History of Chocolate

Paintings / Drawings / Collages

The cycle of paintings, drawings and collages entitled "History of Chocolate" (2008-2012), is based on historical facts and by the content could be read as one of the possible interpretations of the turbulent history of the European courts through the colonial politics of European countries. In this artistic endeavor, the "visual" narrative traces the history of chocolate, a product that from its origins had rather troublesome attention and produced various spectrum of emotions. The plot and protagonists of this cycle are the notorious conquistadors - colonizers as Hernan Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado and their conquers. For the visual template Juresa consulted a lot of geographical maps on which the invaders' path of bloodshed were drawn and accordingly on canvases. Substantiality in the treatment of the subject comes from a limited number of elements that constitute it. Traces, stains, shapes, created by gestural movements reflect the particular energy and provide a knowledge that the scene depicted on the canvas penetrated from the unconscious, thus that is personal and delicate.

"Goran Juresa mapped the itinerary of the sweet in his cycle ‘The History of Chocolade’, using a specific visual language that both reveals and conceals formal-plastic meanings. Juresa has also invented a pictorial procedure that is adequate, specific and authorial, painting the history of chocolate in a fragmentary style through the use of symbols, citations of famous paintings from the history of artistic production, and through his inclusions of text on the canvas. He also draws on expressive colouring, making use of vivid red fields. His compositions are, moreover, liberated from academic canons, featuring drawings of naval maps, allusions to battles of conquest, and to the portraits of emperors and their ( even more ) influential wives.
The current cycle of paintings ( not excluding his drawings and collages that form a pendant to his painted works ) aims to defunctionalize, through the means of colour and its forms, reducing the form to mere elementary visual data that combine to influence the perception of a spectator. This ‘game’ forces the spectator to participate in the act of reconstructing content, or building a narrative to which the author only alluded with the occasional word or sentence included on the surface of the canvas thus guiding the participant through the necessary path of realization and experience."