Milovan Vidak

Milovan Vidak was born in Stožišta, a mountainous village located at the intersection of Lika, Dalmatia, and Bosanska Krajina, within the municipality of Bosansko Grahovo. He became known for his creative and futuristic art. His colleague Olja Vidacki would refer to him as the Nikola Tesla of art, in terms of his futuristic mindset.

In early 1942, when the proletarian brigades from Serbia arrived in the region of Westerns Bosnia, Vidak, then 16 years old, joined the Second Serbian Proletarian Brigade as a fighter. He participated in the battles of Neretva and Sutjeska during World War II, where he was wounded and lost an eye. He emerged from the war with the rank of non-commissioned officer. Driven by his passion for painting, Vidak began studying the art of painting in 1950. In 1952, he established his own ethical and artistic Code, which guided his professional and personal life until the end of his days.

Handicaped during the war, Vidak painted with only one eye, but that didn't bother him because, apparently, he had a third eye. Vidak's first painting was The Wonderful World of Mushrooms. These were some mushrooms from his Bosnian world, which was quite bizarre in 1955 when painters mostly painted axes, hammers, labor actions, construction sites, factories. Soon, after his mushrooms, Vidak left the army and published his famous Code which he compiled in 1952. His fascinating alien images, to which he gives visionary titles, are born from that Codex. Let's say, Impulse Oscillator, Polarization of Buddhism, Zone of Test Tubes Resting Plasma, Live Plasma, Crystals, Cybernetic Puncture, Central Censor of Emotion.

Alongside his Code, which he adhered to rigorously throughout his life, Milovan Vidak encapsulated his entire life philosophy in one sentence: "The fate of the world depends on a canary in Bosnia." For those who do not grasp the message in this thought, it can perhaps be interpreted through a similar Tibetan saying: "When a butterfly flutters its wings in Tibet, that flutter turns into destructive storms by the time it reaches Rome."

He passed away in Belgrade on March 22, 2003, after suffering from illness and poverty, and was buried at the New Bežanija Cemetery.

Artistic Code:

1. The purity and clarity of subjective vision lays the groundwork for exploratory beginnings.
2. True guidance comes from the object itself.
3. Free oneself from the fear and desire to revive anachronisms and a bygone world.
4. Tear down Hegel’s wall.
5. Master the execution technique to the point of the unreal.
6. In studying and observing the objective, do not neglect the world born of stirred emotions and impulses.
7. I must be sober, focused, alert, and responsible to myself. I must understand the transience of formal appearances in the awakening of reality. I must not lose sight of the arrival of technical intelligence, conditioned by the law and the world of destruction.
8. Seek and recognize the possible key to eternal existence — the longing for the universe of the human spirit.
9. Study and explore all areas that reveal, include, or exclude the given moment of their formed existence or disappearance, the direct or indirect being of objective life and death.
10. Respect every creative and exploratory work conditioned by subjective reasons, especially if it serves humanity.
11. Liberate the destructive and nurture the constructive instinct.
12. Penetrate to the essence of the imaginary impulse of human nature.
13. Understand and clarify the materialistic existence of the world and its metaphysical alienation.

The Code was also the code of the Mediala group, of which Milovan Vidak was a co-founder, alongside other artists such as Leonid Šejka, Miro Glavurtić, Siniša Vuković, and Olja Ivanjicki.