The Work of ZT Tosha
Zoran Tosic-Tosha, a contemporary artist based in Amsterdam. His work is considered important for its philosophical depth, exploration of consciousness, and questioning of reality through abstract and surreal compositions.
- Philosophical depth: Tosha’s art is an intellectual and philosophical journey that often tackles existential questions. His work explores the unconscious realm beyond language, the interplay between thought and belief, and the tension between intellect and emotion. He is considered a “cartographer of the inner landscape,” creating meditative spaces that challenge perceptions.
- Unique style and technique: Tosha works across various media, including painting, sound sculpture, and digital art. His distinctive style often blurs the line between form and content, using both classical frameworks and abstract techniques. A hallmark of his painting is a “blur” effect, achieved by aggressively pulling a squeegee across the canvas, which intentionally makes things both “equally important and unimportant”.
- Pushes boundaries of perception: Through his art, Tosha challenges conventional ideas of subject matter and composition to make viewers reconsider how their environment influences their actions and subconscious responses. His works often reflect the friction between past judgments and present experiences.
- Influential artist with a legacy: Since the late 1990s, Tosha has been a notable figure in the art world. Early in his career, his sound sculptures earned him international recognition in the “Yugoslavian Documents ’89” exhibition, solidifying his status as one of Yugoslavia’s most important artists. He continues to create and exhibit today, with recent work including the sculpture Christ at the 2025 Florence Biennale.
- Social and political engagement: In addition to his artistic contributions, Tosha is recognized for his commitment to human rights. His art reflects his unrest with conventional norms and often explores how new forms of communication shape our sense of reality.
Shadows of Perception
In a space where beauty stands as an inherently subjective concept, intangible and resistant to conveyance, a compelling exploration unfolds at the crossroads of personal perception and shared understanding. Art emerges as a medium adept at bridging the chasm, translating the subtleties of individual aesthetic senses into a universally comprehensible language.
For the protagonist, the conviction in the profound influence of material possessions, time, and space on thought processes serves as a guiding principle. The acknowledgment that these realities mold their cognitive landscape leads to a realization—thinking is inseparable from these tangible elements. Yet, within this intricate interplay, the vastness of infinite time and space, while shaping thoughts, remains unseen and elusive.
Driven by the principle of “internal necessity,” the protagonist creates their artwork as a direct response to inner experiences. These inner echoes, which emotionally reverberate with the external world, undergo a transformative process, morphing into symbols that carry profound meaning and rich information. If these symbols are then presented objectively as images, they wield the ability to elicit aesthetic emotions in the viewer, creating a fusion that blurs the boundaries between the artist’s personal world and the shared experience of those who perceive the art. In essence, the artwork becomes a conduit through which personal emotions and universally relatable sentiments intertwine, creating a bridge between the intimate and the collective.
As the narrative unfolds, the story broadens its perspective on testimony and witnessing in the digital age. The ubiquity of cell phones and miniature cameras becomes a pervasive tool, empowering individuals not only to assert, “I was there; this is what I saw,” but to collectively bear witness through media. The cell phone, especially, takes center stage, casting the audience as both the ultimate addressee and primary producer. It transforms the collective into the subject and object of everyday witnessing, capturing and testifying to its own historical reality as it unfolds.
In this exploration of perception, art, and technology, the story navigates the ambiguity between the formal framework of images and their content. It delves into how individuals, armed with the tools of witnessing, contribute to the collective narrative, intertwining personal experiences with the shared historical reality. “Shadows of Perception” weaves together the threads of beauty, artistic expression, and digital witnessing into a narrative that transcends the boundaries of the personal and the collective.
