Ognjen Tadić – Lesný duch / movie premiere

The premiere of a short film by a young Serbian artist Ognjen Tadić created during a two-month residence within the project  KAIR Košice Artist in Residence. In his work, the author was inspired by the local story of Roman Anděl about the revelation of a forest spirit during camping near Bukovec and at the same time a Slavic legend of a forest demon named Leshy. The film itself focuses on the social life of the spirit – the relationship of a son who seeks acknowledgment of his father in completing daily duties, while fear and uncertainty prevent him from reaching the other side of the forest in which he could find complete independence. Through a fictional story, we can look into the life of a young forest spirit.

Ognjen Tadić (*1996) is currently studying photography at the Academy of Arts at the University of Novi Sad. Trough his work he tries to convey the feeling of simple joys in life, as well as humor portrayed in the day-to-day situations. The themes in Ognjen’s work are personal as much as universal. He is largely focusing on the aspects of play and entertainment through the invention of bizarre and quirky characters and situations. He is also dealing with the beauty of boyhood and all the changes that come with it. He seeks inspiration in naive art and looks up to artists such as Bernard Faucon, Michael Northrup, Piero Piccioni, Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, etc. Ognjen’s artistic works are comprised of paintings, photographs, cartoons, and short films.

The residency program is supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council. The stay is also supported by Creative Industry Košice. The residency is organized in cooperation with Plants AIR, the program of Novi Sad 2021. The outcome of this residency is organized in cooperation with Kino Úsmev.