Post Mortem

Goran Bertok`s operating principle is to explore the body as human and imperfect. Bertok`s bodies bleed and decay, and so shatter illusions. These bodies display not the naked surface, but that which is beneath it, the physiological processes.
Bertok has been known for his uncompromising approach. The body, as his central subject, has been put in prison (Prisons), subjected to sadomasochistic rituals (Omen, 999, 23, Stigmata), and placed in a crematorium (Visitors), as well as other similarly marginalized or taboo environments.
Bertok thus opens a view into the reality hidden beneath the boring surface of our so-called norms. As the artist himself says, we carry our body with us until our death – the demise of the body.
This is one reason why Bertok scrutinizes the body as a unique creation. A second reason for his obsession with such topics can be found in the idea of the body as a singular site of pain and pleasure.
We could say that the two most important aspects of Bertok`s work are Bataillian transgressiveness and he paraphrasing of religious iconography.
The eye of the beholder is confronted with his worst nightmares, because Bertok depicts human body which is painful, beaten, bleeding, dead, decomposed, frozen, post mortem. The confrontation with such bodies could be horrifying
Public discourse reinforces the idea that death is just a temporary state maintaining that the ability to avoid or cure it is only a matter of time. This renders individual response to death impersonal and strengthens
By focusing on the dead body as a motif Bertok questions the socially un acceptable notions surrounding the meanings and representations of death, of what is allowed, decent and appropriate to be observed, and how
The surfaces of bodies on his photographs are coarse, fissured and degraded, especially in his later works and cycles,Post Mortem, Visitors, Red, when he became increasingly obsessed with the physicality of death