The Icon Association has launched a project to raise awareness of the importance of the Old Skopje Bazaar
By placing copies of works by various artists in several non-standard spaces, the Cultural Association "Icon" started a project to develop awareness of the importance of the Old Skopje Bazaar.
The presentation of the bazaar through copies of works of art is a new project of the Association for Culture "Icon", named "Gift Picture", which is intended to contain works by foreign and domestic artists. After one of the five graphic reproductions of the famous Czech artist Franta Mali, with motifs from the Old Skopje Bazaar from 1934 to 1936, the hotels on its territory received as a gift: "Arka" and "Doa", the inn "Kaj Goce", the jewelry store " Zeko Gold "and the teahouse" Shisho bar 21 ". The project is supported by the City of Skopje, and "Icon" hopes that the support will continue in the future.
- The idea to present the Old Skopje Bazaar through works of art by artists belonging to different generations is in order to develop awareness of the importance of the bazaar, which has existed through different periods of development of the city of Skopje. Thus, the holders of the various activities they perform in it, must build a special relationship for it to maintain its basic historical appearance, which will preserve the uniqueness and it will be recognizable by visitors.
The exhibited paintings should be a provocation for the citizens and tourists to be interested in its history, and thus to visit the Museum of the Old Skopje Bazaar, in the building Suli An, which would have a more complete picture of life in the past. In that way, a critical mass would be formed to maintain the current appearance of the bazaar - emphasized the president of "Icon", Klime Korobar.
The artist Frantiкek Franta Mali (1900 - 1980) was born in the Czech Republic. He graduated in painting at the academy in Prague, with Professor Vlaho Bukovac. He is known as a painter, graphic artist, pedagogue. After marrying a Serbian woman, he moved to live in Belgrade. He created hundreds of works with motifs from all over the former state of Yugoslavia. He was engaged in literature under the pseudonym Vjezdinski. Franta Mali's drawings from the "Gift Picture" project are part of the "Yugoslavia" graphic map, published in 1939 in Belgrade. This collection of one hundred and forty-four reproductions of the original drawings, with eight reproductions in color by Mali, with a foreword by Ivo Brkoevi во in 3.500 copies, was published by the bookstore of Milorad P. Milanovic.
- Oils, watercolors, drawings from Ohrid, Bitola, Debar, Kicevo, Skopje, Strumica, Kratovo, Tetovo and Kosovo could decorate the largest art galleries in the country, as well as abroad, and make an invaluable benefit to our tourism. The other wild and romantic landscapes of Yugoslavia are not far behind. Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Montenegro, Sandzak and Dalmatia burn with the color of nature's highest musical tone. In those areas, Mali finds the specificity of its creative talent. These are no longer pictures, these are objects that are felt, that are so intimate and close, that create the illusion of direct life contact - wrote, among other things, Ivo Brkoevic in the graphic map.
(The text was published in "Cultural Press" number 91, in the print edition of "Free Press" on July 31 - August 2, 2021)