Interview of the Day: Vuk Jevremović

Vuk Jevremović is an animator, director, visual artist and filmmaker whose short films have been presented at numerous international animation festivals and have received many awards. He belongs among distinctive authors of non-narrative animation that moves along the boundary between a painting and a moving image. He has also created two music videos for songs by the band Laibach. A trained architect and former naval diver, he came to animation by a rather indirect path. ‘I jumped into the world of animation primarily to try to see what happens to my paintings when you add movement to them,’ says the artist, whose films often resemble a visual stream of consciousness.

You have had quite an eventful life. Your biography states that after studying architecture, you served in the navy as a diver. Later, however, you decided to devote yourself to art – drawing and painting. What led you to make this decision? And how did you get into animation?

Yes, I started animation by going the long way around. I was initially studying architecture, but after serving in the army, I didn't want to work as an architect, so I just drew and painted at home and earned my living from that. Later, in Munich, at the Academy of Fine Arts, my professor wanted me to be the interpreter during an animation course held by Nedeljko Dragić. So, during those sessions I got the idea of ‘trying to move my paintings’. I've never attended an actual animation school.

You are primarily associated with non-narrative animation. Why this particular approach? Don’t you want to tell a story?

Well, I jumped into the world of animation primarily to try to see what happens to my paintings when you add movement to them. Basically, I was trained as a painter.

You tend to visualise emotions; your films are more abstract. Is the viewer’s experience therefore the most important aspect for you?

I try to leave my films more open to the spectator. I see them more as an audiovisual trip than a narration. Once in Leipzig (Germany), I was showing my film Panther, and the audience literally stomped on the floor in the late night cinema. I was very surprised in that moment; people probably felt the energy of the captured animal.

As for your distinctive artistic style, your films are dominated by hand-drawn, expressive animation and mutable images that dissolve, deform and reassemble. Your works seem to be connected by a sense of transience, of the passage of time. Is that so? That is the impression I had when watching films such as Panther, Quercus or Diary… (I would appreciate your comment :-))

After learning about classical animation with the course I interpreted, I thought about moving images. However, I wanted to keep my, shall we say, free graphic and painting style incorporated. Yes, time is the essence of animation, because you are dealing with movement, not a static image. I also played with the element of time passing in my films such as Panther, Quercus and Patience of the Memory, trying to capture this element through animation.

In your films, time often appears layered rather than linear. For you, is memory more of an archive, or a living, mutable material?

I see a memory as a subjective mutable element that is more dreamy than real.

Your films often feel like a stream of consciousness in images. Do you think more in images than in words? How does such an image emerge as the initial impulse?

It's very strange, but when I write storyboards, I describe them with words, not with drawings. It helps me to visualise what I want to show, so I can think in images. The initial impulse, I think, is a combination of what I want and what I feel intuitively, so it can be suitable for my ideas...

The visual aspect of your films is strongly infused with fine art. Which artistic movements or artists (past or present) have inspired you the most, and why? I would guess Expressionism…

Yes, this is an artistic blood type, and I really like Expressionism, the classical German Expressionism, the American abstract kind and the modern kind as well.

Do you see yourself more as a visual artist, an animator, or something in between?

I see myself as a visual artist who uses classical animation techniques to express not just myself as a person, but also as an animator.

At last year’s Anifilm festival, your music video for the song ‘Moral Support’ by Laibach received an award. How did your collaboration with this legendary and provocative band come about, and what was the process like? Did you have creative freedom? Back in 2015, you also created a music video for ‘No History’, and the band’s website refers to you as a fan of Laibach…

The collaboration came after they saw my film inspired by the story by Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony. I had creative freedom with just some occasional directions. I used to listen to their music back in the old Yugoslavia era, when they were the most avant-garde band.

In your films, the motif of a deer and its antlers (or perhaps a bull?) keeps reappearing. What does this animal represent? Does it function as an archetype?

I was always fascinated by prehistoric cave drawings, and inspired by their simple and powerful style. The deer specifically is a motif which Laibach uses in their iconography, and is also a symbol of the old city of Dresden. The deer can be seen in my film Patience of the Memory.

Your films are technically demanding. Do you work alone, or do you have a team? And how long does it take you to create a five-minute film?

I prefer to work alone. For a five-minute film I need around 2 years, at least... I use 24 frames per second. Sometimes, I use more layers, not just one.

Are you familiar with the current state of Croatian animation? In your opinion, what situation is it in (also in terms of funding and educational background), and would you recommend following any particular filmmaker?

Croatia is also known for the Zagreb Film School, which is very active in the scene. There are some great young filmmakers, such as Lucija Mrzljak, Veljko Popović, Martina and Marko Mestrović, among others. Their films have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. There is also an animation department at the Academy of Fine Arts, so the continuity of Croatian animation is guaranteed.