically introduces a new variety of the model: the white horse and the holy horseman prevail in and of themselves by the very force of the Idea and the Spirit.” Thus, extracting it both from the collective memory and the old Christian apocryphal narratives, church walls and images in icons, in those hard times Čemerski offered to the world his own story about the saint and the dragon, the warrior and death, light and dark, good and evil! From this time to the present day the theme of St. George slaying the dragon has remained the central theme in Čemerski’s painting/drawing. In the coming years it varied in many ways, both in terms of iconography and iconology: the saint is shown without and with the spear, furious or composed; the dragon has gone through all kinds of many-headed transformations, occasionally resembling “a vaguely defined beastie;” at times, the focus is only on the horse and the dragon as in the series Kiss of Death; the conflict escalates to tumultuous, practically unrecognizable ‘embraces’; Čemerski’s St. George is often given additional attributes (St. George the Bringer of Wind, St. George of Ohrid, etc.); he is not always depicted with a halo, that is, the holy warrior occasionally resembles a young man from everyday life not so confident in his own superiority, and so forth. In addition, we are not always so sure about the final outcome of the battle! Or, as academician Madžunkov asks, “ Will St. George finally slay the dragon in Gligor Čemerski’s painting, will he eventually set us free from it?” In this period, too, and especially in the painterly rendition of this subject matter, as in the pathetic cycle of the 1980s, Čemerski’s voluptuous Expressionist nerve dominates once again. “He mainly expresses himself with the twisted and contorted coloured line with a frenetic vivaciousness that he introduces in the colour of his painted matter…The artist’s anxiety comes to the fore, his effort to tame the disharmony and give shape to the outstretched arabesque, the sign that functions with its sharp accords.” The surfaces are dynamized, often to the point of collision, the drawing is broken serpent-like along a straight line, the colourist eruption seems unstoppable…the artist’s hand wages merciless war with the paper, with the canvas…and with itself! And yet, on the other hand, the claim that these works actually exude some kind of strange balance also seems tenable, “[a sort of] tranquility achieved with great difficulty: a spiritual peace that comes from the awareness that the most genuine aspect of his output has not been expressed in the ‘answer’ to transient ‘tasks given by the times’ but in the passionate and incessant striving to search for the meaning of one’s own destiny and that of all humanity.” His discourse follows his Kurbinovo roots, as if reflected in a mirror and is transformed into a new Expressionism in order to tell the artist’s personal story, as well as that of the drama of our overall existence. Čemerski often says that we all have our own St. George and our own dragon. However, it seems as if his holy warrior contains our molecules, too, and as if he intends to wage war and sacrifice himself for the well-being of all of us! And yet, Mitko Madžunkov gives us a brighter interpretation of this narrative, according to which “the chthonic monster from the dark caves of one’s own subconscious - or the collective past - should not be killed, but tamed and transformed into our ally - that is the message of Čemerski’s cycle on St. George for the times to come!” Simultaneously with this cycle, in this period Čemerski was on several occasions preoccupied with the theme of Lamentation: the fresco illustrating this event can be seen in the Church of St. Panteleimon in Nerezi which dates from the 12th century. In fact, besides Kurbinovo, the fresco painting from this church is another important point of departure for Gligor Čemerski’s art, it is his entire painterly universe, almost an obsession…At the same time, we must bear in mind that the frescoes in this church are part of the world heritage and according to some scholars, the true beginning of the Proto-Renaissance. Therefore, Čemerski’s choice of his ‘teachers’ was not random: he dwelled on the mastery of the fresco painting in these two churches (naturally, not forgetting that of the churches of St. Sophia and St. Clement in Ohrid, those in Staro Nagoričane, Vodoča and others), referring to them as his own Louvre.

Final considerations

Gligor Čemerski is not a painter who follows a straight, conventional system. In fact, he is everything but conventional. Although, as he himself has often stressed, he paints what he feels and vibrates with the world and his own emotions, although he says that he is one of those who soak in the world around them through their senses and believes that he is attracted to his motifs in the same manner, yet it seems that there is something more to it. Čemerski explains the presence of this specific ingredient in the following way: “However, I force myself to leave these senses to repeat their observations, not at the very same moment, but at a time when the motif becomes slightly vague. For example, these trees - if I feel the urge to paint them in the light in which they now appear before us, I prefer to turn my head away in order to paint them when I have seemingly forgotten the precise appearance of things…I always say, the world is that which you see when you close your eyes. This world, the world behind closed eyes is that which obsesses me to this day.” It seems as if all the shadows of our todays and yesterdays pass through this “world” of his; they are both his and ours, local and global - as if the whole story of the Beautiful and the Ugly, of Good and Evil, of Eros and Thanatos passes through this world! And he has lived to tell the tale, outlived it, lived through it and…expressed it! Objectively speaking, Gligor Čemerski’s artistic oeuvre is unique and only one of its kind in the domain of the visual arts in Macedonia. Although it is decidedly Expressionist in its surface layer, his painting seems to “slip away” from the too narrow and typified determinants of the classical labelling in the field of visual arts as “Expressionism”/ “Surrealism” / “Symbolism”, etc. As a rule, artists of Čemerski’s rank and mastery are perceived more clearly outside the stereotypes and within a wider philosophical and cultural scope. And today, it is within such a wide context that we can freely put the accent on his painting as that of the forerunner of Postmodernism in Macedonia, and single out Čemerski himself as a painter who had carried in his genes the alphabet of Postmodernism many years before it emerged on the European scene. More specifically, Čemerski’s creative reflexes explore, examine, interpret and process the painterly experiences of magnificent epochs, great individuals and anonymous masters. As a matter of fact, on the one hand, this is his natural habitus: Antiquity, Stobi, satyrs, mythology…and his cultural heritage - the Macedonian variety of Byzantine fresco painting, Kurbinovo, the Church of St. Sophia; on the other hand, he never remained caught only in the national and traditional modes. On the contrary, he has quite openly sought for a dialogue with civilization in the widest sense of the term, which includes South American culture, El Greco and the Spanish masters, Delacroix, Picasso… If these Postmodern times insist on the thesis that the epochs of great projects are now gone, still such claims cannot fully convince us that the time of great artists is also gone! This is so since they are obviously here, among us, and it depends on us whether and how we will ‘recognize’ them. No trend in art, nothing “current” has succeeded, at least not until now, in annulling, ignoring or forgetting truly great art. Or, I could paraphrase the great Sir Kenneth Clark by saying that I can’t define in abstract terms yet what great art is, but I think I can recognize it when I see it. After all, whatever we write about Gligor Čemerski’s creative output - at any given time, today or tomorrow - it will not be the final word on it. As Stevan Stanić puts it, “it is at this point that the discussion on the paintings of this artist is yet to begin.” Or, perhaps we should conclude our discussion with the artist’s own words who has said that “the gymnastics of painting and guiding the touch and the gesture are one’s personal hunt, one’s own ritual choreography; it is a dance of love with a partner whose next move you can’t anticipate…This is the healing and blissful side of my craft. Someone who threatens the void with such blind passion, who fights it with a sword and wages war with it, certainly can’t be really wise, but I am sure that they can’t be completely hopeless either.” And this is surely true!

(Translated from Macedonian: Rajna Koshka)

MINORITY REPORT

- Some Notes and Data on Minority Rights In the Balkan Region -

1.

Following the essential articles of the UNESCO's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) - right to equality, freedom from discrimination, right to recognition as a person before law, especially that everyone has the right to nationality (article 15) etc. -, or the Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Co-operation - e.g. that every people has the right and the duty to develop its culture -, one would clearly say that the human rights story belongs to the past - to the 20^th century, and that the 21^st century will be an age of new visions and super-new frontiers, time of globalization and unquestioned / unconditional tolerance. Some doubts may arise when we find out that the UNESCO's Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions has been adopted as late as 2005! Does it mean that all the previous resolutions, declarations, documents etc., has not fulfilled their goals!? Does it really take so many words to understand and to achieve the simple truth?!

Terms like multiculturalism, minority rights, cultural identities ... were suppose to become key marks of our existence. It is not that the idea (or utopia?) one world - one nation is that simple to achieve, but the concept of multiculturalism, tolerance, diversity ... was meant to be the initial path, the foreword to the bigger story! After all, "the theory and the practice of multiculturalism was a response to the pressure of modern nationalism through the whole period of modern development of Western societies" (Paic, 2006). An initial help to the "globalization with a human face" (Williams, 1999).

2.

I am aware that the minority question is maybe the most complex one. But I am not going to address all recent theoretical issues about multiculturalism, cultural identity, cultural diversity, minority rights etc., because it would take pretty much space. And, as a matter of fact, they have no practical importance here, for example: theoretical discourses raised by several theoreticians (Giddens, 1991; Beck, 1992; Bauman, 1995 etc.); whether really "the 21^st century questions about nationhood, ethnicity and identity are in the forefront of political and theoretical agendas" (Martinec, 2006); is really Dieter Senghaas's theory of intercultural communication the only alternative of Huntington's clash of civilizations etc.

3.

In spite of all theories and good practices, in some parts of the world people still think that human / minority / cultural rights is something negotiable, something that is to be allowed or given to somebody. The concept of nation states - or better to say linking the national citizenship with the majority, with the ethnically (and culturally) dominant group of the population - made the initial differentiation. After that, every other form of discrimination was "easier"!

In a broader, world-wide picture, the Balkan region is not an exception in this context. But since this part of the world is at the same time part of Europe where the question of minority rights (at least) today is more or less unquestionable, then it looks that there is a real problem! Having in mind the troubled and (very) often bloody history of the region, the constant change of the borders, the moving (parts of) of people / nations ... some might say it is understandable that the situation with the human / minority / cultural rights is not like the rest of Europe.

But, on the other hand, can we say that the history of the rest of the European countries is much, much less troubled or bloody? No, on the contrary! But still, the rest of Europe has learned how to deal with this "minority question", how to foresee and intercept most of the possible problems with their human or cultural rights.

So where / what is the problem with the Balkan countries?

4.

Of course, this paper is not trying to solve this problem. And it has nothing to do with some local "ghosts" arising from the past or daily politics put into wrong perspective. Still, it aims to point on the current data, on the available notes and information, and then to slightly comment on it or on certain illogical situations, if there are any.

So, one of the possible starts is to look upon the PROPOSALS AND COMMENTS SUBMITTED BY MEMBER STATES IN RELATION TO UNESCO’s PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS. One would say that if there were any complains, proposals or whatever on the situation with the human rights on the Balkans, then it would be noted here. Well, no! The only proposal from this part of Europe came from Slovenia on behalf of all Members of the European Union and countries candidates for European Union admission. And the proposal (1) "called upon UNESCO to play a visible role as regards press freedom and the right to receive and impart information and (2) to organize a photo exhibition at Headquarters within a high level symposium on freedom of expression, in partnership with NGOs, such as the International Federation of Journalists, dedicated to the laureates of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, and to photographers who have suffered because of the exercise of their profession". Nothing about any possible improvement of the human rights or cultural rights or cultural diversity or ... in some parts of Europe, on the Balkans ... Like - everything is OK!?

5.

Just a short glimpse at the Compendium tables shows (at least) a strange situation, especially having in mind that the Balkan Peninsula has always been a national "mixing pot".

For example, Serbia and Croatia have by far most recognized minority groups: Serbia 21 (which is 17.1% of total population of 7 498 001) and Croatia 16 (which is 7.47% of total population of 4 430 000). Greece is by far the biggest country (11 057 000 population) but officially has no national minorities.

On the other hand, although neighboring countries, there are no Albanians in Greece, but there are Greeks in Albania. And the same applies between Greece and Bulgaria: although neighboring countries, there are Greeks in Bulgaria but there are no Bulgarians in Greece!

And slightly different example: although neighboring countries, there are no Macedonians in Greece and there are no Greeks in Macedonia! The same situation applies on Bulgaria and Macedonia: although neighboring countries, there are no Macedonians in Bulgaria and there are no Bulgarians in Macedonia!

The situation becomes even more "strange" when we have in mind the historic events, the population movements, the porous borders (especially in the past) etc. So, how is it possible not to have a certain (even small!) number of populations from the neighboring countries in the above mentioned states? How is it possible for Macedonia to have Serbs and Albanians but not Greeks and Bulgarians; how is it possible that only Greeks live in Greece and not Albanians, Bulgarians, Macedonians too, etc.? But that is another story.

Another interesting question in this context is between Croatia and Macedonia. Croatia recognizes the existence of Macedonian minority, but Macedonia does not recognize the existence of Croatian minority in Macedonia! And in 2006 there was an official demand made by Croatia to recognize the Croatian ethnic minority as a Constitutional minority, but this demand was not accepted by the Macedonian Government!

What has to be stressed in the context of the minority rights in the Balkan countries, is that it seems that Albania is the only country that puts difference between minority rights and cultural and linguistic rights. So, cultural rights are recognized for three national minorities (Greek, Macedonian and Serbian - Montenegrin), and ethno linguistic rights are recognized for two minorities (Aromanian and Roma).

6.

What is common between all Balkan countries considering the "minority politics" is that they all do not have main cultural policy document addressing national minority groups. So, a logical question is: if there is no main cultural policy document, how are the minority "problems" being solved? It seems that all countries rely on the provisions guaranteed by the constitution. Besides the constitutional provisions, Serbia has Law on the Protections of the Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities (2002), Croatia has Constitutional Law on National Minorities (2002) and Macedonia has the Ohrid Framework Agreement (2001). And these provisions guaranteed by the constitution or other documents are more or less the same: rights to preserve and develop their cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic identity,

In all Balkan countries the Ministry of Culture is the main administrative body that provides support for cultural activities of the minority groups. And, more or less, in all ministries there are special departments or sectors that deal with the minority groups: a Public Council on Cultural Diversity in Bulgaria, Office for Promotion and Advancement of Culture of Nationalities in Macedonia, Office for Minorities in Croatia etc.

Beside the ministries of culture there are also other different bodies that provide support to the minorities, such as: Government's Council for National Minorities in Croatia, National Council for Interethnic Interaction in Bulgaria and etc. In Macedonia there are several bodies that foster the interethnic cooperation, such as: Committee on the Political System and Ethnic relations (in the Parliament), within the Government's General Secretariat there is a Sector for Implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement etc.

Most of the Balkan countries have signed and ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression. Greece has signed but not ratified the Convention. The ratification of the Convention is in process in Serbia. Albania and Greece are also members of the intergovernmental committee to promote and monitor the objectives of the Convention.

7.

Recalling that United Nations General Assembly designated 2008 as the International Year of Languages and having in mind the estimation that "in few generations, more then half of the 7000 languages might have disappeared", the UN General Secretary Mr. Matsuura stated that "the costs of losing linguistic diversity are high and may jeopardize international cooperation to promote sustainable development, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All goals". "Only if multilingualism is fully accepted as an invaluable asset can all languages find their place in our globalized world", concluded Mr. Matsuura.

In this context, the minority "language situation" in the Balkan countries is regulated in different way. More or less they all recognize and support the use of the major minority languages (on local level, in schools, in the media etc.). For example:

• in Albania, besides the official Albanian language, Greek is the second major language spoken by the Greek minority, and others are Macedonian and Romanian;
• in Bulgaria, where in use is the term "mother tongue" instead of "minority language", Bulgarian language is in official use, and for those whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian there are certain regulations addressed in two specific laws;
• in Croatia the official language is Croatian and special laws regulate the status of the minority languages and alphabets and their official use on local level;
• in Macedonia the official language is Macedonian and its use is regulated by special law and the use of the minority languages (on local level as second official, in the Parliament etc.) is regulated by other laws and agreements;
• in Serbia the Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet is in official use and in those areas where significant numbers of ethnic minorities live, the minority languages are in official use parallel with the Serbian language.

8.

Instead of a conclusion, I would quote that "difference is not a choice, but an accident of birth. It is a given fact of humanity, not the result of particular judgments or policies" (Dobrulle, M. 2006). It is us who have prejudices and artificial dilemmas, it is us who want to judge and jury the others! Once we face the truth that we are one but different, there will be no problems in this direction.

The EXODUS

1. The issue of the refugees / refuge is one of the so called eternal issues which literally and absolutely communicate with all civilization codes of existence. Essential existential and moral, philosophical, sociological... and all other aspects / consequences of human destiny are directly traversed / united through it / in it. But the refuge issue is also far from any possible rational comprehension; it is an extremely stressful, emotional topic and no one can face it with a previously prepared defense mechanism of indifference or with a “cool head”. It is because, basically, refuge / exile ... is experienced and lived through the prism of collective tragedies and exoduses, through pictures of convoys of devastated, miserable and exhausted old people, women and children ... pictures that leave no room for indifference! On the other hand, can we “relate” the entire (known) history of humankind to the refugee syndrome, can we treat the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as an act of (indirect) refuge? Since, refuge is, after all, a reaction which is often preceded by an action - exile - so that this is directly biblical topic, as well, additionally supporting its “eternity”. What’s more, the First Book, along with the “Eden Story”, is full of other “colorful” and convincing elaboration of this crucial topic and other even more drastic examples - the exile of the Jews from Egypt, the exile / refuge of the Christians from Israel, etc., - which tells us that the history of humankind is, actually, a history of refuge! But, the much more “exciting” real world, reflected in certain events of the distant or nearer past is full of far more cruel examples of action and reaction, of exile and refuge: the Edict of Fontainebleau by Luis XIV of 1685 (1), the Soviet Revolution of 1917 (2), the so called, Armenian genocide of 1915-1917 (3), the horrors and the holocaust of the Second World War, the constitution of the state of Israel in 1948 and the Israel-Arab wars (4), etc. And despite the shocking historical experiences, the situation with the refugees is not much better today. According to the information issued by UNCHR, at the beginning of 2006 there were 8,4 million refugees in the world! And: about 80% of the refugees are always women and children! The reasons for this awfully painful and, as a rule, always strikingly bloody events are different: religious, territorial, ideological, racial...! That is, the reasons always seem to be inexplicably different, and the methods and the results are always - the same! The definite outcome appears to be as copied on a matrix: blood and tears, dead and displaced, separated families and reshaped destinies, personal and collective dramas, thousands of “dislocated” lives...

2. The refuge topic has not spared the Macedonian historical experience. It affected different aspects - both the country / nationality, directly subjected to a refuge genocide, and the territory through / in which a sequence of refuge crisis “happened”. Yet, the Macedonian experiences are, more or less, unknown to the world historical memory because in all of the searches / readings of the possible refuge crisis points in the world history, Macedonia is literally not mentioned at all! Or, it is, yet very rarely, which makes no difference! This especially refers to the topic of this artistic project - the tragic Macedonian refuge exodus in the time of the civil war in Greece, that is, its end (1948-49). In the popular and easy accessible sources (Internet) of today it is either not mentioned or reduced to euphemisms like: “deportation”, “relocation”, “transportation” of families or children, without stating their ethnical origin. However, there are many sources that alter the truth by naming them (especially the children) “Greek children transformed into fanatic Macedonians.” (5) Although the numbers vary amazingly - some reach up to 700,000 refugees (6), especially pointing out the 28,296 children (7) - it is more than clear that it was a tragic exodus, unseen in the Balkan region in the 20th century. On the other hand, although such an elaboration would not be appropriate at this point, it is still questionable how much have we ourselves contributed / worked upon a more complete and more thorough clarification of those events!

3. The reference to the beginning of this text - to the emphasized emotional reliving of this issue, that is, exactly because of that - can lead to the conclusion that this issue (on a global level or as a particular, actual event) would be viable for possible artistic transposition. Probably yes, but the practice, particularly the Macedonian artistic practice, proves the opposite. It appears that the refuge issue, regardless of the “rich” Macedonian historical experience, has not been frequently used as an artistic topic. We could even say that it has been outstandingly ignored. It particularly refers to the topic of this project - the Macedonian exodus in the time of the civil war in Greece - the serious artistic projects (in the visual artistic media) can be counted on the fingers of one hand! Of course, first in line is the feature film “Black Seed” by Kiril Cenevski, then several documentaries (like “Tulgesh” by Kole Manev) and TV shows (“The Signors of Greek Diplomacy” by Nikola Kalajdziski) and the latest cinematographic achievement “The Children of 1948” by the young Suzana Dinevska. In the fine arts the examples are even fewer: some of the artworks of Kole Manev (mostly reflecting a mood, a reference and things like that), some artworks in the field of sculpture and the graphic prints of Naso Bekarovski, and that’s all. (8)

4. In order to understand more thoroughly the commitment of Slavica Janešlieva to such a topic it is necessary to get to know rather well her former achievements. In that sense: “...two things are to be underlined in the artistic idiom Slavica Janešlieva has uttered so far. The first would be her impressive narration delightfulness, her effortlessly pulling out the moments / stories from memory and, like the best post-modern tellers, ‘mixing’ the contexts, the times, the order, the situations..., not insisting on her own version but leaving it to the spectators to contrive their own story. The second aspect refers to her amazing sense of visualization of the narration where the memory / story is turned into a representation, object, color - a materialized substance - which powerfully synthesize history / tradition and everyday, the great ideas and the small things, emotions and reflections, metaphors and meanings”. (9) “Actually, the entire former artistic idiom of Janešlieva - her graphic art, the installations, objects, etc. is mostly defined through the modalities of the so called ‘art in first person’ or, even better, through the domain of the ‘inter-subjectivity’ and the (self)reflexiveness. It means that her projects, almost a continuity of a quite personal ‘story’, are contained in a kind of self-referential system composed of segmented stories with an intimate - family background. In that context the intimate / family aspect might remind of a replacement of the general / social aspect, an ‘escape’ from this and such social reality, yet in its very core still deeply related to a string of burning (traditional, moral...) dilemmas, actual for the global environment”. (10) Therefore, this project of Janešlieva is, actually, just another in the series of her current commitments, her personal views and “comments” on eternal topics, always bitterly provocative and, as a rule, covering a “wide spectrum”. This, on the other hand, might sound like a boring moralization which, eventually, has nothing to do with the art per se. Of course, it is not the case, especially when it comes to an artist of the Janešlieva type. Since, Slavica does not teach lectures, she doesn’t send messages, She leaves it to the less inventive ones. She “carries” in herself the topic / pain, she develops / “ripens” it to a solid concept with a clear thought and outlined visage. And in that concept there is no room for cheap moralizations or banal coaxing! In the context of the Macedonian refuge issue Janešlieva’s motif / challenge might, at first sight, seem unclear (if the artistic creation requires a motif at all). What is the reason and the origin of the interest for this particular not sufficiently researched and, openly speaking, today still complex, outstandingly unknown and “problematic story”? Actually, there are no secrets since the challenge lies in the complexity of the topic, in its (as yet) “seclusion”, in its catastrophic dimensions, in the incredible destinies of the participants, in... ! We can state tens of reasons and some of the most important among them, certainly, the need for loudness, publicness, soundness... the need to dimension it appropriately, both historically and artistically, the requirement that both the world and we ourselves face the cruel reality, for countless more times. Of course, the key question is: how come and why is it that the history and the world know everything about all the other exoduses, and almost nothing about this one? Therefore, as Benjamin noted “the true picture of the past silently passes by us, the past can be understood as a picture that sparkles intensely at the moment of realization and then irrecoverably vanishes... since in every present the picture of the past can irrecoverably vanish, a picture where the present could not recognize itself”, Janešlieva seems to tend to “retain” some pictures, to “freeze” them for a moment, save them, temporarily, from vanishing - at least until we don’t understand them better or pay them the due respect. The concept of the project “Grafting” is multi-farious / multi-layered. The light-motif is absolutely the refuge issue - the exodus of the Macedonian families during the civil war in Greece 1946 - 49, but Janešlieva “weaves” around it several crucial points. Hence, the organization of the visual part follows the following logic: The first point is, certainly, the distressing, endless, tragic... eternal refugee convoy that in continuo, as a perpetuum mobile, moves through the human history. In this case, it is the Macedonian part of the Hell, the Aegean exodus, the convoy of Macedonian refugees escaping the purging of the military horde. “...They were taking the children, and they made them count the stars to stop them from falling asleep. And they made wishes and counted the stars. While their only wish was to be left to fall asleep... Children held to their mother’s skirts and counted the stars.” (11) It is an insert from the Aegean exile, yet it could’ve been any other refugee convoy: from Palestine and Sudan, from Afghanistan and Iraq, from Myanmar...! The essence is the same, only the “set” and the “costumes” are different. It consists of convoys of silent destinies that painfully hike through roadless areas, leaving everything behind and looking to nothing ahead! It is the beginning, the introduction to a huge future emptiness, to new resettlements and accustoming to new regions, new people...! If the first “story” was (at least) general and global, “anonymous” and collective, the second point is (partially) personalized, presenting it with identity! Here the convoy is already identified, it gradually becomes recognizable through its direct participants - the former refugee children and their stories, with the figures personified - they acquire faces, voices, names and forenames. However, Janešlieva’s point was not to completely involve us, that is, “inform” us on the characters in this story, since that would turn it into fiction of cinema. In this case she looks for something else, she look for (and finds!) a different visual poetics. The characters and their stories are an echo through which Janešlieva follows some other “traces”. More precisely, by setting this segment of the “story” in several separate video and/or photographic stories/inserts. Janešlieva rather focuses her (and our) attention to the particular parts of their bodies than to the tellers themselves, that is, to several important details as elements that might incite “new stories”! For example, the hands (in regards to the fact that the age of the refugee children was deteremined by the bones of their hands), then the hair (as a rule, cut, as a preventive measure when the refugees arrived to their destination points), etc.! The third segment of the project, the third “story” is, actually, the end or - the expected new beginning! More precisely: although horribly forcefully unrooted from their birth places (often from their parents and their close relatives, as well), the refugee children, same as the older ones, were expected to simply go on with their lives - somewhere “there”, in an alien environment, as if nothing had happened!

Janešlieva actually “tests” this thesis by comparing the refuge story to grafting of young trees, that is, she links the artificial “implantation” of children from one environment to another to an equivalent artificial grafting, a “transplantation” of one plant to another! And this “good old” grafting technique, as a rule, functions in practice. The young plants, same as the young children, as a rule, “accept” the graft, they grow and develop, at least, according to the grafter’s plan (?). Since, human kind, same as the trees, is a tough kind! The question is only what remains inside - what marks, what traces are left in the rings, in the souls, in the memories!

5. Referring us back to these not so distant events under the “dark sky of the Aegean region” (12), Janešlieva “pays” (symbolically) our debt to the Aegean trail. She does not leave the “moment of enlightenment” only as a flash and the past only as a futile flow, she precisely and emotionally renders her angle of perception. The timing is probably not perfect because we are now facing the reopening of the complex of questions on human / cultural and other rights of the Macedonians in the region. The Aegean exodus - an event unseen not even in Biblical terms (13) - is an important part of that complex.

Notes:

(1) This Edict outlawed the Protestantism and, actually, caused a forceful displacement of some 500,000 Protestants (Huguenots) from France to other European countries.

(2) It ended up in a refugee wave of some 1,500,000 people to the countries of Europe.

(3) It caused a forceful displacement of one million Armenians from Turkey.

(4) According to some assessments, in that period some two million people were displaced (Palestinians, Jews and others).

(5) Irene Lagani, The Removal of the Greek Children and Greek-Yugoslav Relations, 1949-1953--A Critical Approach, Athens: I. Sideris, 1996.

(6) Greece Civil War, Library of Congress Country Studies.

(7) The Black Book Of Communism. by Stéphane Courtois, Nicholas Werth, Jean-Louis Panné, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek, and Jean-Louis Margolin, H.U.P., Cambridge, MA. 1999. (8) In this context, although not directly related to the particular “Macedonian” variation of this topic, but seen somewhat wider, we mention the exhibition “Artists and Refugees” (curator Melentie Pandilovski) at the Museum of the City of Skopje, 1999.

(9) Zlatko Teodosievski, Janešlieva, (catalogue), National Gallery of Macedonia, 2005.

(10) Ibid.

(11) Petre M. Andreevski, Nebeska Timjanova, Dnevnik / Tabernakul, Skopje, 2007, p. 152. (12) Ivan Čapovski, Crnoto nebo nad Egejot (The Dark Sky Above the Aegean Region), Dnevnik, 20th of September 2007, p. 11.

(13) Ibid.

The EARLY DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN MACEDONIA

In Macedonia photography is still insufficiently studied. To this day not enough facts are known about its arrival, its early days in this region, its development, the people who worked in this field, their ambitions, plans and desires. Unlike film and the emergence of the Manaki brothers (of whom we are proud as the pioneers of cinematography in the Balkans) photography, although older and preceding film by decades, is undeservedly treated as not as sophisticated a medium within culture and the arts.1
In this context, the year 2005 was marked as an important anniversary for Macedonian culture: 150 years of the beginning of photography in Macedonia. In fact this anniversary stems from the fact that in 1855 a Macedonian fresco-painter, Hadži Koste (Kostadin) Krstev, signed his fresco on the wall of the monastery church of St Demetrius in Veles as a “fresco-painter and photographer.”2 It appears that relatively soon after the revolutionary discovery of photography there were people in Macedonia who not only knew about the new invention and practised it, but also drew attention to it in their signatures as their profession, side by side with their basic line of work as fresco-painters. Future research will no doubt prove whether this is the date that can be taken as the beginning of Macedonian photography. Until we know otherwise, we can accept the year 1855 as the first registered piece of information referring to photography in Macedonia.
On the other hand, the emergence and development of photography globally is studied in more detail. Generally everybody agrees that the beginning of photography in the proper sense of the word (disregarding the numerous experiments with the camera obscura) is connected with the name of Nicéphore Niepce and his heliography dating from 1826.3 Since then photography has gone through many technical and technological transformations — up to the present-day full digitalization — and has spread at lightning speed throughout the world as a hobby, profession and art.

Historical Circumstances in Macedonia in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The geopolitical history of Macedonia of this period is well-known. As a territory Macedonia was still part of the Ottoman Empire, even though the military and administrative weakening of the empire aroused the interest of the Great Powers in the Balkan Peninsula to open what became known as the Eastern Question. Macedonia had a special place and significance in this sensitive region, principally because of its central situation in the Balkans, strategic communications and its economic and raw material base. In addition to the Great Powers and their conflicting interests in Macedonia, the newly-established Balkan bourgeois monarchies were soon to join in the “game.”
“In 19th-century Macedonia, the revival and revolutionary national liberation movements developed side by side. The liberal European ideas of the French Revolution (1789) and the Commune of Paris (1871) spread throughout Macedonia and took root among the ideologists and leaders of the national liberation movement as well as the founders of the socialist movement.”4 These ideas, particularly following the Treaty of San Stefano and its revision by the Congress of Berlin (1878), were to be vehemently and vigorously welcomed, as seen in the several unsuccessful uprisings against Ottoman authority, culminating in the Ilinden Uprising (August 1903) under the “inspiring motto of the French Revolution, ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité.’”5 Unfortunately, the Kruševo Republic proclaimed by the Ilinden insurgents lasted only fourteen days.
Following the bloody suppression of the Ilinden Uprising and the massive reprisals, the Young Turk Revolution (1908) brought some hope for a broad national and cultural autonomy. But “the fever of conquest of Macedonia” that overwhelmed the neighbouring monarchies (Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro) resulted first in the creation of a Balkan military alliance between these states, and sometime later in the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913) fought by the same countries against Turkey. The conflict ended by Macedonia’s partition under the Treaty of Bucharest (1913), which was later verified by the Versailles Peace Conference. In fact, “what the three subsequent wars (1912-1918) had left behind was a striking apocalyptic landscape with delineated borders throughout the Macedonian land.”6
In this period Macedonia was predominantly “a land of peasants, craftsmen and small merchants. At the turn of the century, the first forerunners of the capitalist economy began to appear, albeit at a very moderate pace. A process of town expansion and growth into economic centres was also apparent.”7 At the same time, the towns were becoming the hub of educational and cultural life.
For example Bitola was an administrative and trade centre at the time and the seat of the Bitola Vilayet in 1883/84. It appears that “according to Turkish statistical data there were about ten active mektebs (primary schools), at least ten medreses (secondary schools), two Turkish lower grammar schools, a secondary military school, a military academy, a teachers’ training college and several vocational schools, etc.8 At the same time, as a result of the reinforced propaganda of the neighbouring countries, there were numerous Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian schools, educational societies and similar institutions active in Bitola.
After 1851, following the establishment of the diplomatic mission of Austria, diplomatic missions of several other European countries opened in Bitola: those of Great Britain (1851), France (1854), Russia (1860), Italy (1895), Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.9 “The presence of foreign diplomatic missions in Bitola was undoubtedly seen as the presence of Europe in Bitola, particularly in the everyday life and activities of the richer strata of the population. European influences were visible in architecture, music, fashion and in culture in general.”10
As far as Skopje was concerned, the first public Slavonic school was opened as early as 1836-1837. The school network towards the end of the century consisted of “nine Turkish primary schools and one secondary school with 1,400 pupils, four Exarchate schools with 1,166 pupils, two Serbian primary schools with 246 pupils, as well as one Albanian, one Romanian, one Greek and one Jewish school. Skopje also had a secondary girls’ college and a teachers’ training college.11 In this context, in view of the fact that Hadži Koste Krstev originally came from Veles, we should mention that this town was regarded as one of the more developed Macedonian centres not only of trade but also of culture. The rich Veles merchants dealt in hides and other products with Vienna, Leipzig, Pest and other European cities and sent their children to be educated in Salonica, Athens or Constantinople (now Istanbul). Veles was also known for the numerous book lovers or subscribers to various editions printed in Buda, Pest, Salonica and other cities.12

The Beginnings of Photography in Macedonia

The life and work of Hadži Koste (Kostadin) Krstev, the first known photographer in Macedonia to date, are not sufficiently studied; however, his activity as a fresco-painter is better known than his photography. From the available data we know that he was the son of a notable Veles fresco-painter, Krste Pop Trajanovik and that he learnt his trade from his father. He took over some elements from his father’s approach in the painting of figures, although other contemporary influences from the first half of the 19th century are also noticeable.

There is no data about the year of Krstev’s birth, although according to the testimony of Gorgi Zografski (another prominent fresco-painter from Veles) 1894 is usually taken as the year of his death.
From what we know he worked as a painter (icon- and fresco-painting) from 1847 to 1885 in the regions of Veles, Kumanovo and Sveti Nikole. He is also known to have been active in Serbia (Devič and Prokuplje). Together with Gorgi Zografski he worked in the company of Andon Kitanov (1829-1914), a painter, woodcarver and architect.
Regrettably, the only piece of information referring to his activity as a photographer is his signature on the wall of the church of St Demetrius in Veles.13
As far as the early years of photography in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in Macedonia are concerned, some facts are established. For example in Veles we know of the photographic activity of Dime Gočev-Bickin and also that the photographic studio of Damaskin Manušev was opened in 1894.14
Bitola, the city of the Manaki brothers, is believed to have “had a number of photographers with their own studios... in the last decades of the 19th century, such as Atanas [should be Anastas, author’s note] Lozančev, Lazar (Risto) Kermele, Tegu and others. The number of photographers grew particularly in the early 20th century with the opening of the studios of the Manaki brothers, Sotir Pinza, Linara, Papakoč, Topla [should be Tonka, author’s note] Nacka, D. Šožu, Gorgi Moreno, and many others.”15 The photo studio of the brothers Janaki and Milton Manaki (who began working as photographers in Ioannina as early as 1898) opened in Bitola in 1905. We should also mention the imposing body of the brothers’ photographic work, which is still insufficiently known to the public although it includes 18,513 negatives and 17,854 prints!
There is no doubt that the photographic activity of the Manaki brothers — in both quantity and quality — contributed to the swift development and increased interest in photography not only in Bitola but also in the whole of Macedonia. Furthermore, their contribution to the development of photography in the region was by no means negligible, since their work was also connected with, among others, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.
From the 1920s onwards photography was no longer a “miracle” in Macedonia but an everyday occurrence and also a medium for artistic expression.16

Bearing in mind all these facts, we can safely assume that in spite of the extremely complex historical and economic situation of the region, the emergence and development of photography in Macedonia did not lag behind other neighbouring countries. There is no doubt that the first people to photograph the Balkans were travel photographers, who came from different European countries (France, Italy, Austria, Germany...). Some of the distinguished names included Josif Kapilieri, Elias Armin, Guillaume Lejean, Bauer and Gelch.
In the territory of the countries of the former Yugoslavia photography appeared for the first time in Zagreb in 1840 with the activity of the photographer Novaković. Soon afterwards, Anastas Jovanović, a painter and printer, introduced photography in Belgrade. Photography in Ljubljana is connected with the work of Janez Puhar (1847). The first photo-club, one of the oldest in this part of Europe, was founded in Zagreb in 1892.
The first known photograph in Bulgaria was made by a travel photographer in 1851. Indigenous Bulgarian photographers appeared sometime later, including Georgi Dančov, Toma Hitrov, Nikola Hitrov, Petar Todorov Fakirov and Ivan Zografov.17
Filippos Margaritis18 opened the first photographic studio in Athens, Greece, in 1849. Photography became especially popular in the early 20th century and some of the more important names from this period included Eli Seraidari (better known as Neli), Stemos Kasimatis, Spiros Melitis and Voula Papaioannou.

In conclusion, special attention should be paid to the fact that we owe this photographic heritage almost entirely to the efforts, enthusiasm and archives of the Macedonian Centre of Photography and to Robert Jankulovski personally as its founder and manager.

[Notes]

1. This is so in spite of the fact that the Manaki brothers were in effect photographers.
2. The full inscription on the church’s southern wall reads as follows: “Sej obitel obnovisja vo 1855 izobrazi H. Koste zugraf i fotograf” [according to Dimitar Kornakov in Makedonski manastiri (Macedonian Monasteries), Matica Makedonska, Skopje, 1995, p. 207].
3. When dealing with the subject of the appearance of photography in the world, the year 1839 and the achievements of Daguerre and Herschel in this field are most often quoted in the Macedonian literature. Around the world, however, the prevalent view is that Niepce and his 1826 heliography takes precedence (a landscape shot through a window of his home) as the first genuine and permanent photograph.
4. Vera Veskovik-Vangeli, Ph.D., “Fotozapisot na Avgust Leon za Makedonija vo 1913 godina (The Photo Record of Auguste Léon of Macedonia in 1913),” in: Makedonija vo 1913 (Macedonia in 1913) (catalogue), Museum of the City of Skopje, 2001, p. 21.
5. Ibid., p. 22.
6. Ibid., p. 25.
7. Ibid., p. 19.
8. Ivan Jolevski and Marija Kokalevska-Taleva, “Razvojot na prosvetata vo Bitola (The Development of Education in Bitola),” Tvoreštvoto na brakata Manaki (The Work of the Manaki Brothers), Archives of Macedonia and Matica Makedonska, Skopje, 1996, p. 352.
9. See Jovan D. Kočankovski, M.Sc., “Stranski diplomatski pretstavništva vo Bitola (Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Bitola),” Tvoreštvoto na brakata Manaki, Archives of Macedonia and Matica Makedonska, Skopje, 1996, pp. 167-182.
10. Ibid., p. 182.
11. Makedonija vo 1913 (catalogue), Museum of the City of Skopje, Skopje, 2001, p. 39.
12. See Nikifor Smilevski, Hadži Koste, zograf i fotograf (Hadži Koste, Fresco-painter and Photographer), Kinopis, No. 6, Year IV, 1992, Skopje, p. 84.
13. For more on Hadži Koste Krstev see: Hadži Koste, zograf i fotograf, Kinopis, No. 6, Year IV, 1992, Skopje, p. 84-86; Antonie Nikolovski, “Umetnosta na XIX vek vo Makedonija (The Art of the 19th Century in Macedonia)”, Kulturno nasledstvo na SR Makedonija (The Cultural Heritage of SR Macedonia), Republic’s Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Skopje, 1984; Antonie Nikolovski, Makedonskite zografi od krajot na XIX i početokot na XX vek (Macedonian Fresco-painters from the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Century), Republic’s Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Skopje, 1984.
14. Makedonija vo 1913 (catalogue), p. 86.
15. Aleksandar Krstevski-Koška, “Fotografskata dejnost na brakata Manaki (The Photographic Work of the Manaki Brothers)”, Tvoreštvoto na brakata Manaki, Archives of Macedonia and Matica Makedonska, Skopje, 1996, p. 68.
16. We should mention in this context Sonja Abadžieva’s view that “we owe the first one-man show of photographs (on the basis of facts available to date) to Cvetko Ivanov (1908-1984),” but she does not quote the source or document for making this assumption; so it will have to be taken with a reserve. See Ekstenzija na kadarot (The Extension of the Frame) (catalogue), Bitola Art Gallery, 1998.
17. For more on this subject see: Petar Boev, Fotografsko izkustvo v B’lgarija (1856-1944) [Photographic Art in Bulgaria (1856-1944)] , Septemvri Državno Izdatelstvo, Sofia, 1983.
18. Filippos Margaritis (1810-1892) was born in Smyrna (now Izmir). In 1821 he spent some time in Rome, where he studied painting. He worked as a teacher in an Art School in Athens.

ART vs RELIGION

1.
Several years ago, right at the beginning of the new Millennium, the so-called Millennium Cross was installed on the top of Vodno - the hill nearest to the city of Skopje – "to be seen from all over Macedonia", as some used to say! Politically it looked as an act of reconciliation between the state and the church - although it was not! For some people it looked like God finally came to Macedonia - which was also false believe. For the people from other then Christian religions it was an open act of intolerance and xenophobia, of religious violence and symbolic declaration of our negligence for the others!

Several years after the installation of the Millennium Cross another most intriguing religious-oriented public debate took place in Macedonia. Its topic was the dilemma whether to introduce classes of religious education in primary schools or not. Or, if you want - whether to introduce the religion into our lives or not! And once again the "religious question" was mercilessly politicized and brought directly into the Parliament for politicians to decide upon.
And for months this "problem" was in the public focus, but not as an educational or even more cultural matter but as a political one! Which, maybe, is not too strange, since we on the Balkans can make politics out of everything. Although the proposal was related to voluntary religious education, it was considered negative by a surprisingly great percentage of the high-educated population and intellectuals. Like it was the end of the (free) world, like we were going to lose something special, or our beloved and not forgotten old system would finally and irretrievably collapse.
On the one hand, having in mind that for more then fifty years we lived under an atheist regime where religion was not welcomed even in the churches, it is understandable that the politicians - especially older ones - were really shocked by the idea of having religious education in schools. But, on the other hand, it was also shocking to see and listen to young people, intellectuals, even eminent people from the educational and cultural field, talking nonsense in the old fashioned socialistic way. Some of them still find the religion "opium for the masses"!
Of course, the question of religious education - like many other things - has never been a topic for serious discussion among scholars in the Macedonian recent past. If it was then it was in a strictly ideological terms and purposes. That is why we do not really know to separate religion from religious education, church from religious education etc. The principle of secularity and the division between the state and the church has separated the things that much that we have forgotten that religion is one of the fundamental pillars of the civilization. We still consider religious matters as political matters! So when we say that education and culture have long been considered of secondary importance, it is not just a mere statement – it is a fact. We still think in the old one-track-minded way allowing the ideology frames to decide about crucial educational and cultural questions!

2.
One recent Dutch contemporary art exhibition* in the National Gallery of Macedonia was only a motive for this text. Otherwise, there are too many examples how unprepared, how "illiterate" and ignorant we are when it comes to religious matters. As a matter of fact each day we find ourselves in a world of significant messages that we do not understand. So let's for a moment consider art as our guide to the world that is still for us to explore!
Nearly half of the artworks presented on the previous mentioned Dutch exhibition were - in one way or another, explicit or a little bit hidden - connected with the religious themes and meanings. And it was really embarrassing to see that most of the public simply did not understand what it is about, what the works represented or what was the artist's point of view. People looked curiously but a little bit confused, they asked questions trying to understand certain point ... they knew there was "something" beyond the mere artworks, but ... So, in a broader context, a great exhibition became a hermetic one, almost incomprehensible for most of the audience! Simply because we forgot about the educational / cultural gap between Europe and Macedonia when it comes to religious matters.
For example: it takes serious religious knowledge to make the distinction between the Calvinism in the North and Catholicism in the South of Netherlands and how it reflects on the moral frontiers and on certain art thinking; or what the real difference between the Protestants and Catholics is; or what the idea of Life as Punishment means and how "to read" it in an art work (Gijs Assman); or what story lies behind the two simple words Ecce homo (Benoit Hermans) ... etc! Or how to recognize in an artwork (Famke van Wijk) the meaning of the "Christian symbol of water in which in all innocence you wash your hands and blood that was shed to absolve you of your sins"[1]?
And it is not only with this exhibition that we have a "communication" problem! As a matter of fact nearly the same problem of incomprehensiveness or even serious misunderstanding occurs with some sophisticated religious-oriented, or religious focused works of Macedonian or international artists. We simply do not know what to think of it - how to "read" the work, how to deal with its "story"! Actually, every day we are literary bombed with images and words that we do not understand. But we look without knowing what we are looking at, we read but we don't know what we are reading about! And the same issue goes on and on.

3.
But it is not the problem only with the contemporary art. As a matter of fact, contemporary art is only the top of the hill. The problem starts far in the foothill!
For example: when we stand in front of an artwork showing the Crucifixion, what do we see - just a man on cross? When we look at Grunewald's (1480-1530) The Crucifixion from the XVI century, do we understand the meaning of the work, do we comply with the artist's deep feelings about that scene? This work is genuinely religious in many respects, and so is the artist. But, it is everything but a realistic view of the crucifixion! Do we know who are the people around the cross, why the proportion of their figures is as it is, what is the meaning of the objects aside the cross? Can we really understand that the scene "points to the ultimate mystery of that death in which death itself was swallowed up in victory"[2]!
And if we move a little bit closer to our days we may come across El Greco (1541-1614) and his religious art. And if we do not know that he worked "in the era of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, with its desperate battle against the inroads of Protestantism and the Secularism of the High Renaissance"[3], then how do we expect to understand his paintings? It is also important to know that most of his paintings are vertical - a quality that comes from his utmost mystic desire to be unified with God, to be closer to him as much as he can.
Almost everybody will tell you that Rembrandt (1606-1669) unquestionably is one of the greatest painters in the world but very few know that he was also a great believer, very religious man. His art has deep religious insight and his profound studies of the Bible showed noticeable change in his style. The "Biblical humanism" that characterizes his mature work is especially evident in the painting Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, painted in 1656. It is "strikingly simple" but extraordinary painting, calm but deeply moving - one of the many masterpieces where the religious feelings are so subtle, so humanly balanced. But, on the other hand, if we do not know who Jacob and Joseph were and what actually is happening on the painting, then Rembrandts "Biblical humanism" and the significance of his religious message simply miss the point.

4.
So, we all know that art often tends to confront the viewer with some unsuspected things (or qualities) in themselves, some things they never supposed they possessed. Especially religious art confronts the viewer with simple but meaningful stories, stories with sharp human and moral point or sometimes hidden between the lines; religious art often speaks in ciphers and codes, it offers unusual situations and sometimes phantasmagorical solutions; religious art likes "to play" with strange objects and things with double or even triple meaning! It is a whole new world to explore, but only if we have the key to open it. Otherwise we become "lost in translation"!
And this time we talk only about Christian religion. But what if, for example, we find ourselves in front of a Tibetan mandala, or some Islamic iconography?
If we do not know that the arabesque, an aspect of Islamic art usually found decorating the walls of mosques, is based upon the Islamic view of the world, then what do we see? Just forms - floral or ornamental - put together? But to Muslims these forms, taken together, constitute an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible material world. To many in the Islamic world, they in fact symbolize the infinite, and therefore uncentralized nature of the creation of the one God (Allah). Islamic art is centered usually on Allah, and since Allah cannot be represented by imagery ("All you believe him to be, he is not"), geometric patterns are used.
On the other hand, instead of recalling something related to the reality of the spoken word, calligraphy for the Muslims is a visible expression of the highest art of all, the art of the spiritual world. Calligraphy has arguably become the most venerated form of Islamic art because it provides a link between the languages of the Muslims with the religion of Islam.
But, if we do not know all this things, what are we going to do facing this kind of art - simply turn our head away?

5.
So, since we are talking about Europe, religion and religious art are part of the enduring heritage of the West. And when we think about nowadays process of European integration - about education, culture and art as important parts of this integration - we should also consider religious matters with the same seriousness as the political, economic and other integration. Because religion / religious matters are subtle incorporated in the very essence of every day's life of European people. Especially in art! And if we undermine or don't understand that, then we do not understand the European way of life. And then we have a communication problem and communication problems often lead to all other problems!

So, sometimes, the so-called "clash of civilizations" can come not necessarily from outside but from within! We, of course, have to deal with it. The process of European integration will change for better – and it is changing – but it will take time, knowledge and efforts. And still there are no guaranties that things will come in the right place. It is because the key reforms of the system – especially the reforms in the field of culture and education – are being "prepared" by marginal and often semi literal people and self-called experts! People who think only in political terms and ideological frames, having in mind only narrow party or personal interest. What we need is a complete, thorough, systematic reconstruction of the fundamental values through the educational process and art and culture. And the first thing to begin with is the religious education! Because it will not only improve and deepen our knowledge and understanding but it will hopefully re-arise certain moral values and give new meaning to our way of life.

Notes
* Songs of Innocence and Aggression, 2007, (curated by Thom Puckey)
[1] Alex DE VRIES, Songs of Innocence and Aggression: don't look away (text in catalogue)

[2] Marvin HALVERSON, Cristianity and art,

[3] Ibid