SNAP SYMBIOSIS

Text about the work of the artist Sašo Vrabic
by Božidar Zrinski, curator in International Centre of Graphic Arts

The life of the individual in contemporary society is more than just an easy journey from 
Point A to Point B; it is often interrupted by extraordinary moments, which may result from a 
quick decision or reaction to something in the living environment or which may occur as a 
quiet flash of thought or feeling.

Such moments are unique to each individual. It is not possible for a group of people to share 
the same exact moment, or if they do, then the experience of it is different for each of them. 
For the moment possesses its own real memory code, a kind of DNA, linked to the private 
feelings of the individual at the time the moment is preserved. This code makes it possible to 
re-experience the moment anew every time it is read, and also prevents the moment from 
being erased.

In addition to human thoughts, there also exists an entire range of other vehicles that preserve 
and mediate moments. Among these vehicles are images, which reach the individual through 
various media, whether by chance or careful targeting. A moment preserved and mediated in 
this way does not have a real memory code, since the media cause it to be erased by disabling 
the personal experience of the viewer, which is needed for such moments to be preserved. 

That the preservation of a given moment is extremely important for ideological, economic, or 
other reasons is demonstrated by the media’s ability to create virtual memory codes, which 
originate through the simulation of the viewer’s experience of preserving a moment. 
Examples of such simulation include the live, on-the-scene transmission of events: sports, 
military interventions, or the examination of the private life of an individual. Through the 
repeated reading of a moment, a virtual memory code can cause the experience of reality to 
become unreal, and vice versa.

Extraordinary moments are a constitutive part of Vrabic’s artistic creation. He finds them in 
film scenes, video recordings, and photographs of various private events. He has adapted the 
recording of these moments to the speed and immediacy of everyday life, so that it seems that 
the snap photograph (experimental, quick, and random) has become the ideal way for him 
both to record moments and to mediate them to the viewer. Vrabic’s snap photographs 
frequently originate from a frozen video recording, with the computer’s “Print Screen” key 
functioning like the shutter button on a camera. But more important than how they originate 
are the subjects of these snap photographs, since they allow us to observe some very private 
moments of the artist.

Images from nature, weather phenomena, architectural details, family occasions, views of the 
sky, of the street, of the worktable — these all seem quite ordinary until we read the text the 
artist adds to every snapshot. The text comments on the content of the image, but at the same 
time it works as an independent statement. It represents a momentary flash of private thought 
and feeling. We might call it a “memory snap,” which is, in essence, a revelation of the 
artist’s real memory code of the moment. This snap symbiosis of text and photograph is, then, 
a representation of the moment with its real memory code.

Simply and sincerely, then, Vrabic opens the doors into his private self, where moments are 
really experienced, recognized, felt, and carefully preserved. And what is most important: the 
viewer is always welcome.