Born 1979 in Doboj, Yugoslavia - Bosnia and  Herzegovina, Sergej Vutuc’s growth reverberates the noise of some conflicted local history which uprooted him as far as Zagreb (Croatia) and Heilbronn (Germany) in his most formative years. Spontaneously driven towards D.I.Y. ethics and punk culture at large, he went on to explore, build and exchange around the world - skateboarding in particular being the key to many locks - prior to settling in Berlin, then Paris where his most recent enterprise consists in encouraging print and physical productions under the name A La Maison Printing.

Robbed of the reassurance of environmental stability and disillusioned with official credibility at an early age, Vutuc’s work only thrashes to better question appearances, review stances and restore all the more of its intrinsic value to what we perceive - and miss - as "truth". Documentation and reproduction techniques get flipped on their heads as no discrimination is made amidst what most would consider interferences, or medium abuse; now chaos is given fair leeway, the exploited technology rinsed, new spatial perspectives breed and the marks of time bear no taboo.

It is not a subversion of the contemplative as much as it is an effort to sound check existence then track, taste and tell its feedback. The equal consideration for both the positive and the negative, as well as the constant identification and sensorial inundation of patterns, also make for an open invitation to never give up on new perspectives.
— Aymeric Nocus, Live skateboard media

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Since the mid 1990s Vutuc’s work has been about observing the (over)development of modern society and the privatization of public space; nature being conquered by concrete, concrete being conquered by the subversive act of skating. The work is based in nomadic movement through space and time, an endless sense of mobility, existence in between cities, countries, borders, worlds etc. Contested spaces, such as Fukushima, Detroit, Chernobyl, Israel and Palestine–strong symbols of ongoing human error and conflict, mistakes and misdirections in socioeconomic development.

Then there is the documentation of this ever-shifting landscape (physical and symbolic) through analog photography, publishing zines, mounting exhibitions, making music, drawing on walls, constant collaboration (as the essence of human creative exchange) and generally non-stop action and movement; fragmenting, altering, rearranging reality over and over, as necessary.

But one must also follow the natural human urge to expand one’s consciousness, to live in parallels, through imagination and it is here that Vutuc makes his departure to embark on a new series of work entitled Intimations of Substantiality Beneath. This exhibition begins a journey between exploring the landscape of flesh and passing moments on the way to somewhere; held in between, chosen by moment, by light, and by the energy drawn on the moment. It’s a melting point of Vutuc’s two latest publications: “there was something on the fence” and “jenseits von innen” (“beyond inside)”.

Vutuc sees the “scratching on the surface of blurry dream and fantasy as the only existing reality based on self creation.” The analog photo process allows for altering and scratching the film; another manipulation and questioning of (documented) reality. Adding to his poetic imagery music and sound allows an instant connection with the viewer, and reaction from an audience. All of this combined unifies the space of the work and allows a complete transformative experience. The energy created in this visual/soundscape confronts the viewer, challenging them to (re)see the strength and fragility of human relationships, family, tradition, intimacy, personal and global conflict. Vutuc’s work functions to shift our perception of reality, humanity, and society in general.

— from “Intimations of Substantiality Beneath” at Gallery Anno Domini

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The work of Sergej Vutuc is about observing the development of the modern society; a privatization of the public space and conquering the nature with concrete, on one side, and the natural human urge to expand one’s consciousness, to be in between, to exist playfully and live through imagination, on the other side. Skateboard culture is just one of many contemporary social subcultures whose philosophy is based on the aspiration for playfulness and urge to use the open space in the context of freedom of expression. Sergej researches this phenomenon and participates in it through his position of the modern nomad, whose radius of movement includes specific places such as Fukushima, Detroit, Israel and Palestine, strong symbols of on going human mistakes and wrong directions in social and economic development. Through his work, he grasps a surreal feeling of a new or parallel existence, and, even though it can sound utopian, moments of the shift of perception in the human and the society in general.

— Dunja Jankovic, Skver

Vutuc makes his own prints putting garbage between the light and the paper, scratching and interfering with the image. Just as the images themselves, many of the dilapidated buildings depicted bear scrapes, scratches and wheel traces; signs that the structures have been put into „good use,“ appropriated and re-invented by skateboarders.
Since the mid 1990s Vutuc has been engaged in the punk and skateboarding community and the aesthetics and philosophies of these DIY-cultures have granted his work a distinct character. Skateboarding is an undenia- ble part of all this, but the board here might better be understood as a vehicle, than a sporting tool or past time.
Vutuc’s work reaffirms that the skateboarder is not a detached voyeur of urban modernity. He has to constantly engage with his environment, re-invent and make new use out of it. His gaze, like Vutuc’s, is a nomadic one. It is always searching for things that are usable, beautiful or just plain fun, things he can invest himself in. These fragments become the raw material for stories the „mouth can never say,“ stories privileged for the eye.
There is seldom anything monumental or grandiose in Vutuc’s photographs. Just as in the skateboard pictures, his focus is directed on the small things surrounding him. The events he documents are therefore never the flamboyant stunts or the loud and dramatic „big moments.“ They are deeply affirmative and at the core of this sub-cultural scene from which his work grew. It is this realization that whatever you have grown up with, isn’t something you are stuck with. Every situation, like the city itself, is adaptable.

— Galerie Michael Janssen

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Originaire d'ex-yougoslavie , ayant voyagé partout où le skateboard, le punk et les cultures urbaines alternatives pouvaient l'emmener, Sergej Vutuc a longtemps vécu en Allemagne et réside maintenant à Paris.
Depuis le milieu des années 1990, le travail de Sergej consiste à observer le (sur)développement de la société moderne et la privatisation de l'espace public, la nature étant conquise par le béton, ce même béton étant conquis par l'acte subversif du skateboard. C'est un mouvement nomade à travers l'espace et le temps, un sens infini de la mobilité.
Ensuite, il y a la documentation de ce paysage en constante évolution (physique et symbolique) par le biais de la photographie analogique, la performance, l’édition de fanzines, l'organisation d'expositions, la musique, le dessin sur les murs, la collaboration constante et plus généralement l'action et le mouvement ; fragmenter, altérer, réarranger la réalité encore et encore, selon les besoins.
CCGP / Spraylab Nancy