Since the dawn of civilization, in all cultures and societies, death means an ending. It accompanies us throughout our lives, it is unbiased, and its power is undeniable. It is exactly its power because of which it is usually displayed in various, mostly creepy, shapes and forms in literature, religion and art. Although it does not seem that way at first sight, the notion of death is terrifying to a modern man for many reasons, and his perception of life is completely dislocated. One of our ideals is the eternal youth. In other words, the essence of life is neither to live, nor to glance at the watch, nor to count the days, nor to await something, but to make time stop or at least slow down.  All of this is followed by a fact that millions of cosmetic surgeries and treatments are undertaken annually all around the world. The removal of "flaws" or various genetic researches in laboratories are just a cover behind which the attempt to slow down or to stop the last stage in our lives is hidden; on the other hand, the absurdity and the irony of these and other obsessions and ideals related to death, youth, time and life is that our civilization, whether in a personal or socio-cultural respect, can not imagine life without photography. It is exactly what constantly reminds us of the transience and the end from the first day of its and our existence. Susan Sontag says: "All photographs are memento mori. To take a photo means to participate in mortality, vulnerablity and changeability of another person (or thing). All photographs testify to the relentless melting of time, just by cutting out this moment and freezing it."
Luka Klikovac deals with this, almost mystical, obsession in his two groups of photographs of young people aged between 18 and 30. The first group includes the photos displaying a portrait of a person, while the second group consists of the photos displaying the whole figure on an autopsy table. The eyes of the portrayed directly face the eyes of the observers. Made almost in the manner of "pure photography", these photographs are devoid of any emotion and drama. But this is not the end. Although the photographs are set up on the walls of a gallery, it is not about a typical photography exhibition. On the contrary, in a carefully designed and implemented project of Luka Klikovac, the photos are not the only ones that carry the action, but the entire space of the gallery, which, due to the lighting as well as the white walls and the autopsy table, is transformed into the space of a hospital or a morgue. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal is to show death in a completely opposite way than the expected, abhorrent and terrifying one. The whole concept, in this case, operates on the principal of a trigger, since a common position of the observer is destabilized by entering the space of the gallery as such. Deprived of the simple views and the atmosphere of a gallery, consciously or not, we will start to question ourselves and our perception of life, time, duration and, above all, unnatural fear of death.

 

Jelena Matic