Interview: Natasa Krstic
Luca Curci talks with Natasa Krstic during CONSCIOUSNESS, second appointment of ANIMA MUNDI 2024, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

Natasa Krstic (Nataša Krstić) is a freelance artist from Belgrade, Serbia, who graduated in 1996. from the Faculty of Fine Arts, a member of the Association of Applied Artists, the Textile and Contemporary Clothing section, and the Association of Fine Artists, painting section. Natasa is engaged in fine arts, fashion and writing, creates fashion from painted silk and recently broke the FASHION IN ACTION brand, participated in shows at fashion week in Belgrade and Novi Sad and exhibited independently at more than ten exhibitions and numerous collective exhibitions. She worked for two years as an assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts on the subject of drawing and painting. Natasa is the winner of two annual awards of the Association of Applied Artists of Serbia and the winner of the major award of the Association of Fine Arts of Serbia. She builds her creative identity inspired by all kinds of art and cultural heritage, theory of culture, art and philosophy. The main driving forces behind her creations are imagination and intellect.

Luca Curci – What is your background? What is the experience that influenced your work the most?
Natasa Krstic – The background of my work and the experience that influenced me most strongly are my many trips to Paris which I have been going to since I was eight years old, when I visited this incredible and magnificent city for the first time. It was in 1980. The spirituality and aestheticism of this city are unique. Gradually getting to know the city and the museums awakened the desire to learn and understand the history of art philosophy and cultural values. Paris inspires you to dream and to build deep intellect, to become a real intellectual. Especially Paris in the eighties and before that, in the sixties, but I was not born in the sixties. Huge changes affect city nowadays, but it is still an inspiration, with numerous galleries, interesting literature and many other beautiful things , with huge fashion industry, with different art styles and poetics. A visit to the exhibition KLEE AND THE MUSIC at the Center Pompidou in 1980 marked my first encounter with abstract painting and the birth of my two great loves – Paris and art. Visits to the other exhibitions were also important for me, especially the works of the impressionists, Picasso and Matisse. Contemporary art in the Gagosian gallery and in smaller Parisian galleries influence the modernization of my expression. The street itself, windows, shops and department stores were the inspiration for creating the specific aesthetics of my paintings. Journals like Vogue and Numero with their photography are great inspiration for me. At the moment I follow three painters: Katherine Grosse, Sterling Ruby and Mary Weatherford. The need for beauty and aesthetic value are the most important drivers of my poetics. These tendencies were born under the influence of the spirit, culture and aesthetization that ruled Paris in the eighties, as well as under the influence of different aesthetics of the fashion industry and art history. The relationship between fashion and art is key to my poetics. Fashion inspires me to create fine art and fine art inspires me to create fashion.

LC – Which subject are you working on?
NK – My biggest inspiration is female identity, all those roles and faces that I recognize and feel in myself and that I carry with me. Also important to me is the relationship with nature and culture as well as the human ability to fantasize and dream, which is also a feature of Femina, of the female soul. Beaty, imagination and love are the essences of a woman’s way of thinking and a woman’s universe. Ives Saint Laurent said: “There is no elegance without elegance of the heart”. The relationship between the past, present and future is becoming very important to me. I want to analyze it through the relations of mythology, the Renaissance, and the Baroque with contemporary everyday life. I am also interested in the relationship between the cultures and values of the East and the West. A great inspiration for me is fashion photography in which all the above questions are relevant. I am equally interested in storytelling with figuration as well as abstract painting.

LC – Did your style changed over the years? In which way?
NK – My style has changed a lot over the years. In the beginning, it represented a combination of emotions and artistic values, and later it became aestheticized. Now I try to harmonize and develop all the features and qualities of my poetics. In my poetics the aesthetic is essential. Elements of art language form an aestheticized composition.

LC – Which are themes do you pursue? What is your preferred subject, if there is any?
NK – The essential common theme and value of all the works is sense of freedom – the freedom of women, free existence and the way in which it is realised in relation to nature and female identity, with our imagination in which parallel aestheticized worlds arise, in relation to travel through time. Rei Kawakubo said that freedom is the driving force behind her creativity. Fashion and fashion photography is a creative act based on freedom. In this context, freedom and artistic expression are equal values.

LC – How do you choose your subject? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
NK – I choose topics and create concepts for a reason, connected with current events and the world we live in, with our reality and the truth about it. That truth is not political but subjective, it refers to everything that essentially pervades us, that pervades existence in the modern world. I am also interested in the relationship between contemporary art and art history, the foundation on which contemporary art rests and the nature of its relationship with the history of art. The result of my research is a poetics that emphasizes the social responsibility of art and aesthetics and their role in creating a better world.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
NK – The theme and concept of my last solo exhibition coincided with the themes you gave for the exhibition last winter- Mixing identities and Future landscapes. That is the reason why I applied at first. When I saw our concepts match, I decided to apply. The painting shown at the Anima Mundi exhibition examines the relationship between identity and the cultural, psycho-social, and urban climate in the modern age. The painting is inspired by the legend of the fairies from Slavic mythology and is called Fairies in the Forest (or Forest Fairies). The composition examines the identity of a modern woman and the idea of female solidarity. The Anima Mundi soul of the world can not be attributed only to natural forces, but also to spiritual principles. The connection of body and soul as well as spirit and nature is achieved through the symbolism of fairies. Fairies are symbolic of modern women and it is believed that fairies are good to people and that is why their existence is related to the creation of the sacred world. They are strong, fair, free-spirited. They help people in need and bring prosperity.

LC – Can you explain something about the artwork you have in our exhibition?
NK – The exhibited painting represents the beginning of a new cycle inspired by Slavic mythology and mythology in general. The painting illustrates the myth of assembly and ritual of the fairies in the forest. The goal of this painting and the new cycle is an aesthetic and artistic experiment by creating narrative scenes with symbols of flora, fauna and imaginary creatures from mythology. The idea is to draw a parallel between the value system of the modern world and mythological traditions from the past. The painting was inspired by the Dior Secret Garden photo from the advertising campaign of the Christian Dior fashion house.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
NK – I would recommend collaboration with you to other artists, and I certainly will. The opening was nice, the space is nice, the exhibition is of high quality, the organization is good.

LC – What are your suggestions about our services? Is there something more we can provide to artist?
NK – As I understood, Itsliquid connects artists with buyers, gallerists and collectors. That would be my expectations. I used to make paintings for hotel rooms once, I wonder if you can provide such opportunity.