An erudite personality, one of the intriguing aspects of Zmago Jeraj’s (1937–2015) intellectual world was his interest in literature. Within this framework, among others, belongs his enthusiasm for the work of the Polish writer and painter Bruno Schulz (1892–1942). To reflect this interest, the exhibition attempts to symbolically connect both authors through some of its elements. Thus, we have borrowed the exhibition’s title from one of Schulz’s stories, “A Night in July”. A line from the text, “I take a long step across a windowsill”, aptly describes a group of Jeraj’s works that awakened our attention. It is a group of selected paintings, photographs and graphic prints from the early mature phase of Jeraj’s opus at the end of the 1960s and 1970s, in which Jeraj deals with a specific problem: the relationship and transitioning between interior and exterior spaces, between inside and outside, between closed and open. In the images presented in the exhibition, we often see, on the one side, borders, barriers and fences, and on the other side, pathways and openings that “break” the former. The design of the exhibition’s installation, signed by Toni Soprano Meneglejte, is also connected to the exhibition’s concept: the question of spatiality in the works of Zmago Jeraj.

Secret Garden, Creative and sensorial-meditative corner to accompany the exhibition by Zmago Jeraj

All visitors to Zmago Jeraj’s exhibition are welcome to step into the Secret Garden, which is open to both individuals and groups. It is a creative space (with a workshop equipped with tools to unleash your printmaking creativity) and a meditative black chamber where you can feel the poetry of Jeraj’s pictorial world. The space is sensorially designed, with specially created smell, sound and light, intended for calming the mind, relaxation, meditation and mindfulness.

Untitled, 1969, photograph, 55,5 x 37,5 cm

Untitled, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm

Father's Shop (illustration for Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz), 1974, acrylic on wood, 61 x 50 cm

Untitled, 1975, acrylic on canvas 83,5 x 62 cm