Cleaning in front of yours own doorstep by Lj. Jelisavac - Blic / 29.February 2ooo I keep asking myself whether it's shameful to be good and loving. We need to take the atom of pureness with us from childhood. The older we get, the dirtier we are. Rejecting beauty on purpose.
	Whilst his exhibition in the gallery of the Belgrade Youth Center is slowly coming to an end, Dejan Kaludjerović is completing his military service in Svilajnac. As usual, life imitates art... Kaludjerović's reaction to life nowadays started when he began copying car maps on which he printed children's drawings. He then had the idea to make an exhibition of politically engaged maps. But, as an artist, he went even further, and precise diagrams grew into specific landscapes of eyes or the inside of a TV. Trough these, he actually asks questions about this century, very progressive in terms of technological advance, but at the same time, maybe the most bloody century in history. Since he is aware of the fact that one needs to clean in front of one's own doorstep first he includes family photographs into this environment. "I think everyone should investigate their own past, their personal "atlas" and circulatory system" says Kaludjerović, who believes that the masses of personal data in the prism of the collective maps leads us to the most important thing on earth - Christian love.
"First and foremost I search for this love within myself. It is necessary to go back and reassess where we are". He answers our question: "So where are we, then?" with doubt: "I keep asking myself - is it shameful to be good and loving?" and he adds: "However unimportant isolated life episodes may seem to us, they may be the story of our parallel reality" says the author, who's incorporates motives like EVA sardines, the brother and sister from the chocolate wrapping, and the three piglets into his work. He also turns MTV into "Monkey TV". There is a lot of irony in his work, but also respect for tradition, he comments on kitsch, but also shows identification and empathy for that phenomenon: He is revolting against the culture surrounding us and the fake glamour we are being served on a daily basis. He is also revolting against the fact that we are rejecting beauty on purpose. Some of his drawings are, in fact, embroideries made out of a fishing line on canvas, like a reflection of the longing for patience and peace, or a roll-call to all people's lives, to show more interest in their own lives, even go back into childhood. "...because personal and objective worlds overlap, everyone can find themselves there.The older we get, the dirtier we are." Says Dejan. One of his most eye-catching paintings shows Tito's "pioneers" /all children in communist Yugoslavia were automatically enrolled in this youth organization/ in front of a cross. The painting has a background with stars, which evokes the famous fresco of the crucifixion in Studenica. The "Pioneers", like his other paintings, tells a story of what we are, and testifies of the importance love plays in the authors life. "I inhale life, and it appears - transformed - in my paintings. We can always take a negative stance towards things, but it is more important to know what really happened, so we can go on" explains Kaludjerović.