The painting “Where are you, Gvozden”, 1999 (B 30), is one of the paintings, painted as an homage to the great artist, and one that Borčić particularly appreciated and took as a base on which he built his work going forward. “Where are you, Gvozden” is a paraphrase of the painting by Miodrag Mića Popović “Gvozden Has Crossed the Zebra Crossing”, which is also part of KGLU collection. In the foreground of the painting is Gvozden, standing with a loaf of bread in his right hand and another slice of bread in his left, with him just about to put it in his mouth. Miodrag Mića Popović attached the pole of a traffic sign onto the painting, thus reiterating the motif of the zebra crossing in blue and white. In several parts of the painting, the paint stands out in relief, particularly in the shapeless mass that Gvozden is holding in his right hand. Miodrag Mića Popović made the painting according to the principles of mimetic illusionism in a linear perspective. A similar way of constructing such a composition was explored in detail by Borčić in the “Shells” cycle – at the exact same time Popović created the painting “Gvozden Has Crossed the Zebra Crossing”. However, more than the linear perspective, which is restated in his painting with the triangle motif, Borčić was interested in the traffic sign pole, which he also attached to the image. Unlike Popović’s ready-made, however, Borčić’s is a wooden replica.

Text: Jernej Kožar