Cinc | Srpska verzija ove strane

Sasa Markovic Mikrob

a multimedia artist from Belgrade

My Music

I was nine years old when I obtained my first single record. From that moment on, thousands of vinyl records, cassettes and CDs have gone through my hands. A few years ago, Belgrade was flooded by CD burners. Under such conditions, one could collect music practically for free. Who cares for copyright laws, this hypocritical tactic of the rich? Copy, multiply, burn!
Copying music gave a sudden boost to my social life. Meetings with audiophiles at the Record Market on Sundays in front of the Student Cultural Centre, house visits; I'm a good man and I have lots of CDs, and when I pay a visit to another good man with lots of CDs, we have a few drinks, a snack or two, we exchange the current gossip and before you know it - a dozen pieces are burned already!
The practice of copying music has become so widespread that I can have it all for free. After dialling three phone numbers in the city, a music fan with many connections (that's me!) can find whatever his heart desires. The audiophile's Belgrade is a world capital, in spite of the overall poverty and its relative isolation from the rest of the world. The campaign against the pirate underground only soothes this process. I agree with our state, that the pirates who produce thousands of copies ought to be prosecuted. Their catalogues usually reflect bad taste, the quality of products is often poor... We shouldn't forget to fight the horrid monster of capitalism. Pirate practice equals capitalism and that is why we ought to defy it. Collector catalogues are a whole different story; thousands of carefully and lovingly gathered albums, with specimens often unknown to the wider public.
Catalogues flow through the network like water through nature. Stopping this circulation equals stopping life itself! It is love! It is freedom! It is poetry!



But let's return to my own collection. Since I've been burning CDs, I've also been making hand-made covers and booklets. Why? Because this procedure naturally follows the copying of music. Ah, if I were only a musician, then I could re-arrange these recordings and fit them to my own
needs! When the music media changed from vinyl to CD, the cover artwork took a step backwards. The smaller format, the plastic case between the picture and the eye, like some awful condom, digital picture at any price - whatever - the result is, a lot less good covers, much less than in the
fifties, the sixties and the seventies.
I work quickly I bring a new CD home, and before the music comes to the end - the cover design is finished. It sometimes happens that I get carried away by music (or the artistic idea), and I repeat the album over and over until I finish the artwork.
The pictures are often cut out from the newspapers or downloaded from the Internet. Sometimes it's collage, but mostly it's hand painted. The technique is acrylic. I always design the front cover, and sometimes the back side with the tracklisting and general info, although I usually download the text from the Internet, print and hide it on the other side of the back of the picture. The picture on the CD itself is obligatory. I paint it on the CD sticker. There are CDs that can be painted upon directly.
At this moment, my collection contains around six hundred hand-made CD sleeves. In many occasions, I received orders from audiophile friends to equip their RW-CDs. I have always accepted collaboration gladly. Feel free to contact me: mikrobfanklub@excite.com

(Click on various parts of image for details, explore a little)

Mikrob was born 1959 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. Famous of his 'mask-production', of authentic, urban devoted performances and series of photographs from photo-booths.

He exhibited this collection in July 2004. on "Collections and Acumulations" exhibition in SKC, Belgrade, as a part of The Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artists 2004. Author of the whole exhibition was Vladimir Tupanjac, and other participants were: Aleksandar Zograf, Ivana Klickovic, Kosmoplovci, Mileta Prodanovic, Skart group and Milos Tomic.

There is a page about Mycrobe at Daniel's website too.