Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Breda Beban e Hrvoje Horvatic

With a special vídeo exhibit Videobrasil pays a tribute to the brillant career of these two Yugoslav artists who conquered the world

The collective work of Hrvoje Horvatic and Breda Beban is unique example of artistic expression. Using vídeo resources. Not only because it parts away from all those hi-tech yticks peculiar to the special effects aesthetics prevailling in contemporary videoarte, but basically because it creates its own universe intrinsically knit with the cultural traditions of old Yugoslavia, the birth country of both artists. Consequently, through the use of vídeo`s revolutionary language, their aesthetics preoccupations turn to the tradition of European films, inspired by directors such as Bresson and Godard. In other words, they seek to give new form to the traditional expressions of European history and culture through the accumulation of their own information, which comes not only from films, but also from literature, music and philosophy - and this is teh reason they are set so apart from the resto f the videomakers community. This is why their work on vídeo, shown for the first time in the late 80s, has been Always considered as an encouragement to the European manifestations in general.

Breda and Hrvoje`s unique path into the art world reveals how it became possible to attain this type of artistic language and expression. When, as of 1985, both started to work together. Breda, born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, in 1952, spent parto f her childhood in Skopje, capital of Macedonia, where she was able to live amid the of Byzantine art and architecture which later greatly influenced her work.  Gratuated by the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, she began her career as a painter in 1978. Influenced in the beginning by conceptual and minimalistic ideas, she soon found herself confornted with her own culture, specially with Byzantine art. In the early 80`s she painted huge canvases that occupied whole walls to which she added the light of flames, an idea taken from medieval monasteries and which already showed her great concern with lighting. These were her first naive manifestations os artistic installations. In 1984/85, with the DAAD, she pursued her post-graduate studies at the Hochschüle der Künste in Berlin, whre she began to mix painting with performances as a means of investigating her presence in the creative process.

In the meantime, Horvatic followed other paths. Born in Rijeka in 1958, also in old Yugoslavial, he gratuated in the 1984 from the Zagreb Academy of Theater, Cinema and Television. Between 1979 and 1984 he dedicated himself to the directing 16mm short films, exploring an experimental aesthetics influenced by European and American vanguard art film. At the same time, he worked with theater and televiosion which provided him with great deal of experience in these techniques, specially with regard to the actor`s role in terms of performance and presence – a concern vastly explored in his work with Breda.

The first meeting between the two og them occured during a performatic presentation by Breda for a small number of guests, to which Horvatic showed up with a vídeo câmera. The next day they were already working together. They set off from a fortunate combination of complementary talents and resources to find two. Inexhaustibles sources of ideas and artistic ideals. The fusions of fine arts and performance with vídeo language and resources – the controlo f light, the possibility of editing and the presence of the time elemento – unveiled a whole new universe of production.

The most importante is that both stated to work with vídeo not only as a tool for documentations, but as a means of expression.. As of 1985, with their vídeo Plan, the work of Horvatic and Breda evolved and proliferated in many diferent forms, manifesting itself not only television programs. In 1991, pressed by the political situation of Yugoslavia, they left the country precipitating a natural evolution of their work, given the international recognition they both had acquired. They began to presente installations in renowed exhibition halls with their artistic expressions also following a more universal significance. In 1994 both artists came to São Paulo – invited by Videobrasil – where they presented the installation The Sahpe of Pain, through wich the Brazilian public was able to witness the resulto f the alchemy between Breda Beban`s fine arts talents and Horvatic`s talento as a videoartist. His premature death last year abruptlu ended their cycle of join work as partners.

This year, with Breda Beban`s personal participation, their collective work is being honored with the presentation of five productions: Absence, She Said (1994), Jason`s Dream of The Present (1997), Talkins on a Name (1987), Geography (1989), and Hand on the Shoulder (1997).

ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL, "12th Videobrasil": 22nd September to 1998 a 11th October 1998, pp. 35 and 37, São Paulo, Brazil, 1998.