Aleksandar Maćašev (), born in 1971, is a
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
n artist and designer known for his controversial Joseph Goebbels (TM) project in which
Joseph Goebbels was depicted as the father of contemporary media culture.
Biography
Maćašev was born in the town of
Bečej
Bečej ( sr-cyrl, Бечеј, ; hu, Óbecse, ) is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 23,895, while the municipality has 37,351 inhabitants. I ...
in former
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, on August 3, 1971. Upon graduation from high school of mathematics in Bečej, he completed his mandatory military service and was discharged on the eve of the outbreak of
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
. He moved to
Belgrade in 1991 to attend the
Faculty of Architecture,
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia.
Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
, and graduated in 1998. He was one of a handful of young artists selected to be exhibited in the “Conversation” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Belgrade. Beginning in 2001 he worked for various advertising agencies in Belgrade: New Moment (former
Saatchi and Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...
),
BBDO
BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, B ...
Ovation,
Pristop and Mass Vision. He conceived the first course in
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
in Serbia for BK Academy of Arts where he taught from 2004 to 2006. He has worked as a freelance artist and designer since 2004. He currently resides in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Work
Maćašev is best known for the use of advertising and mass media vocabulary in his work, as well as for his elusive professional identity, which fluctuates between applied and fine arts. "His graphic work is challenging, political and often uncomfortable." He targets issues like mass-media culture, religious bigotry, political hypocrisy and making private issues public. Maćašev's work has been featured and written about in design publications from throughout the world.
Joseph Goebbels (TM)
In 2005, Maćašev created an art project in the form of an advertising campaign in Belgrade, Joseph Goebbels (TM). The campaign featured billboards, posters, radio, and television spots featuring mosaic images of
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels that are created using the icons of major media companies. The main message was that Joseph Goebbels is a father of contemporary media culture and mass-communication. This artwork was derived from his previous
web art piece “Unstable portrait of Joseph Goebbels”.
Unstable portrait of Joseph Goebbels
The project has garnered plenty of attention throughout the world.
References
External links
Aleksandar Maćašev website
"Margins", visual blog
Aleksandar Maćašev blog: Diary of a visual-culture worker
Video interview
on SubmarineChannel, recorded in March 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macasev, Aleksandar
1971 births
Living people
Serbian artists
University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture alumni
People from Bečej
Serbian graphic designers