SOMETHING SPECIAL
author: Sonja Ćirić

In the Graphic Association Gallery an exhibition was held (November 7th -19th ) by Boško Karanović and Stjepan Fileki under the title of Diploma. It showed some fifty diplomas made by professors Karanović and Fileki over the last 40 years for different clients, “in four right hands”, as Ljiljana Ćinkul, the director of the Graphic Association Gallery, put it at the opening of the exhibition. This was, however, the first exhibition of diplomas in the history of the Gallery.

The renewed contact with the old diplomas brought some long gone images back to the authors' minds, as prof. Stjepan Fileki wrote for the catalogue for the exhibition: “We recall the days when at the crack of dawn we used to leave the studio puffy-, bleary-eyed, our nails discoloured by cigarettes. Our skin reeked of garlic; the fingers stuck with the glue; the printing ink wedged under our nails; the smell of seal wax filled our nostrils. We were often covered with gold flakes. With uneasiness we expected the day to come and thought what kind of work was left behind us after the sleepless night. It happened so that the next day something needed correction or finishing. We rejoiced at our success and were sometimes discouraged by the unrealistic or insufficient requests of the clients. We carried on and on...”

Almost all exhibits were from Tito’s times, as prof. Stjepan Fileki put it, ”from the times teeming with diplomas. People were often commended then, perhaps it should have been so at the time, perhaps everyone was happier when they were given a commendation, even on paper, so finally it turned out that due to the large number of diplomas we had an inflation thereof.” Nowadays, after many years and events that separate us from those times, Fileki and Karanović's diplomas are merely historical documents and – works of art.

How do you make a diploma? “When you get such an assignment, you first plunge into books – which on no account is a sin. You must see how it's been done before. We've always had tradition in mind, both Byzantine and Medieval, so we've made a research of the diplomas from those times. I think you can see it in what we've done. Our works are not direct reminiscences, but are built upon the tradition though.” This Fileki's assessment is most obviously proved by the typeface of the diploma. “None corresponds to any old or modern style, each one is the author's interpretation, the artistic view.” Why? “The reason may be banal: I didn't want my diploma to look like another author's diploma, with the typeface copied from a book. Hence the freedom in my types and calligraphic aberrations and lack of discipline, yet – all for the cause of making something special.” It is exactly the striving for the special and the uncommon that makes each diploma different, although all have been made to the similar concept, that which dictates its form: the vignette centred on the top, the text, the signature and the stamp. “The differences in the typeface have been determined by the contents, that is, the purpose of the diploma. You cannot make the diploma for a musician using the same types as for that, for instance, which was given to Mijalko Todorović by Zastava Kragujevac in 1972. All diplomas are calligraphic works, even those the typeface of which has no ornamental form. Each one was written with a pen, then finished up and later copied onto the plate after which the acid was used. Everything was, as it were, hand-made.”

illustrations
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24