Tradition as a Criterion

Anthropomorphic figures in ethno-motifs of Kosovo and Metohija

A woman is one of the key figures that appears in various mythical representations and folklore of various peoples, as a symbol of beauty, innocence, fertility, motherhood, but also death. There are frequent figures of girls, brides and mothers, sometimes united in the form of three-faced female deities or mythical figures.
The reduced and geometrized figure is the main model in woven garments, where the structure of the weave inevitably conditions the simplification of figures to basic shapes. Thus, the trapezoid, which is the most represented motif, is actually a form that introduces an element of movement, i.e. an element of the circle, which is impossible to perfectly define by interweaving the weft and the warp. There are only minor or major approximations, depending on the complexity of the pattern or the artist’s skill in approaching a realistic representation.
Regardless of whether it is an insufficiently skilled attempt at mimesis, conditioned by the production technique or deliberate abstraction, we have records that have been coded since ancient times on patterns, individual motifs or larger representations. For some we intuit the meanings, but for many we have lost the power to decipher. Over time, the code changed and acquired some new meanings.
But if we refer to prehistory and cults that were basically glorification of motherhood, fertility, community, worship of nature and natural forces, and the basic elements (earth, fire, water and air), which make up the four, but also the perfect whole (circle ), then we can establish that thread in the case of Serbian folk art, and when it comes to anthropomorphic female figures, which served as a starting point and inspiration for this work.
I presented the creative interpretation of that code, which is characteristic of Serbian national creativity, in this case recorded in the heritage from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, as three female figures-symbols, which I perceive as the essential center of the archaic naive image of the world, around which our cultural heritage.
• The girl symbolizes beauty, chastity, joy, play, will to live.
• The bride is the transformation of a girl into a woman, chosen to maintain the hearth, give birth, nurture and feed.
• The mother is a symbol of real and mature fertility, warmth, self-sacrifice, courage and protection of life.
The archetypal representations of women and their role, which has an indisputable place as a creator and protector, lead us to the question of whether we are still connected to the sources of our culture, the land, the language, the past, with our great-great-grandmothers, whose lives were exhausted by numerous hardships and with continuous effort to prepare children for life, with the wish that happiness will accompany them.
These figures also point to community, because if there was no nurturing community, there would be no individuals who raised virtue and developed the community in various ways. That code that is transmitted, the code of collective memory, is indestructible, but it is increasingly difficult to decipher it and connect directly with it. Under the burden of conformity, technologies and new social relations, we have lost connection with others and with ourselves. The loss of respect for others, who we increasingly recognize as competitors rather than our neighbors, leads to a loss of sense of community and turns us into consumers of the new idols imposed on us by the brave new world.
This is an attempt to quench our thirst for trentak at the purest source of folk creativity and remind ourselves of who we are and where we come from.
Model: Women’s belt of the forties of the 20th century, Bosce, Upper Morava. Black Wool. Woven stylized anthropomorphic doll figures and geometric motifs from wool threads of various colors. Part of a Serbian woman’s costume. Stojanka Vasić’s dowry.