In his recent pop-up exhibition, Filip Koludrivic, Creative Director at Vogue Adria, investigated the performativity and intimacy intertwined in the sport of wrestling. As pointed out by Roland Barthes in ‘The World of Wrestling,’ the athletes of this scenographic discipline are masters of reproducing episodes of combat that evoke mythological scenarios, making them seem spontaneous and not studied at all. What we witness is the reproduction of passion, a performance where immediate, physical connotations merge with deeper, social and emotional meanings, forming a multilayered tapestry.
Combat is seen as a medium to channel and communicate passions and emotions and to discuss the erosion of intimacy through voyeurism in this consumerist and performative society. In the basements of the Red Star stadium, Koludrivic captures the athletes in their own surroundings—the locker rooms, the showers—and reveals the contradictory nature of this performative sport, where the line between public and private, intimacy and exposure, blurs. This iridescent dynamic can also be seen in the encounter between the photographer and his subjects: “It s like a dance, sometimes more sensual, sometimes sharper, but it all translates into the photograph,” says Koludrivic in conversation with artist Ivana Ivkovic.
The muscular, tactile nature of the sport is communicated not only through the iconography but also through the careful selection of materials chosen by Koludrivic, together with art director and stylist Marko Cerketa. The photographs, developed on transparent film rolls, were chemically transferred onto fine silks and then screen-printed by hand onto over 50 different types of materials and fabrics. “Marko Cerketa, who has been with me on the project from the beginning as art director, took me to textile stores where we found amazing fabrics and scraps from major fashion houses in Italy,” says Koludrivic. “Darko Sretić helped me create custom wooden frames on which these fabrics were stretched, creating a hybrid of photography, graphics, canvas, and object.”
‘Wrestler’ was exhibited at Non Canonico Gallery, May 31st and June 1st by appointment.
Wrestlers Aleksa Ilic Luka Vuckovic
Documented by Filip Koludrovic in Belgrade 2023.
Styling by Marko Cerketa
Skin Marija Stosic
Artwork photography Darko Sretic Pamphlet Design Dragana Krtinic
