Waterfall (of Bureaucracy), 2019
wooden drawers, paper, 65 x 54 x 230 cm
production: JAC, Serbia
While exploring abandoned premises of a former agricultural cooperative, artist came across a office with broken windows and cluttered shelves. There was a pile of papers in the room; for years it rained and snowed over them. His attention was drawn to a document that stated when and for how many dinars at the time, certain Milisav bought a cow, how old the cow was and what condition she was in. An event like buying a cow must have been a big deal in the 1970’s. Nikolić went on to investigate and found information on how much B. M. had paid for the tractor, how much M. I. owed to the cooperative, how much Ms. D.’s salary was, and how much was an installment for the J. P.’s loan. The very important things in people’s lives from few decades ago were in the garbage dump. Mass of paper typed in a dry, bureaucratic language, created a waterfall of destinies and voices of people who were here before us.
Nikolić’s sculpture Waterfall dynamically connects drawers and various documents that have been archived in those drawers for decades. Within the sculpture, these documents are ‘overflowing’ from the drawers like waterfalls that go in all directions. Boring and dry bureaucracy in this way acquires a fluid and unburdened character, highlighted as a source of life and all activities.