Aleksej Daniel Germanovic

A strong tailwind put him in Paris in the year of 1972 ahead of schedule as an
artist, strangely feeling early, and with the time change, many years late.
Impromptu, he was dropped off in a struggled society of Serbia, nearby the
timeless flowing Danubian topos, where, one suffers a perpetual agony of thirst.
Thus is what the water gave him.
The legacy of the conflict, of the dislocation, has created a sort of moral and
aesthetic curtain that the artist can hide behind, a country without memory. Built
on the idea of a haunting poetic strain, one can see also in his vision of
reconstructing the primordial equilibrium, a dangerous, wilful amnesia.

The artist cannot inhabit his truest self in any of the worldly sceneries and if
having not shared his trauma, he will never be a true intimate. Therefore his
places of refuge are the naturalistic, portratistic and religious (eikons) allusions
reflecting in form the essence of lifes greatness; fragility, submission and a
divine wrath which intersperses and overlays texts from Johns Apocalyptic of
the Bible, poetry, philosophy, hermeneia texts.
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Mirror: Passage and Enactment of the Soul

Visual Art and Text Presentation

Polyptych. Six pieces. Nine Meters of Drawing
Mixed Media , ink, gouache, charcoal and gesso on paper
Size: 9.30 m x 2.70 m (1.55 m x 2.70 m each)
Year 2014 2015

Convex or concave to the eye, the reflection depends entirely on how close the
object is to the mirror. The work is itself an amplifying mirror for the subtle or
the luminous body, offered with grace for the viewers assembly. The animated
composition of the Polyptych emerges with opening and enclosure gates, the
Adam and his consort, Eve. In between, the altar of the soul, The Virgin, Christ
and the cherubim. Do not avert the eye! The intention is to reflect the luminosity
of the celestial space, to reflect the eyes of the viewer towards himself.

Therefore, the eyes could create in a simultaneous time, the impression of

distance as well as that of presence, and the work itself, its style and the
iconographical elements wills to create a synthesis of both corporality and
transcendence. Ultimately, the icon, such as a mirror of higher veneration, is
independent of our contingence; it is wished as enigmatic, immanent and
reflective.

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Religion is a contested territory, as not only political, but intellectual and

metaphorical; transposed in art it becomes regulated by ritualistic, rhythmic
connotations. Here the artist is revising an imaginative medium, deus in rebus,
gleaming chaste harsh lines, searching for a fast-track to enlightenment but
weighted down by excess emotional and spiritual heredity (vices that are always
be expected to exist) - the composition is mannered yet the forms are not
conventional.
This would grant, he believes, a fascinating counterpoint, rich powerful and
artistic to those unaware of the immortality of the Soul. His elegantly written
prose and poetical descriptions are as fanciful as a reflection of his artistic
subjects, with a perceptive undertone to each.
The black and white visions provide a fascinating counterpoint to the more
composed, encaustics [from Greek enkaustikos, to burn] used also by the
Mexican Muralists or contemporary painters such as Klees disciple Fritz Faiss,
oils, raisins, waxes, charcoal, frescos, with delicate dabs which capture the
pigment lightness and myriad emotions such as a fragile splendor.

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Nocturno

Polyptych, Six drawings

Mixed Media, paper, charcoal, ink, gold, shellack
Dimensions: 40 x 59 cm each
Year: 2015

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The Sun and the Moon are deeply in love, yet are confused about the origins
of this love: both contemplate the world through a thick mist of unknowing.
Nocturo is an indirect method of narration which places value on lyricism,
mood and reflection beyond phantasy. Through a succession of rare textures
and shapes the cycle of works reveals steady improvement in techniques. These
are minimal views, graphic views which compel a language that is not at all
contemporary with their making. The works stand in a slow exposure molded
by energy and experiment; a parable. The artist is vowed to his spiritual
Orthodox heritage, a tradition he employs in this cycle of works wonderfully
subtle and melancholically. The overall effect is one of mystery and
mystification.

The Sun and The Moon appear magical in a love tandem; they wane and wax
until they invite each other to the eclipse, such in a pleasing love. This love is
an enormous meeting guarded by angels in gratifying pose. They protect and
invite. This moment is fixed in time, irreproducible.

The nocturnal chromatic is romantic, epiphanic, salty, silvery, golden, with dark
and light emphasises. The salt and silver were the main components of
alchemy: silver to react to light, the salt to tame the reaction, as not to let matter
darkening until nothing is left to see. The gold seals the surrealist landscape,
the angelic mandolas and the celestial bodies. The art of fixing gold which the
artist masters offers a type of light for the entire space, a light that reveals
hidden details, the shadows, and the sharp edges - so distinct. The best way
to perceive this light in the artists work, and probably the only way to
rediscover its spectrum, depth, detail and contour is to approach it with the
intent to see introspectively and imaginary.

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Subtle Bodies
2014 2015

The artistic evocation of angelophanies, in which the subtle forms reveal

themselves through iconographical representations, is impregnated with the
need to argument the subtle corporality of angels, archangels and saintly
entities, so often depicted in the early Christian ambiance. They are contoured,
as in the neoplatonic opuscules according to the existence of an intelligible
matter rendered into the mundane through aesthetic convention and
instrumentation.
Les Dessins follow an unusual technique, archaic, sinuous, often
monochrome, which invoke the principle enunciated in Macarian Homilies
according to which, the fine body of the angels, their subtle nature is heavenly
circumscribed. Far from being dogmatically tendentious, the works are an
imaginative construct, (not a dissimulation), a healing instrument of
contemplation towards the celestial.

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Les Trois
Mixed Media, pigments, charcoal, shellack, gesso on paper, 70 x 100

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The One Who Sends the Stars into the Heavens

Mixed Media, pigments, charcoal, shellack, gesso on paper, 70 x 100

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Alongside, one is aware of the significance of the color purple which

represents all good, quintessential things created by the Providence.
This percussive obsession of the artist for purple and gold make
reference to the kingly Romans during the empire, or the Byzantine
Porphyrognntos and much like the yellow for the Chinese
emperors.
The sacred image could lead viewers from the visible to the
knowledge of invisible. Visible things are corporeal models which
provide a vague understanding of intangible things. The inability to
direct our thoughts to contemplation to higher things makes it
necessary that everyday media be utilized to give suitable form to
what is formless, and make visible what cannot be depicted.

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Subtle Bodies. Archangel Micha'el.

Mixed Media, pigments, charcoal, shellack, gesso on paper, 50 x 62

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Subtle Bodies. Pasarea Maiastra

Mixed Media, charcoal, gesso, shellack on paper, 36 x 57
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Kindertotenlieder Metamorphosis
Exhibition, Video Presentation, Performance Museum Macura, Serbia
Technique: Mixed Media on paper, gesso, charcoal, graphite, shellack
Year: 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNHO1FwaTY

Reserved for Moscow Biennale 2015

'Concerning the Kindertotenlieder, Mahler told me, he was sorry that he had to write them,
and sorry for the world that would have to hear them, so frighteningly sad is their content.
The Kindertotenlieder gripped me as the most personal and deeply distressing thing Gustav
has ever done.'
[Natalie Bauer-Lechner]

A group of 428 poems written by Friedrich Rckert in between 18331834,

Kindertotenlieder embodies a lamentation in manic verses on the death of his
two children and his endeavor to revive them to solace. Inspired by this
material, Mahler turned to the medium of orchestral song cycle
(Kindertotenlieder, Rckert-Lieder) as a musical experiment of the immense
drama; he created a philosophical epicenter through the magistral
heterophonic and dramatic accents, within this newly unified homophonicpolyphonic texture.
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This dominant texture presides over the most daunting of his works
(Kindertotenlieder), acquired with a deep sense of ending, as we find in
Pierpont Mongan Library where Mahlers personal musicological studies are
preserved.

The artist absorbs the spiritual afflictions, the spasms of his very personal
agonizing offsprings and draws their release again, into the world of spiritual
consolation: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the mystical stigmata monk and faith
healer, Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, Joseph Brodsky and Rilkes muse, Pavel
Alexandrovich Florensky, or the Neo-Martyr and Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi of
Inconsolable Grief.

Kindertotenlieder vision is pictorially fertilized with golden suns (Goldene

Sonne), the mystic nimbuses (geometric symbols of the heavens) and irises
(flowerings of the eye, the luminous fluid that flows from the eye), hermetic
symbols that stem from Christianity, taken in old illuminations as an allusion to
the Virgin at the Passion of Christ. Metamorphosis from an amorphous
chrysalides noir to a butterfly and intrinsically its maturation and enclosure
(symbol of the mysterious opus of spirit mutation), inspired, along with the
musical-poetic intercourse, the title of the exhibition.

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Works in display at Magacin Museum Serbia

2014 2015

Golden Eye 30 x 20, Golden Sun 12 x 7, pigments, 23.5 K Gold on wood

Year 2012

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View from artists atelier.

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Mixed Media, charcoal, gesso, shellack, on paper, 65 x 80

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Reserved for Moscow Biennale 2015

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Mixed Media, charcoal, shellack, gesso, 23.5 K Gold on paper, 65 x 80

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Macagin Museum, Serbia

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Golden Sun, Mixed Media, charcoal on paper, gold pigment, 23.5 K Gold, gesso, shellack
80 x 120

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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin and Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky

Mixed Media, charcoal on canvas, 50 x 38

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Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi and Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva

Mixed Media, charcoal on canvas, 50 x 38

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Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (detail)

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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (detail)

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Golden Sun I, Mixed Media 32 x 15, pigments, 23.5 K Gold on wood

Golden Sun II, pigments, gold pigments, 23.5 K Gold, gesso, shellack on canvas,
80 x 60

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Oko, diptych, Mixed Media, charcoal, shellack, gesso on paper, 45 x 55

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The Door of Nations

Visual Art and Video Presentation

Year: 2008 2014
Near and below Macura Museum, ervin, Serbia, on the shore of the Danube.

The artist is in search for the elements, the signs as inscriptions and the material
that make up an icon in nature; it comes next to the apokalypsis message that
the film carries. The destinies of the nations are freed in a watery surreal
paysage; water is both biological and the somatic medium of the inside. The
amniotic fluid of the natures womb is this time experimented in compos mentis,
exposed to view and sound.

Three states of water that do not disappear but transfigure.

The advent of new man as prophesied in the eschatological and apostolic text
of St. John is summoned again into the now, as for the gates of the nations be
thus opened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsL9w0FQx6Q

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Untitled

Diptych
Mixed Media. Charcoal, pencil, pigments, gesso and shellack on handmade paper
One unit 80 x 122 cm
Year 2015

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Art is Crucifix

Red Mother of God, Black Mother of God

Egg tempera (pigments), shellack, gold wax and damar on wood
Red gold and Rosenoble,
Year 2010 2015

Tryptich, Christ, 79 x 1,55, St John 60 x 1,55, Mother of God 60 x 155, Mixed media on wood,
oil, pigments, egg tempera, shellack, 23.5 K Gold

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Sainte Genevieve de Paris, 17 x 37x 4

200 years old wood from Hilandar Monastery, Athos
Gold, gesso and egg tempera (pigments), shellack

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Aleksej Germanovic Biography

Serbian, born 1972

2014 Collective Exhibition, Collection and Fashion Presentation with Dragana Ognjenovic,
Magacin Museum, Serbia
2014 Screening of short artistic video The Door of Nations and Presentation of Essay
Mirror - Landscapes of the Self, VIII International Scientific Meeting of Iconography Studies,
Temple of Saint Sava, Serbia
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsL9w0FQx6Q]
2014 CONSPIRACY, Venture Critical Supply, Round Table and Performance of Byzantine
Chant, Participants : Carmelo Romeo, Luciano Trina, Mira Brtka , Radonja Leposavic ,
Aleksej Daniel Germanovi and guests.
2014 Icon of the Holy Virgin Cathedral Church in Obrenovac, Serbia
2014 Exhibition of drawings and discussion on the hagiographies of the Gallic Saints,
Academy S.P.C. - Genevieve Paris - Icons XXI century
2013 Exhibition Homage to Kandinsky for Architectural Studio Smart Art, Moscow
2013 Restoration works in the collection of the Museum Macura, Serbia. Authors: Pravin
Cherkoori, Gera Urkom, Mira Brtka, Aiko Miyawaki
2013 Academy S.P.C. Studies of Gallic Icon of the Saint Genevieve of Paris with Deacon
Srdjan Radojkovic and translation of the Life of the Saint from Gallic French
2012 Exhibition fresco, Temple of Saint Sava, The Crypt, Temple of St Lazar, Serbia
2012 International Collective Exhibition, Museum Macura Serbia, Illumination and Guests
2012 Exhibition Traditional Modern, ULUPUDS, Gallery 73, Belgrade, Serbia
2011 Church of St. Elias (Ubli Herceg Novi), fresco al fresco technique (Monument of the
sixteenth century, not so far vivid), fresco on the Portal of the Church of St. John the
Theologian Petrovac (Monastery of St. Save), Serbia
2011 Solo exhibition, Museum Night CZK St. Banovci, Kindertotenlieder - Metamorphosis
Songs of the Dead Children, Aleksej Daniel Germanovic and guests
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNHO1FwaTY]
2011 Exhibition selection, Military Museum Kalemegdan, Museum, Collection of Museum
Macura, Serbia
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2011 Exhibition, Art Colony Sievo - Pavilion Tvrave - GSLU Ni, Serbia
2010 Art Colony Sicevo, Participants: Prof. Cedomir Vasic , Uros Djuric , Miron Mutaovic,
Alexei Daniel ermanovi , Saa Stojanovi , Mr.Jelena Salinic , Mile Simic , Marija
Stojiljkovic , Nikola Markovic and Neda ukletovi , Tine Hind , Kaori Nakamura and Koichi
Makino
2010 Icons for Church of St. Elijah, Stara Pazova
2010 Exhibition ULUPUDS, Traditional and Modern, Serbia
2010 MIPIM, Salon of Architecture in Cannes, Project Symbiosis
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83IOZ2CBjGo]
2010 Project Symbiotic Architecture, Architecture Salon, Museum of Applied Arts,
Belgrade, Serbia
2009 Collective Exhibition - ULUPUDUS Central Military House, Serbia
2009 Frescoes and Icons commissioned for the Church of Saint Elijah, Stara Pazova, Serbia
2009 Collective Exhibition of Byzantine Icons, Russian Centre of Science and Culture
2009 Collective Exhibition of Paintings, Graphic Sections, ULUPUDUS, Central Military
House, Serbia
2008 Crux Project, Chapel for the Macura Museum, Serbia
2008 Performance Participant in Archaeologists come out into the Light by Klaus Golz
Museum Macura, Serbia, in cooperation with Stalzer Gallery, Wien
2008 Exhibition Ars Altera Pars, Museum Macura Novi Banovci, Serbia
2008 Solo Exhibition Personal Ark, Gallery CZK, Zemun, Serbia
2007 Exhibition with Raif Dizdarevic, Larry CZK, Zemun, Serbia
2007 Exhibition Gallery igota na Zlatiboru and Gallery Pivo Karamatijevi u Priboju,
Serbia
2007 Exhibition Srbobran City Gallery, Serbia
2007 Exhibition part of the Opened Night Museums, Mihailo Pisanjuk, ULUPUDUS, Ruma
Museum, Serbia
2007 Exhibition, Painting and Graphic Sections, Gallery Singidunum, ULUPUDUS, Serbia
2007 Exhibition, Acceleration Tsar Dusan Gallery, ULUPUDUS, Serbia

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2007 Exhibition, Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens, promotion of work and special
recognition from the Greek Crown Prince John Lascaris Arcadia Komnina for contribution
to visual culture
2007 Collective Exhibition Gallery Progress, ULUPUDUS, Serbia
2006 Painting Exhibition, Gallery Piraeus Athens Multicultural Center, International Action
Art, UNESCO, Department of Piraeus and Islands
2006 Solo Exhibition Gallery CZK Stari Banovic, Serbia
2004 Collective Exhibition ULUPUDUS, Gallery Singidunum, Serbia
2004 Traditional Collective Exhibition of ULUPUDUS, Serbia
2004 Solo Exhibition Gallery CZKT, Novi Sad, Serbia
2004 Solo Exhibition, Oil and Encaustic on Panel, Paysages Gallery CZK Zemun, Serbia
2004 Collective exhibition on the occasion of bicentennial Serbian Independence, Gallery
House Vojnovica Ruma, Serbia
2002 Collective Exhibition, Goethe Institute, Serbia
2002 Collective Exhibitions, People's University Ilija Kolarac, Kamerna Gallery, Serbia
[2001, 2000]
1998 2002 Attended the Academy S.P.C. Arts and Conservation, Painting Section
1997 Collective Exhibition, Gallery Scene Crnjanski, ULUPUDUS, Belgrade, Serbia
1997 Study of Orthodox Iconography and Byzantine Chant, Monastery of Archangel
Michael and Gabriel in Kovilju, Serbia
1996 1997 Attending umatovaka School of Painting
1995 Participation Art Colony Prohor Pinski under patronage of V..likovnih of mentor
Dragana Milosavljevi.
1994 Collective Exhibition Gallery, ULUPUDUS, St.Pazova, Serbia
1993 Exhibition of Painting, Curator Nikola Kusovac, ULUPUDUS, St.Pazova, Serbia
1993 Charity Art Exhibition for War Veterans, Serbia
1993 Attends V.. Fine and Applied Arts University, Serbia

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Other Activities:

2014 elivna Icon of the Holy Virgin Cathedral Obrenovcu

2008 Compact Disc, Psalms of David, Project of the Monastery Choir Kovilja, recorded in
RTV Studio, Novi Sad, Serbia
2006 - 2008 Iconography for the Cathedral related to Hilandar Sv.Gora Monastery
2006 Concert of Ancient Byzantine Chant, Ruse, Bulgaria
2005 Mosaic Ship of Salvation, Monastery St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Kovilju,
Serbia
2005 Frescoes, Bogorotica Platytera Heaven, Temple of Apostle Peter and Paul, Donji
Tovarnik Srem, Serbia
2006 Compact Disc, Christmas, Monastery Hilandar, Athos, recorded concert in Athens
and Piraeus, UNESCO
2004 Performance, Mokranjevi Days, Serbia
2004 The Fresco of St. Basil, of St. Portal, Basil of Ostrog in New Banovcima, Serbia
2004 2005 Icons and Frescos, Resident in Monastery of St. Creates. Basil at Sea, Hrusija,
Hilandar Sveta Gora
2003 Concert of Ancient Byzantine Chant, Marta Church of Saint Roch Paris and
Pavilions Sous Bois, Festival l' Imaginaire, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris, France
2003 2004 Iconography, Christ on the Throne, Altar of the Cathedral in Vrbasu, Serbia
2002 Concert of Ancient Byzantine Chant, Opening Ceremony of the Cultural Center,
Moscow, Russia
2002 Frescoes and Icons for St Archangels Michael and Gabriel Monastery, Kovilju
2001 Concert of Ancient Byzantine Chant Helsinki, Ilomanci, Finland
2001 Concert of Ancient Byzantine Chant and Compact Disc, BEMUS, National Museum,
Serbia

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Awards and Distinctions

2007 Award. Special Recognition of the Greek Crown Prince John Lascaris Arcadia
Komnina for contribution to visual culture, Madrid
2006 Award. Piraeus Athens Multi - Cultural Center, International Action Act, Painting
Exhibition, UNESCO, Department Piraeus & Islands
2003 Award. Festival lImaginaire, Maison des Cultures du Monde, Paris, France

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Brief Art Criticism

First and foremost Aleksej Germanovic is a very good friend of mine. I deeply
appreciate his art which is inspired by the creative charge of Orthodox
Iconography and which creates a light journey into the transcendental
abstraction and figuration. Often in his art he employs Christian universal
symbolism and sometimes just plain line and colour. His opus often receives a
third dimension.
I and Aleksej have named our project from 2008, Symbiosis, so that his vision
along with mine, can contribute to the development of this architectural,
philosophical and artistic construct. Symbiosis is philosophically based on the
principles of the Orthodox Christian creed. We had a very good affinity
together and we have shared the results through participation in the
international architectural conferences and exhibitions. There he commenced
from the ideas of his Personal Arka contributing to the concept of Symbiosis
at the philosophical and graphic level.
In addition to the artistic cooperation, we share a beautiful friendship. He is a
man with whom one can often debate cosmic themes that the ordinary rational
spirit cannot comprehend.
Full of life energy and flashes as well as of the desire for constant spiritual
erudition and development, embodying and sharing this attained vision, this is
for certain Aleksej.
May he be blessed with a long life!

Ksenija Bulatovi, Architect

Email: office@cubex.rs
http://www.cubex.rs/
Belgrade
Serbia
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What does that Aleksej Germanovi says about his works?

It tells us that the point is not visible in the figure, but in that invisible located
behind the character and its form. It tells us that we need to give sound to
silence us so that we can hear it and find out yourself. He feels that the
canonical art of creative energy reserves in the world and does not allow her
to go out "another world". Leaving the safe territory of completed forms and
ideals of perfection, Alexei enters into unexplored and unsafe area of the
symbol. It takes courage to leave his obedience to this world and step into the
new. Alexei in his creativity is not looking towards the new aesthetics, the symbol
is in him striving to get rid of symbolism, and this inevitably introduces field
transcendent.
Wood not only represents growth, maturation and crucified Christ. It
communicates with the lower world, the world of shadows and souls of them
that slept. It is not a mythical underworld Tartar light, darkness through which
cast anvil plunges nine days. It is darkness as the area of protection, habitat
shadows bless our loneliness and under whose authority the meeting can
happen.
The circle is not only a symbol of universal, unitary and indivisible. The
beginning and the end. On the bridge, the signs and call. Alexei was able to
feel the flicker of that call and let silence imply that the secret of creativity which
contributes to its truth slow maturation of the universe. The secret of creativity
that seeks a new being.

Novica Babovic, Visual Artist

Email: b_novica@hotmail.com
Belgrade
Serbia
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Acknowledgement

Publisher, Editor, Curator: Carmen Cochior-Plescanu

hriputnamutara@gmail.com
Photographic credits: Milica Tepavac
milica.tepavac@gmail.com
Critic by the courtesy of Ksenija Bulatovi and Novica Babovic
With special thanks to Vladimir Macura, owner of Magacin Museum
where all photos were taken with grace of his amiability.
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