An Inhabited Memory
Maja Vodanovic's work explores the invisible ties that bind people, places, and objects to time.
Her paintings emerge from fragments of memory: old letters, technical drawings, photographs, garden flowers, landscapes, architecture, or everyday objects. Through the layering of these traces, they become spaces where intimate memory meets collective memory.
The archival materials she incorporates into her painting — notably her grandmother's post-war letters and the drawings from the Dominion Bridge in Lachine — are never mere documents. They still carry the breath of the hands that created them. They continue to inhabit the present.
The human figure, particularly that of the woman, moves through this practice as a conscious presence. She does not pose in front of the landscape: she inhabits it. Her gaze links the memory of places to that of people, reminding us that our identity is always shaped in relation to territory, to others, and to time.
From the St. Lawrence River to the villages of the Dalmatian coast, landscapes also hold an essential place. They are not mere backdrops. They become silent witnesses to what endures despite the world's transformations.
Trained in art history at McGill University and in fine arts at Concordia University, Maja Vodanovic has spent more than thirty years developing a practice in which creation, teaching, and civic engagement all serve a single vision. Her artistic and educational projects naturally extend her studio work, inviting everyone to recognize the value of heritage, memory, and living things.
At a time when everything seems increasingly fast, intangible, and fleeting, her painting offers a different rhythm. It invites us to look at traces differently, to recognize what continues to live on in places, objects, and people.
Her works do not seek to preserve the past. They reveal a memory that remains inhabited.