Field trip to the death-mask maker Viktor Gojkovič
An account by Jani Pirnat, the Domestic Research Society's member (CCP3), written on September 18, 2017.
Getting out of a comfort zone
From the research of death masks in Slovene public collections (museums, libraries, archives) the Domestic Research Society's (DRS) members found it necessary to research the nowadays practice of casting of the death masks. The first part of our research was limited to public cultural institutions and was focused on the status of a death mask as museum object and its historical role in the formation of national identity. Nevertheless, one of our initial research questions was: Is this practice nowadays obsolete?
In the next stage of our Casting of Death research we moved closer to the practice and visited Viktor Gojkovič, the sculptor who has been actively practicing the casting of death masks. For the CCP3 this was a move from a safe environment of the depots and public displays to the situations closer to actual practice. Another, even closer step is planned as well: We haven't been present at the actual casting of a death mask from the dead body yet but such a field trip has been planned and currently we are on a standby for the first chance.
Addressing contentiousness of contemporary death-mask making
Visiting the sculptor that still makes the death masks might bring us closer to what can be considered contentious about them today. Western society is generally alienated from the actual death, from the real corpse. Thinking about touching a dead body fills people with unease. The goal to take the last image of a deceased person invokes a kind of piety in people towards the dead person. Is there anything problematic in how the handling of a dead body is performed by the sculptors or pathology and morgue staff?
With the intent to document and record (audio & video) the visit to Viktor Gojkovič and his first-hand experiences, a few of the CCP3 members went to his studio in Ptuj on 26th of May 2017. He has been casting death masks since 1964 when he cast his deceased grand mother and since than he said he has made more than 200 masks of his relatives, friends, locals, church officials and renowned people from culture, politics and sports. In his studio he stores his personal collection of death masks and manipulates them in personalized artistic compositions and sculptures.
Co-producing in a creative way
The field trip was made by the following CCP3 members: Jani Pirnat (DRS, art historian and contemporary art curator), Damijan Kracina (DRS, sculptor), Janez Polajnar (City Museum of Ljubljana, historian and museum curator), and assisted by Blaž Bajič, the WP2 ethnographer. The crew was joined by Janja Gojkovič, the sculptor's daughter and a collaborator of the City Museum of Ljubljana:
Getting out of a comfort zone
From the research of death masks in Slovene public collections (museums, libraries, archives) the Domestic Research Society's (DRS) members found it necessary to research the nowadays practice of casting of the death masks. The first part of our research was limited to public cultural institutions and was focused on the status of a death mask as museum object and its historical role in the formation of national identity. Nevertheless, one of our initial research questions was: Is this practice nowadays obsolete?
In the next stage of our Casting of Death research we moved closer to the practice and visited Viktor Gojkovič, the sculptor who has been actively practicing the casting of death masks. For the CCP3 this was a move from a safe environment of the depots and public displays to the situations closer to actual practice. Another, even closer step is planned as well: We haven't been present at the actual casting of a death mask from the dead body yet but such a field trip has been planned and currently we are on a standby for the first chance.
Addressing contentiousness of contemporary death-mask making
Visiting the sculptor that still makes the death masks might bring us closer to what can be considered contentious about them today. Western society is generally alienated from the actual death, from the real corpse. Thinking about touching a dead body fills people with unease. The goal to take the last image of a deceased person invokes a kind of piety in people towards the dead person. Is there anything problematic in how the handling of a dead body is performed by the sculptors or pathology and morgue staff?
With the intent to document and record (audio & video) the visit to Viktor Gojkovič and his first-hand experiences, a few of the CCP3 members went to his studio in Ptuj on 26th of May 2017. He has been casting death masks since 1964 when he cast his deceased grand mother and since than he said he has made more than 200 masks of his relatives, friends, locals, church officials and renowned people from culture, politics and sports. In his studio he stores his personal collection of death masks and manipulates them in personalized artistic compositions and sculptures.
Co-producing in a creative way
The field trip was made by the following CCP3 members: Jani Pirnat (DRS, art historian and contemporary art curator), Damijan Kracina (DRS, sculptor), Janez Polajnar (City Museum of Ljubljana, historian and museum curator), and assisted by Blaž Bajič, the WP2 ethnographer. The crew was joined by Janja Gojkovič, the sculptor's daughter and a collaborator of the City Museum of Ljubljana:
- Blaž Bajič, the WP2 ethnographer helped to structure a comprehensive anthropological questionnaire on the sculptor's practice from which we can deduct some scientific conclusions. Unfortunately he couldn't attend the field trip due to health issues.
- Damijan Kracina, a sculptor himself enabled a convincing artist to artist bridge that enabled Mr. Gojkovič to have an open discussion on the casting practice itself as well as on his influences.
- Janez Polajnar, a historian and curator of Intangible Heritage in the City Museum of Ljubljana was video recording the interview ensuring that the material will become part of the museum documentation and will be preserved on a long-term basis.
- Janja Gojkovič, our acquaintance, Viktor's daughter and herself a conservator working mostly for the City museum of Ljubljana, was coordinating the visit and preparing her father for the interview.
- Me, Jani Pirnat was coordinating the actual visit within the studio and conducting the interview after collecting the questions by the other CCP3 members.
We documented (audio, video, photo) the visit to the studio and the interview with Mr. Gojkovič. The documentation will be used in the post production as a material for the Casting of Death exhibition (Match Gallery, November 2017) with his prior consent. He agreed to lend some of the masks from his collection for the time of the exhibition, which was also the result of the trust that we as a group were able to gain.
Benefiting from the creative co-production model
In this regard it is interesting to look at the role of the artists or art collective (DRS). What have we added to the research of such "borderline or ignored topic"?
Apart from facilitating and mobilizing both professionals and lay public, addressing them trough various means, we find the creative co-production model a level up in the research organisation: The core group common strategies have been developed by bringing in the experience from all fields of expertise.
Creative co-production model proved to be most helpful in order to prepare for the visit. Collaboration of an anthropologist, a sculptor, a historian and a family member proved to be beneficial for establishing a noninvasive creative climate and approach while keeping the professional level that has led into a further collaboration with the sculptor for the purposes of the DRS exhibition.
The creative co-production within the TRACES project enabled DRS and our collaborators to establish a trustworthy position in the research dealing not only with the content, but also supported by a common methodology that secured an ethical approach. As artists in the project we used the DRS' general public recognition, our vast social network and our specific knowledge on the craft itself (casting) in order to conduct the interview in a unique and revealing way. Such results would be difficult to obtain in through an isolated disciplinary approach (either artistic or scientific). To quote Tal Adler: "We were talking sensibilities there."
Challenging the artist's role
This account, however, summarizes our experience from the pre-production, i.e. the "backstage" phase of the Casting of Death project. The preparation of the public exhibition in a contemporary art space presents a challenge on the level of authorship (how are we going to organize and name the collaboration between the DRS as the CCP3 artist (and producer!) and Viktor Gojkovič, another artist? And how are going (if at all) meet the expectations from the other, non-artistic CCP3 members? Do we really need to provide an "artistic interpretation" of the death-mask phenomenon?
Jani Pirnat
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