Please join the Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture and the Harriman Institute for a book launch and round table discussion of Tomislav Gotovac - Life as a Film Experiment, the first book published in English on legendary Yugoslav-Croatian artist Tomislav Gotovac, written by Slobodan Šijan, and translated by Greg de Cuir Jr and Žarko Cvejić. Along with the author of the book, Slobodan Šijan, participants at the round table are Pavle Levi (Stanford), Dijana Jelača (Brooklyn College), and Petar Milat (MAMA, Zagreb). The discussion will be moderated by Aleksandar Bošković (Columbia).
Tomislav Gotovac (1937-2010) was one of the most important Croatian and Yugoslav artists of the second half of the 20th century. He has left an indelible trace in the domains of film, visual art, and performance and has exerted a major influence on several generations of artists. In the last fifteen years, there has been a surge of interest in his pioneering oeuvre, and his work has been shown at important exhibitions and museums worldwide.
With this monograph, Slobodan Šijan, a renowned Serbian film director and one of artist’s closest friends, pays homage to Gotovac and his singular understanding of cinema.The book comprises almost 400 pages and its 48 chapters function as 48 movie-like “frames” of analysis, quotes, and commentaries, but also as an attempt at understanding some of the processes that shaped the films of Gotovac and informed his artistic methods. Šijan makes extensive use of his own memories, narration, testimonies, and archival materials. His creative combination of these materials results in a book about one artist, written by another artist, in an uniquely artistic way.
