The Dark Man
Concept
2012/2020
“The Dark Man” is a polymedia artistic project and the result of years of artistic research and practice in the field of performance and contemporary media, realized as a doctoral research project at the University of Arts in Belgrade. Through various artistic forms, the project investigates the inner processes through which a sense of guilt is formed within the human psyche.
Drawing on the poetry of Sergei Yesenin and the multi-layered cinematic poetics of Stanley Kubrick, the project is conceived as a spatial installation that creates a collage of audience interaction, live performance, and multimedia visual experience. Beyond its poetic concepts and aesthetic layers, visual, auditory, physical, and performative the project examines the totality of media expression, both live and recorded, and the dynamic interplay between them within a unified artistic structure.
Rooted in a conceptual exploration of guilt and conscience, The Dark Man functions as a generative research platform. From this research process emerged a series of independent artistic works, performances, video pieces, installations, and multimedia experiments that stand as autonomous artworks, while remaining directly connected to the core idea, conceptual framework, and poetic language of the original project.
The creative process led to the development of the multimedia installation Cube, which serves as the conceptual and spatial foundation of The Dark Man project. Due to its polymedia nature, the project is structured through several interrelated components: video production, spatial design and construction, sound design, digital animation, work with the actor, and the stage direction of the entire work.
TDM Works
The visualization of Sergei Yesenin’s poem “The Dark Man” set out to examine the relationship between different artistic media, such as poetry and video. This interplay opened up a range of conceptual questions and, to some extent, established the aesthetic atmosphere of the entire project, as time would later reveal, it also left a lasting imprint on many subsequent works.
The Dark Man is a polymedia performance rooted in years of research on guilt, conscience, and media hybridity. Combining poetry, film, performance, and installation, it explores the inner formation of guilt. Influenced by Yesenin and Kubrick, the project shaped a unique aesthetic and inspired further collaborative works across contemporary multimedia practices.
Video material from The Dark Man is recontextualized within a new artistic concept, where it takes on a performative role equal to other media forms.
Rooted in the conceptual atmosphere of The Dark Man, a new musical composition was created and fused with original video material, transforming both into a unified performative experience.
Transitioning from its performative origin, the video is reimagined within a musical framework, generating a new dynamic between visual rhythm and musical structure.
Transitioning from its performative origin, the video is reimagined within a musical framework, generating a new dynamic between visual rhythm and musical structure.
