exhibition catalogue empire strikes back & forward
DESCRIPTION
2 – 22 June 2014, Ljubljana Town Hall, Historical Atrium Opening: at 8 pm on 2 June Guided tour by the artists: at 8 pm on 21 June (Museum Summer Night) The artivistic comment on the society of Ljubljana, reaching back to ancient Emona, is conceived by the painter and video artist Gorazd Krnc in collaboration with the sculptor and intermedia artist Zoran Srdić Janežič. Both of them embrace the media and convincingly master the form. Despite the classic formats of painting and sculpture, they still manage to transform and surprise with their humour. The paintings on steel look “heavy”, while the sewn fabric figures give the impression of “light” and playful matter. They both dynamise the viewer's relationship towards these unusual vehicles of artistic ideas. The artists reflect seemingly minor situations of the fleeting, absurd and common to comment on what should be deeper values of our civilisation.TRANSCRIPT
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK & FORWARD
GORAZD KRNCZORAN SRDIĆ JANEŽIČ (MAJA PETERLIN)
2. - 22. JUNIJ 2014ZGODOVINSKI ATRIJ, MESTNA HIŠA V LJUBLJANI
Razstava slik in kipov / Exhibition of paintings and sculptures
Imperij vrača udarec
Gorazd Krnc, Zoran Srdić Janežič (Maja Peterlin)
2. – 22. junij 2014, Mestna hiša Ljubljana, Zgodovinski atrij
Otvoritev: 2. junij 2014 ob 20. uri
Vodstvo umetnikov po razstavi: 21. junij ob 20. uri (Poletna muzejska noč)
Projekt Empire strikes back & forward je za-mišljen kot ponavljajoč se, večletni razstavni opus, v katerem bodo vzpostavili dialog vizualni umetniki z ožjega in širšega območja Evrope. Zanimajo jih zgodo-vinske, kulturne, eksistencialne ter politično aktualne teme v okolju, ki nas hkrati združuje in deli.
Rdeča nit njihovega ustvarjanja je vprašanje: kaj določa lokalne družbene značilnosti ter v čem se umetniki in prebivalci povezujemo v širšem evrop-skem prostoru preko skupne evropske zgodovine? Iz kako različnih okolij in zgodovinskega ozadja izhajamo in kakšne so naše skupne vrednote? Kako z umetnost-jo reflektirati lokalno in v čem – kot prebivalci Evrope – presegamo nacionalno? Kako se različne konkretne družbene problematike manifestirajo v okolju, kjer umetniki živijo? (Npr. kakšen odnos do 2. svetovne vojne »vzdržuje« Nemčija in kakšnega Slovenija?)
V prvi samostojni, zaokroženi razstavi letos je umetniški razmislek namenjen refleksiji vojn na pod-ročju Slovenije: spričo stoletnice 1. svetovne vojne, petdesetletnice 2. svetovne vojne ter rimskih vojn v času Emone. Gorazd Krnc in Zoran Srdić Janežić sta uporabila zgodovinsko temo za razmislek o nasilju in njegovi posledici: Razčlovečenju.
Vprašanje obiskovalcev na otvoritvi se je naj-bolj pogosto glasilo: ‘Zakaj je med lutkami, ki jih gle-dalec lahko prebiča in nosijo oznake: HOMO, IZBRISA-NI, POLITIK, ČEFUR, LJUBLJANČAN, BREZPOSELEN itd. – tudi OTROK? Očitno nam je bolj razumljivo, če se nasilje izvaja nad politično izpostavljenimi skupinami kot so izbrisani ali homoseksualci, kot pa nad otroci. Ravno tem opredelitvam, ki že spadajo v domeno po-litične (ne)korektnosti pa se umetnik upira in s pre-mikanjem tarče nasilja namiguje, da lahko kdorkoli (izmed nas) postane njegova žrtev.
Kipi iz blaga so na prvi pogled nenevarni, igrivi in humorni, vendar ni bojno polje z mrtvimi vojaki, od-rezanimi deli teles, črevesjem in razmetanim orožjem prav nič blaga slika. Skrajno nasilje vseh vojn Zoran Srdić Janežič navidezno lahkotno združuje s ‘civilnim’, družbenim in domačim nasiljem. Vsem je skupno raz-človečenje. Takšna je tudi Emona na kovinskih slikah Gorazda Krnca: očarljive in namišljene podobe starega mesta z razglednic so na hladnem nosilcu izpraznjene ljudi oz. se ti pojavijo zgolj kot madež, kapljajoča for-ma, neresnični. Ostajajo zidovi, arhitektura, vsakdanji predmeti prebivalcev Emone. In naš odsev – odsev se-danjih prebivalcev v kovini, slike nam vračajo pogled in podobo, trgajo se, luknjajo in kapljajo ter nas s tem sublimno napeljujejo na spoznanje o prirejeni sliki zgodovine kot konstrukcije.
Produkcija: Zavod za sodobne umetnosti in kulture Gulag, Mestna občina Ljubljana
The empire strikes back & forwardGorazd Krnc, Zoran Srdić Janežič (Maja Peterlin)
2 – 22 June 2014, Ljubljana Town Hall, HistoricalAtrium
Opening: at 8 pm on 2 June
Guided tour by the artists: at 8 pm on 21 June (Muse-um Summer Night)
The project Empire Strikes Back & Forward (the title alludes to one of the Star Wars films) is con-ceived as a recurring annual exhibition that will es-tablish a dialogue among visual artists (emerging and established contemporary painters, sculptors and in-termedia artists) from both closer and more distant areas of Europe.
The project aims to include the historical, cultural, existential and political topics in the environ-ment that geographically and politically unite and at the same time divide us. The main questions posed to participating artists will be: what determines the local social characteristics and what links artists and citizens in the wider European area throughout histo-ry? How different are the backgrounds we come from and which values do we share? How does art reflect local society and how do we move beyond the nation-al dimension? How does the variety of specific social problems manifest in the artist’s environment? (For example, attitudes to World War 2 in Slovenia and in Germany.)
In May 2014, the Institute for Arts Gulag pro-duced the first independent exhibition of Slovenian artists that was held in the Ljubljana Town Hall. It pre-sented the reflections of two artists (a painter and a sculptor) on the wars in Slovenia: upon the centenary anniversary of the start of World War 1; the 75th an-niversary of the end of World War 2 and the Roman wars upon the 2000th anniversary of the start of an-cient Emona (the Roman predecessor to Ljubljana). The artists use these war themes to contemplate vio-lence and its consequences: dehumanisation.
The artivistic comment on the society of Lju-bljana, reaching back to ancient Emona, is conceived by the painter and video artist Gorazd Krnc in collab-oration with the sculptor and intermedia artist Zoran Srdić Janežič. Both of them embrace the media and convincingly master the form. Despite the classic formats of painting and sculpture, they still manage to transform and surprise with their humour. The paintings on steel look ‘heavy’, while the sewn fab-ric figures give the impression of ‘light’ and playful matter. They both dynamise the viewer’s relationship towards these unusual vehicles of artistic ideas. The artists reflect seemingly minor situations of the fleet-ing, absurd and common to comment on what should be deeper values of our civilisation.
Production: Institute for Arts Gulag, City Municipality of Ljubljana
Sedanjost je v pretekli fikciji
The present lies in the past ficton
GORAZD KRNC - SLIKE / PAINTINGS
ZORAN SRDIĆ JANEŽIČ (MAJA PETERLIN) - KIPI / SCULPTURES
FERIT CORPUS ER DEINCEPS RETRO7. OKTOBER - 5. NOVEMBER 2014LAYERJEVA HIŠA - KLET, KRANJ
Katalog razstave / Exhibition catalogue: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK & FORWARDAvtorja / Artists: Gorazd Krnc & Zoran Srdić JanežičIzdelava kipov iz blaga / Making of textille figures: Maja PeterlinFotografije / Photographs : Gorazd Kavčič: 30-31, 32-33, 34-35 Sunčan Patrick Stone: 2-3, 6-7, 22-23 ostale / other : arhiv / archive GulagProducentka in piska spremnega besedila / Producer and text: Jana Putrle SrdićPrevod / Translation : Murray BalesProdukcija / Production : Zavod za sodobne umetnosti in kulture GULAG / Institute for Arts GULAGŠtevilo strani / Number of pages : 36Naklada / Number of copies: 100Leto / Year: 2014
Donator / Donor: Samson KamnikZahvala: Hvala vsem, ki ste pripomogli k uresničitvi razstave (avtorja)
