IMAGINE !

Veli Silver drew the word imagine upside down on the top of the Israeli security fence. The inversion of the word challenges us to think about how it would be if it were written correctly. Suddenly, the wall would no longer be a barrier, but would hang as a memory or a bizarre architectural element above free passageway. A bitter illusion, realistic expectation, or merely a visual adventure? That depends on the instruments which influence our imagination, thinking, interpretation and representation in general. Today’s imagery is almost completely subject to consumer ideology, while the process of representation is held in the tight grasp of its goals. The incessant pounding of a multitude of visual impressions constantly pushes us into a carefully constructed and defined future, completely blocking the contemplation of reality. We live in a world of banal, shallow and veiled perspectives on our apparent wishes and needs. What is the image of actuality, which is increasingly disappearing like a ghost instead of becoming stronger in our consciousness as reality? Artistic presentation rejects instantaneous seduction, banality and manipulation (as an effect), and defies the rapid and elusive passage of time with various procedures, although it seems that the life-span of art works is also being reduced to mere presentation and the moment. Therefore, the exhibition Imagine! does not seek to present the latest production, but reveals different artistic practices and procedures. It confronts the works of Veli Silver, Mirko Bratuša, Ana Čigon, Sašo Vrabič and Zmago Lenardič as credible witnesses of the present, which do not embellish it, but show it as it is.

Veli Silver’s graffiti may not exist anymore, but photographs still reveal them as witty and critical images which metaphorically break one of the most recognisable contemporary symbols of separation. A heart built of bricks, a pyramid, and messages written in huge letters saying Imagine, New York Times and David Copperfield was here are not marketing labels, but cynical illustrations of the cruel realities of those completely separated by the wall. An unusual group wrapped in pieces of cloth and with halos under their arms glorifies hedonism and the fulfilment of wishes and needs in a relaxed state of leisure. These are, as Javier Fuentes Feo once wrote, the saints of high capitalism, post-bourgeois pleasure-seekers in a bored and glutted society, or the children of nihilism and being for nothing more but sheer existence. Mirko Bratuša manages to present the burlesque of our time; anonymous saints, those who enjoy superficial consumer society, are a mockery of values embedded in society. The video by Ana Čigon is marked by a simple, formally pure, convincing and unforced dramaturgy. Scenes showing the successful breaking of commas are sequenced in a uniform rhythm until – to the surprise of the audience – one comma breaks. At this key moment, the narrative stops and freezes in the message: this is a natural, defiant posture. A simple metaphor which offers an eternal and everlasting truth without flirtation or deception. Socialising with friends, chatting while drinking coffee, playing with children, and portraits of intimates make up Vrabič’s diary notes in pencil, where words are replaced by visual impressions on a piece of paper or gallery wall. Sašo Vrabič enjoys the simple image of the everyday and ensures that this apparent banality does not slip past us. In a special way, his art promotes the wish to be what we are, and not what we could or should be Fireworks paraphrased in a video model of a rhythmic performance of Bach’s Kleine Präludien, a picture of a schematic or frozen image of a falling star, and a drawing of Chinese eavesdropping could each be perceived as an individual visual entity, but Zmago Lenárdič places them in a coordinated dialogical relationship. The viewer is thus prompted to engage his/her own powers of visualisation, transform the variety of resulting experiences into a single one and thus reveal that which is concealed. This very paradox is typical of the contemporary mode of perception – we look, but we just do not see.

Curators: Polona Lovšin and Božo Zrinski

The exhibion is part of Local Talk series.

IMAGINE !
Kuratoren: Polona Lovsin, Bozo Zrinski

Künstler: Mirko Bratusa, Ana Cigon, Zmago Lenardic, Veli Silver, Saso Vrabic