Something has been bugging Motovun for years. Today I came up with a sketch of it, and I will paint it soon. But the title delights me already: The Motovun bug.

Addendum I (June 25, 2011)

Only a day later, the painting is finished. It looks gorgeous, too. Very much in line with all my entoptic forms, it has found its proper place on my crowded walls. Ah, the bug. The bug as such, in fact. On the other side I painted two meanders, which have been rather popular in Croatia as of late (“Homage to Julije Knifer,” August 4, 2006). For better or worse, they also look like two letters “s” stuck together. Schutzstaffel, perhaps? Anyhow, the composition goes well together with one of my recent ones, that can be read as “ha, ha” (“The Starkness,” March 24, 2011). The only apprehension I have about my last painting is that there remain only four more unpainted boards in the attic. I am painting too fast, as ever.

To Ai Weiwei

Addendum II (June 26, 2011)

Some of my friends note with a wink and a wry smile that the bug I painted yesterday looks suspiciously like a cockroach. “No, no, no,” I always protest in earnest. “Not a bit like a cockroach!” God forbid. For creatures that work in the dark and behind closed doors are protected in Croatia. And by law. They are nigh sacred. In fact, they are a national emblem of sorts. The best and the brightest in this country work in the dark and behind closed doors ever since independence twenty years ago, too. Even a metaphor about such chancy things is liable to land you in court. Or in the dark and behind closed doors, as well. And no kidding. I know what I am talking about, from personal court experience, and my friends are only kidding. The bug I painted has nothing whatsoever to do with the cockroach, I solemnly swear. And I am prepared to bring bug experts to the court, if needed. To begin with, the bug I painted has a sting. Besides, cockroaches are much more handsome than I could ever depict them! I am only an amateur in the field of art, for crying out loud.

Addendum III (June 27, 2011)

I wonder what Stefan Füle and his team concerned with the enlargement of the European Union think of my many missives, but I am sure that this piece and the first two addenda will make them wonder, too. It should not take them long to recognize what I am going on and on about, though. My three court cases for libel and insult, lodged by the mayor of Motovun for no other but political reasons, are already known to them, and in quite some detail. And I cannot but hope that they will do their best to put a stop to such abuses of law in Croatia, a candidate country with the accession date already set. True, I am not as fond of the Union as I used to be a couple of decades ago, but in this respect at least it certainly beats Croatia by a wide margin. Freedom of thought, as well as the expression of thought, are European values through and through. Authoritarian abuses of that freedom must stop across the Union, Croatia included. Motovun included, as well.

Addendum IV (July 2, 2011)

I came up with my sketch of the Motovun bug just about the time the court in Pula came up with its decision on my supposed insult of the mayor of Motovun. It was in the air. I received the decision by registered mail on June 29. But I picked it up in some miraculous way five full days ahead of its arrival. A shaman of worth, or what?