Lidija Delić

In her new series of works, Tropiques Nord, Lidija Delić reveals paintings on canvas and drawings, conceptually developed around discursive representations of tropical landscapes and the idea of their de(re)construction. The paintings were made during and after her participation in an artist-in-residence programme in Iceland in 2017, while the installation exhibited here is inspired by the famous ethnographic story Tristes Tropiques (Sad Tropics) (1955) by Claude Lévi-Strauss; describing the anthropologist’s travels across the territories of the Mato Grosso area in Amazonia.

In a free semiotic game, the author takes the motive of hidden reality from the 19^th century romantic painting. The ambient in the Tropiques Nord paintings often contain human figures wrapped in mystical ethereal landscapes of altered states of matter, within which natural elements of air, water, earth and light are in circulating fluidity. On the other hand, exploring the form of the standard legend of the heroic quest in Levi-Strauss’s Tristes Tropiques, the horsemen in these paintings are in an associative relationship with venturesome travels of explorers and their companions, often unknown individuals of vague contours, away from reality.
Miloš Zec 

Lidija Delić received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2015. Since 2012 she has worked actively as a member and organizer of the U10 Art Space. She was awarded a prize for drawing by the Gioielli di Carta Auction House, Rome (2010). Her works are part of the collection of the ING Bank in Amsterdam. She has exhibited at several group and solo exhibitions in the country and abroad, including the solo exhibition Sunset Journeys, Circuloquadro in Milan (2017) and the group exhibitions (with the U10 Art Collective) Parallel Vienna 2015, Alte Post in Vienna (2015) and LISTE Art Fair in Basel (2015). In 2017, Lidija represented Serbia at the 18^th International Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean (BJCEM) in Tirana.