When thinking about art, the first thing one thinks of is language. For the very role or mission of art is a form of communication, non-verbal communication. The ability to say what you are thinking, to share your view of something, to express rebellion, or simply to show reality as it is through a picture, tone, or movement. Art is nothing more than a language that is universal for all of us, a language that goes beyond national and religious boundaries – human language. This is how Haris Ličina perceives art. His language is diverse. Some of the things Ličina is known for include graphic design, photography, drawing … This text is part of a series of texts titled “Short Talk”.

Haris Ličina is a multimedia artist in the true sense of the word. That’s how he sees himself.

“Bearing in mind that my work is based on graphics – as fine art and design – as applied art, and my passion for photography, I could not categorize and present myself as just a designer, or as just a graphic artist, because I think that I have a fusion of skills and I can, therefore, be best described as ‘a multimedia artist’,” he explains.

Ličina recently graduated from the Faculty of Arts in North Mitrovica, having defended his master’s thesis “Figure in screen printing” at the end of June. A jump, fall, perch, walk …

His photographs “make us remember what was and remains the task of documentary photography; in addition to having to answer the three basic questions of journalism, photography preserves and conveys a moment that is magically recorded for the generations to come ” – reads Jovan Marjanov’s review of Ličina’s first solo exhibition of photographs titled “Faces in Conflict” held at the Private Cultural Center Akvarijus, where Ličina was an associate in charge of documentary and art photography.

The harsh reality – this is how the author of this text would describe what is portrayed in his photographs and works of art which place focus on the figure. Because all of us fall down on our heads at some point in our lives or walk along a thin wire … while our faces show what we actually feel, even though it seems to us that it is not clearly visible.

On the other hand, Ličina explains that there is no single motif that could unite his works because he believes that “the motif is directly conditioned by the context in which it is placed within the composition”.

What about inspiration?

“I know that there is only one result of inspiration – a response to the stimulus that is manifested by creating something we call a work of art, and the paths that I or anyone else take differ. Sometimes inspiration comes in response to my environment, whether local or global, sometimes it is a desire to present my thoughts and ideas through my work, and sometimes it is just a craving for beauty, a desire to create an ideal combination of elements combined into a composition that pleases the eye,” Ličina says.

According to him, art is a way of life, that is, the way we perceive things around and within us, as well as the way we react to them:

“Art should not only be reserved for people who deal with it. Without people to enjoy and talk about it – it would not exist, because art is a mediator between artists and people, if there are no people who recognize art, the artist becomes just a person ‘wasting his breath.’”

Haris Ličina graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Priština (North Mitrovica-Zvečan), the department of Graphics in 2019, and the department of Graphic Design in 2020. At the end of June 2021, he defended his master’s thesis on the topic “Figure in screen printing”. His works have been exhibited in over 30 collective exhibitions in Serbia and abroad. He has had two solo exhibitions. He participated and organized a series of art workshops and graphics, photography, and graphic design courses. He also participated in several student exchange programs (Germany – Bremen, Germany – Oldenburg, Russia – Belgorod, Russia – Moscow). He is a member of the “Foto-kino klub Novi Pazar,” one of the founders and a designer at the creative studio “NYON studios” in Novi Pazar.

Haris Ličina’s works were also presented on the digital platform “Gathered in Art”, as well as the virtual exhibitions held on this platform.