Druga polovica.

"Na početku nasatao je prasak. U taj tren svi atomi svemira su se stvorili i od tog momenta nikada više niti manje atoma u svemiru nije postojalo. Kaže fizičar. "Dali je fizički moguče da sam ja sastavljna od atoma koje su pripadale nekoj biljci prije ili cvrčku?" Pita ona. "Pa da je sasvim moguče da si bila dio helija u svemiru, mjeseca, biljke. "Dali je moguče dakle da su moji sada atomi nekoč činili tijelo druge osobe koja je od tada preminula". "Pa", pogleda ju fizičar,razmisli malo po prvi puta o toj temi, thehnički mogu če je, da. " Odgovori.

Večer prije njena učiteljica objašnjavala joj je poantu druge polovice. Druga polovica je osoba koju češ kad tad sresti u životu. Možda samo na tren. Ali prepoznati češ ju intinktivno. Čovjek cijeli život nastoji shvatiti poantu života, i bori se da se obrazuje,oplemeni materijalno ili s iskustvima ali ako ne sretne drugu polovicu ili ju odbaci sve što je uradio bitit če mu uzaludno neće biti sretan.

"Što je druga polovica "pita učenica. " Kada čovjek umre duša se nekada razdvoji u dva djela, muški i ženski dio, a zaparavo to je jedna duša..Sljedeći život provodi se tražeći tu drugu polovicu, i tek kada se te dvije polovice sretnu iznova one oboje mogu osjetiti potpunost, postaju jedno, osječaju se kompletno.To je ljubav, sreća. Čak nekada sretnu se samo na tren u cijelom životu i sretni su jer su se prepoznali. A nekada se nađu i provedu cijele živote skupa. A te dvije polovice nemogu sasvim biti sretne ako obe dvje nisu, ako jedna pati negdje ,i druga če osječati neku tupu neispunjenost možda čak bez da zna zašto.

"Pa kako onda sada ima više ljudi na svijetu nego prije?" To je zato što sa vremenom se polovice duše dijele u druge polovice. To znači da može se u jednom životu sresti više drugih polovica? " Da to znači da se ujednom životu može sresti više od jdne druge polovice ali to je često bolno" Nekada se ljudi ne žele odvojiti od života koje su stekli da bi sve odbacili za tu polovicu . Nekada. zbog ega, Nekada zbog straha, ali ako sretnu samo jednu polovicu i odbace ju nemogu biti sretni, mogu biti usamljeni.

Kako se prepozna druga polovica? Perpozna se po sjaju u očima.

Island clergy

The bishop was this morning coffee theme. I don't know the bishop i say. Oh il show him to you, he's a blondish old chappy says, the old artist who thinks him as self young and hot. Well the bishop seems to love me and on passing by in the streets always says " my respect" on the other hand he can't stand our friend the gallerist who rents gallery space from the bishop and it very funny to see how outraged the galerists gets at the fact he is so openley disliked by the bishop. The fat old artist giggles. Yes. The bishop's daughter lives in Paris. In Paris? I asked struck. Yes in Paris! He confirms. But the bishops has a daughter? Of course he does. Oh well the abstention of the catholic clergy has aways existed along the sides of outrageous leaks of the priests secret love lives. But that's not all.. A week ago a friend of mine a beautiful young women went onto the cathedral and met the bishop there who came all smooth most definitely trying to seduce her. Some new flesh he must have thought. Ah. But listen to this, continues the artist who from his vending position in centre of old town picks up more than a little gossip. Last summer i saw this beautiful girl walking trough the piazza. She had her boobs pushed up generously in a tiny top and was wearing a little mini skirt. Despite this she was as pale as a vampire and of course was curious tio understand why. The girl was in her 30ties ,very well educated, well spoken. She said that she was turned out that she was a nurse and a nun here on holiday. What? I did not quite understand? Yes you did understand, she was a nun from Germany who came on holiday. He giggled happy with his discovery. The nun took weeks off being a nun and came to the party island. And wore her boobs pushed up and a mini skirt? The bast part was the nun said " oh how very conservative you are here"

Pig Slaughter Festivals

I sat down to have a burger. Same guy from last year works in the burger bar. You're back. He says. You're back I reply. Where will you sit he asks? All the tables on the little main square are wet from the rain. He starts placing cushions on al the balcony chairs single table so that i have a choice. I have to hide you see. I tell him. Need a table that cant be seen from the main square. I have just run away from boring company. I order my burger and vine. He prepares the burger and than starts fussing about the balcony hungry to talk. I visited your town this winter, i say to the mousy lonley looking chap. Really? What where you doing?He is surprised i went so far north. What you need to do is come on the slaughter days. Yes the salughter days are the best. In the farming provinces of croatia wihere families breed their own animals, which run about their fields, the approach of winter brings on the necessary preparation of winter food. " The slaughter days start in earley december, with rakiya at 6 am in the moring.. You drink moonshine so early I ask? Oooofff. You should see the amounts.. All the friends of the family gather at the farm and drink rakiya.. Than they sing a song to the pigs and dance a circle dance before killing it. Really? I ask fascinated at this aborigine sense of respect.. Phew. No of course not. The men get an ax and go decapitate the pig. Arrgh.. I am more than squeamish. They go for it with an axe and sometimes the miss. Its awful . But most of the time they decapitate the pig.They let the blood run out. Than they throw it in to the hot water bath, where the pig is washed and spun around, but sometimes the pig spins itself as its still alive. Than they apply the torch to its hair.. After that its hung upside down. Its belly is cut open the intestines are taken out. The women than clean out the intestines of the pig to prepare them for sausages.. Are they full of poo? No they are full of pig food. Than the party happens. Do you eat the pigs? Yes the liver and some of the bacon is thrown on to the grill that day.. And the party carries on in to the night. You need to come in december. --

Hvar

I have always understood Hvar to be the living material realisation of Shakespeare's drama Midsummer night's Dream.. The white stone idyllic town set amidst hills of Mediterranean plants, and a background of a perfectly transparent sea, every so often engulfed by a breeze of head rush blossom scents.. These beautiful gazelle leged girls strut off the boats in hunt of the islands charms, followed by hungry eyed boys, of all shapes and nationalities, with the same mischief and shine in their eyes.. The arrivals mix into the lullaby of the slow tempo, and the bohemian locals, artists, fat vine makers and restaurateurs, moonshine brewers , yachters,lavender harvesters and the clergy.. That is to say i have arrived again. It has never grown old on me. Each year i am stunned. The ferry cuts blue sparkly Adriatic sea and injects itself into the longest bay which Ilirian tribes, homer's Greeks, Romans, pirates of barbarian tribes,the Venetians, Napoleons French ,the Ottoman turks, the Marias Austrians, the Russians, English and nazi German have tried to lay claim on, this little island in the middle of the sea.. Some magnetic thing draws people here, and than before one even has time to settle in and be bored, these adventure things attack like mosquitoes, you look left and right cautiously as if you are about to cross the road and than a hurricane of encounters character's, events happen take over the day and night,leave you waking up and out of it dazed thinking you have dreamt the whole thing up.

RETURN OF THE GODS

An exhibition

Of paintings by Sunćica Perišin Tomljanović

Of poetry by Neva Lukić

Sound piece by Ben Romberg



Opening the evening 10th of May at 8 pm

in the Gallery of Matica Hrvatska

(The exhibition will remain opened until the 24 of May)



Book signing & Readings of the original mythological folk songs and poetry by Neva Lukić will be held in the library of Matica Hrvatska at 7 pm of the same day by the actor Paško Vukasović & Neva Lukić.



Our education is based on the teachings of different mythologies, including the Greek, Roman and going as far as Egyptian, but somehow we still avoid the native Slavic mythology. One encounters the Slav mythology only wondering down the atypical routes of research, such as through the stories of Ivana Brlić Mažuranić who had dug up the roots of the oldest myths hidden in brambles and and turned them into palatable stories for which we crave as a hungry child does for food.

"Holy Yegorije, God 's locksmith, took the key, opened the country, opened the country, let out the dew. - Holy Elijah, where do you go? - I walked on the lawns, on dewy grass, walked across the fields - germinated wheat.''These were lyrics of hope , words which served to try impregnate the dry land.

In Slavic, as well as, of course, in many other mythologies, everything is described as wet. Whatever touches the hem of the dress worn by the goddess of fertility Mokoš remains wet . And the god of fertility and harvest Jarilo, who has been replaced with the advent of Christianity by St. George, the peoples, "Green George" walks through the cycle of the year beneath the "Tree of the world" , bringing first April dew to the grass,which was believed to germinate all plant life and have medicinal properties, the custom being for children to tread barefoot across fields trough this first mystical spring dew.

In many mythologies and so in the Slav exists a "The tree of the world" which connects three levels of creation, the underworld, earth, and the heavenly realm. Perun the supreme heavenly god of thunder and lightning brings rain to farmers by sending it to Earth from his heights atop of the "World tree", while Veles dragon-god, his antipode, is the ruler of the underworld, who rules the realm of the dead from the depths and roots of the "World Tree", and as such is associated with water, soil and moisture. Where the dead are to be found there is always water representing life, and it is interesting to note how unlike today's perception the ancestors did not separate life from death.The very name of Veles derives from indoeuropean word "Val" meaning - "pasture, meadow, land of the dead." Pasture is the place where cattle graze and beneath which live the dead ...

The author Vitomir Belaj notes in his book "Walking through the year," The roots of Slavic mythology are based on pre-indo-european models, of which unfortunately not many sources have survived as Slavs and the old Croats came to contact with Christianity at a time when they did not use a written languge, loosing most of their tradition and myth with the conversion to the new religion .

The myths can only be reconstructed scrutinising local ttraditions as one of the most important sources, and connecting fragments from folk songs, which have indeed served as the source for all the images in this exhibition. Katičić in his book "The mistress of the gates " containing these folk lyrics mentioned how the songs came from the" folk'' and writing them down produces " artificial'' poetry.

This exhibition endeavours to show how the rituals of writing artificial poetry and of painting enables man's return to nature and to himself.Trough contemporary visual and literary language Sunčica and Neva have illustrated the Slavic myths as to present it and interest the viewer in the mythology of the ancestors. Although the man of the 21st century, relies ever more in the materiality of technology, it is equally important for one not to ignore the chthonic origins from which he has come to be.

By Neva Lukić

Contacts Neva Lukic- neva.lukic@gmail.com

Ben Romberg - http://www.soundcloud.com/ben-romberg

Suncica- Sunci.on.stage@gmail.com

the damned tomatoes

Put do australije

Dobar Dan. Jesan li dobija Ivu Horvat? Ma ja san tete Frane, od Ane koja se udala iz Australie za Paška tete. Ma tete ja san, prvi rođak, ma kako neznate. Jel tu Marija od pokojnog Marka žene, koja je imala cistu pa je pukla, sestrinog ,svekra, brata, čer ona sa šepavon nogon tete? Ma kako nije. Je je. Nisam se javia godinama jer san živija u Australiju. A tete di ti je vaš sin mlađi koj se oženija u Beograd? E, e, a čer jeli ona u Beogradu rodica mi? e e. A jeste ?. A nisan, nisan to ja. Ma niste to vi. Niste to vi. Ma niste vi ta žena . Bog. I šta je bilo. Ma nisan dobija tetu. A dobija san neku ženu u sinju. Koja je tila da mi bude teta. Je.je. Kaže ona da je ona ta.Ja kažen niste. Ona kaže sinko jesan. Biče mislila da joj se posričilo dolaze pare iz australije. A ti joj reka niste vi ta žena? Bar si joj moga reč bilo bi mi drago da st vi moja teta. Šta ču sad? Nastavi australac. Vlak za beograd mi je za po ure a neman di spavat.

Jarilo-

I don't know why but the only music i can listen to these days is country and western. Mladen calls me hillbilly wanna be. I never listened to it before. But i find it therapeutic and keeping me working all day whilst everything else depresses . As a result of listening to it all last week, do you see what i have done ? I could not really avoid it, painting a boy horseback .. Ahh, it will fit perfectley into the slavic mythological theme despite it looking ike texas. Im going to paint in the croatian sheppard by the horse bring it back to local see ya.. The story of Jarilo. Old Slav songs describe a youth ( son of the mian god) coming from afar in springtime. When he arrives fertility of the land is guaranteed. He comes of the begging of spring and marries a young godess-his sister copulates with her and fertility rites happen. Its not unlike the story of Morgane and Arthur. With the years Jarilo Became Juray, Jure, to have evolved in to the well known St George. At least it seems that the pagan jarilo transformed to be replaced by st george. This evolution can be folowed trough songs which describe this legends.. Both Jarilo and george are celebrated on the same day when fires are lit on the fields and people get merry.. He is always described as arriving on a horse or in company of a hound who helps him hunt.. An the furs he brings are a dowery for his divine and incestuous wedding..