Punctum

Unusual Art Autobiographies

22. 5.–25. 8. 2024

Švicarija

ARTISTS: Saša Bezjak, Dušan Gerlica, Dean Ivandić, Museum of Too-modern Art, The Witch Twins

The concept of the exhibition goes back to the role of Švicarija, which throughout history has been a clandestine, autonomous and self-organised hotbed of creativity on the edge of the city park. Turning points in time have changed the lives of the residents and the creative paths of the artists, who have always remained connected to the community. The artists in the exhibition also work on the margins of social and creative developments, paving the way for raw and primal testimony. With the exhibition Punctum (Point), we have invited them into a temporary community connected by impulsive creativity.

For the artists, art is a place of confrontation with life and professional challenge. With their sense of freedom and unencumbered by academic posturing, they firmly assert their status as creative dissidents. This year, the Museum of Too-modern Art would have celebrated its 20th anniversary. With works from the museum's estate, we remember the Too-Modernists as an art movement that refused to belong to an artistic direction or style. Dean Ivandić is a former conceptual artist and bookseller. When he closed the Behemot bookshop in Ljubljana, he began to ritually create portraits from the bookshelves as visual memories of the bookshop's visitors. Dušan Gerlica sculpts instinctively. With the installation of wooden sculptures made of sequoia, he invites us to surrender to the materiality and primordial memory of shaped wood. Saša Bezjak explores her intimacy and the fragility of family relations through spatial installations, paintings and sculptures. Her aesthetic expression excels in her personal testimony and her commitment to art helps her to overcome the trials of life. The Witch Twins (Alen and Robi Predanič), who have recreated their intimate sanctuary as a fairytale and surreal world in which the boundaries between dreams and reality disappear, face the outside world in a similar way.

The artists' unusual histories, interrupted or re-established in the exhibition, show the decisive choices they have made in their lives. Their works constantly oscillate between autobiographical elements and creative autofiction, taking unexpected positions and discovering their own focus of artistic expression.

Exhibited works

Museum of Too-modern Art: From the Museum Archive

The Too-modernists in the exhibition: Filip Gregorowitz, Vladimir Leben, Oliver Marčeta, Grega Mastnak, Gregor Nemec, Josip Rochus Pongrac, Ervin Potočnik

Selection from the museum archive: Tomaž Dernovšek - Vinči

Too-modern work evades definition, usually characterised by bizarreness, irony, sarcasm and humour. The Too-modernists are primarily concerned with discovering the limits of the viewer's tolerance when looking at Too-modern work.

Dean Ivandić: 49 Steps

wooden panels, 2014–

The wooden panels were created ritually from the bookshelves of the former Behemot bookshop in Ljubljana. The first panel represents the likeness of Behemot the cat, later the images as visual memories of the bookshop's visitors are transformed into abstract and grotesque icons by the addition of various materials. The diptych Popenil sem & Popenil bom is a play on thoughts and words between the title of the work and the material quality of the polyurethane foam used to make the pieces. The foam is not only an art material in this case, but also has meaning as it is a physical representation of the state of "foaming at the mouth" or becoming very angry, a similar connotation of which is retained in the Slovene word pena meaning foam and popeniti meaning to lose it. With inspired and thoughtful treatment, the artist is still transforming the former bookshelves through their artistic adaptation, hoping to continue the path of personal metamorphosis and liberation from the bookshop era.

Dušan Gerlica: Unlocked Sequoia

wooden sculptures, 2013–2024

The sculpted and carved objects were produced after the artist's ongoing stylistic development over the years. Wood is something living and mystical that the artist transforms into positive energy with childlike naivety and love. Sequoia is a type of wood that is unpredictable in sculptural treatment, as its structure changes or even collapses due to the longevity, slow decay and fall of the tree. Therefore, the artist can only rely on his common sense to recognise the potential of each piece of wood, its unique point or feature, its line, dimensionality, softness and strength. What then follows is a spontaneous, slow working with the chisel, without a plan, simply creating empty and full spaces. After treatment, the sculptures are placed in clean, mineral-rich water, where they initially turn black in places, but take on a red patina after their final sanding. This results in sculptures that can be rotated, viewed from all sides, that can represent organic shapes, objects, animals, faces, masks, symbols or emotions.

Saša Bezjak: Room for the Wounded with Lobby

spatial installation, 2024

The Room for the Wounded with Lobby is the entry point into the artist’s intimacy and subject matter that uses physical immediacy (ceramics, clay, plaster bandages) to address themes touching on the trials of life and the role of women in society. The sketchbooks are visual diaries with drawings that emerge impulsively and use the sensitivity of line to describe the artist's daily life. In dialogue with the sculptural representation of her grandmother Zarja and her portrait, the artist's intimate world extends into dynamic, often fragile relationships with family members.

The Witch Twins (Alen and Robi Predanič): The Mysterious World of the Witch Twins

spatial installation, 2024

The Witch Twins started creating their imaginary world in their student residence room in 2017, turning it into a total work of art. This is where the psychedelic aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s, baroque, decadence, surrealism, extravagance and kitsch all came together. The surreal, nostalgic and mysterious atmosphere is built up by colours, photographs, costumes, props and sculptures made of fabric and paper. The video works, directed and performed by their very selves, are eccentric and humorous portrayals of characters with whom they identify.

Presentations of the artists

The Museum of Too-modern Art, which operated in Spodnji Hotič from its official foundation on 21 May 2004 until its last exhibition in 2017, was the centre of the Too-modern movement. The founders of the movement had met previously at Sava Sovre's painting school. The reason for its foundation was the rejection of Oliver Marče's works by a Ljubljana gallery in 1998 on the grounds that they were too-modern. The members of the movement endeavoured to follow the ideal of pure creativity and drew freely from a variety of artistic forms of expression without committing themselves to a particular artistic style. With the museum, they created their own, self-referential framework for action and remained on the fringes of the institutionalised processes of the contemporary art world.

More: www.internet-portfolio.org

Dean Ivandić studied at the Prague School of Conceptual Tendencies in the class of Professor Miloš Šejn, when Havel still smoked, the "Civic Forum" graffiti could occasionally still be seen in the streets, the Vltava was sometimes dark grey, sometimes dark brown, the metro stations stank, but the lights in the cafés were warm and yellow. His studies involved many exercises with the body and the inner self, less with artefacts and physical material. After graduating in 1997 and returning to Ljubljana, he opened the Behemot bookshop, which enriched Ljubljana with its special atmosphere and carefully selected books in English from 2005 to 2014. The closure of the bookshop marked the end of an important period in his life. Today he sees himself as a former bookseller and a former artist. He lives in Ljubljana.

More: d11va.net

After studying Journalism, Dušan Gerlica worked as a photojournalist and followed the beginnings of the punk movement (published in Tribuna and Mladina). At the same time, he worked as a self-taught sculptor and developed his own sculptural expression resulting from spontaneous and instinctive woodworking. He lives and works in Gorenja Trebuša in the Tolmin region.

More: www.facebook.com/gerlica.dusan

Saša Bezjak graduated in Fine Art Education from the Faculty of Education in Maribor and in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she also completed her master's degree in Sculpture. She is recognised for her drawings without any superfluous detail, which function merely by the suggestiveness of line. The drawings are created impulsively, in great quantities and are later often used as models for her embroideries. With the sensibility of a sculptor, she perceives space as a special category that allows her to express herself in an academically unencumbered way and to experiment more freely. She lives and works in Gornja Radgona.

More: sasabezjak.si

The Witch Twins are the artist duo Alen and Robi Predanič, who create costumes, props, photos and drawings, sculptures, videos and original music. They identify with the character of the rebellious witch and use travesty and theatricality to create a unique fantasy world. They live and work in Brežice.