BACKGROUNDS
As one looks deeper into Vinko’s art of healing, goes through introspection. Each art piece harbours metanarratives. As a true artist, Vinko is pushing a variety of media into the realm of modern art towards a deeper, more complete, more intuitive experience. His Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist. Vinko investigate the notion of healing through his art that goes beyond recovery from personal physical and emotional traumas.
Instead, healing turn to global history, politics, culture, economics and environment. In doing so, he explore how the ability to empathise with another’s hardship is deeply guided by compassion and understanding – which speak from his own memories and self-reflection in need of healing.
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Vinko’s awareness of the need for healing runs deep and is firmly rooted in his family history. During the Second World War, his grandfather and grandmother were burned alive * along with all of the 269 residents (only 2 people survived by miracle) of the small village of Lipa in 1944 (then Italian province). The massacre was carried out by German Nazis and Italian fascists in retaliation for supporting the partisan movement**. Villagers, primarily women, the elderly, and children, who survived the torture, rape and brutal killing spree were forced into a house that was then set ablaze and they died in horrible pain, burned alive. Between 96 and 121 children were brutally killed; the youngest victim was only seven months old. The village was entirely destroyed in a scorched-earth operation, comparable to the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
* Burning of villages and the massacre of their inhabitants were common and systematic practices by German Nazi forces and their collaborators during their invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union (which included modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. This extreme violence was an integral part of the Nazi “war of annihilation” and was driven by a racist ideology that considered Slavic peoples and Jews as “subhumans”.
** The Yugoslav Partisans were the most effective anti-Axis resistance movement in occupied Europe during World War II, playing a major role in the Allied victory by fighting against German, Italian, and collaborationist forces. Starting as a guerrilla force in 1941, they evolved into a massive, organized army (the National Liberation Army) that numbered roughly 650,000–800,000 troops by late 1944.
Decades later, these wounds remain deeply embedded in Vinko’s memory, not only as reminders of unimaginable horror and loss, but also as warnings. Remembering such atrocities is essential if humanity is to recognise the dangers of hatred and work actively in all shapes and forms to prevent its recurrence.
Beyond physical devastation, such tragedies inflict lasting psychological wounds that can be catastrophic for individuals and for generations that follow.
While war is a prominent cause of death, it is often outpaced in mortality and suffering by famine, preventable diseases, and the destruction of ecosystems. Humans have inflicted profound scars on entire ecosystems, nature on animals, water and air, often in the misguided pursuit of a so-called “better life.” Humanity’s survival depends on healing these self inflicted wounds, restoring balance, respecting all living beings, and recognising our deep interdependence with a healthy environment.
For these reasons, the concept of healing resonates powerfully and organically throughout Vinko’s art.
Vinko’s visual language operates in various media characterised by black and white compositions incorporating 24 carat gold, integrating painting and sculpture into one. He uses a variety of mixed media on canvas or wood, like bark, metal, glass, sand, gesso, stones, paper, leather to create his textured Artwork.