Marko Kulinović is a Novi Sad–based artist who works with affect through painting. His images consist almost entirely of distorted faces with mouths reminiscent of Bacon’s “gaping wounds.” These are agonized bodies, bulging emotions.

 

The work “Destabilization of Isolation No. 1992” belongs to a series dedicated to the period of the breakup of Yugoslavia. The artist himself was a child at the time; however, in this series he reflects on the legacy those events left to his generation. According to the artist, each person creates their own freedom through isolation, yet external factors shake, destabilize, and ultimately dismantle it, forcing the individual to respond to unfolding events.

 

Marko also notes that the depicted figure can be read both as a scream and as a yawn, expressing a polarity of states characteristic of people in times of profound social upheaval.