Marica Kicušić is one of the most successful young illustrators in our country. She takes us back to childhood with her drawings, leading through the wonderful world of fairy tales and imagination. Her work is a combination of applied and fine art – animation, illustration of children’s books, digital and traditional graphics, digital collage, poster design, murals, drawings. As she says, the connection between different fields of artistic expression is inseparable for her and she has always been ready to try various, new techniques.
The exhibition of illustrations by Marica Kicušić will be opened in the Svilara Cultural Station, today, 20 November, at 6 p.m., within the Festival of Children’s and Youth Animated Film ‘MM Fest’. It was an opportunity to talk to Marica about her work, inspiration, but also how she sees Novi Sad as the European Capital of Culture.
You take adults back to some carefree, childish period. How important is it to keep that child in ourselves and did you keep it?
I didn’t force myself to save it, it just stayed there. I’m not sure I know the recipe how to preserve it, I think it’s that we are born that way. I have always had that childish curiosity in me, it has managed to maintain to this day, probably thanks to my work. It is important to me that it is there, because it helps me a lot to occasionally come back to myself, to recover from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, to regenerate.
Who is the more demanding audience, children or adults?
I don’t feel that neither adults nor children are a demanding audience, and maybe I don’t see them as an audience, but as accomplices in my stories, who will probably appear in illustrations and who help me create worlds with their appearances, statements, gestures. I am always open to suggestions and critiques of my works, both from adults and children, although I think I react a little stronger to children’s comments, I like their reaction and I want to hear it, because those books talk to them.
Novi Sad is preparing for the title of the European Capital of Culture, which, due to the corona virus pandemic, it will hold in 2022. How do you see that title, Novi Sad as the holder of the same, and how significant can it be, in your opinion, for the rest of Serbia?
I think that dynamic Novi Sad will successfully hold that title and make the most of its power. I haven’t visited Novi Sad often and I don’t know the details of cultural events, but I think it will have enough ideas and strength to use this opportunity and show itself in full creative power. Although it is difficult for me to imagine normal cultural life and dynamics from at this point, I hope that, for example, this very opportunity will manage to return things to normal and improve it.
Read more on the website of the Cultural Stations.
