R X ETC

ŽIVA DRVARIČ &
GAŠPER KUNŠIČ
Endless Return
June 30 —
September 08, 2023

LOCATION
RAVNIKAR GALLERY
Vošnjakova ulica 4
1000 Ljubljana

CURATOR
ETC.

PHOTOGRAPHER
Mario Zupanov

︎︎︎STATEMENT

Through the prism of being trapped in conventions and the magic of reading between the lines suggested by the title Endless Return, Živa Drvarič and Gašper Kunšič are presenting their third joint exhibition. Their individual artistic poetics remain visually and conceptually distinctive, clear and address the experience of a world characterised by entrapment in the established, the conventional and the mundane, and the evocation of meanings hidden behind symbols, social phenomena and seemingly ordinary objects.

Živa Drvarič's objects and images question the function of useful objects, abstract them and invite us to contemplate established ideas and what we expect from the material world. The result is a play of objects and their interaction with the exhibition space. Like the repetition of a word to the point where it loses its meaning, the objects on display encourage us to consider the taken-for-granted use of everyday and ubiquitous tools, such as nails, switches and windows, which already inhabit every space we enter. The artist frees these objects from their primary functions and, thus relieved, they can enter into a play of the visible and the invisible, suggesting an alternation of real and mental spaces between which we exist on a daily basis. The mental space, as an extension of the real, allows us an individual interpretation of reality and everyday life in which things exist not only to be activated by us, but also for us to be activated by them. The gallery installation opens a witty glimpse into the background of the refined installations of art exhibitions, where nails manage to outgrow their basic purpose and freely wind on the other side of the walls, while switches underline the constant flow of switching and constant change within the everyday.

Through a series of drawings charged with pathos, Gašper Kunšič also approaches a different vision and understanding of the texts of emotional songs and the symbols associated with them. In his characteristic palette of colours, he depicts motifs that are at once simple in their narrative and confessional power, and at the same time full of meanings brought to the surface by blue, red, pink and purple coloured pencils. By adapting the meaning of the lyrics of pop songs and turbo-folk tunes, he creates a space of his own poetics and new interpretations that can arise when we try to step out of the seemingly unchangeable. An important characteristic of the songs that appeal to him is their popularity and, along with it, the mainstream understanding, which is most often heteronormative. The artist's visual and semantic reinterpretation allows for a different reading of familiar songs, identification and domestication of emotional verses for someone who is looking for home in the split between nostalgia, the idea of home as a shelter, its images, colours and sounds, and the reality in which home becomes a point to which there can be no return.

In this materialisation, Endless Return is an image of a world subject to the endless return of the same, which, in the visual expression of Živa Drvarič and Gašper Kunšič, escapes black and white existence, constant binary choice and the repetition of the same events and concepts over and over again. The exhibited artworks subtly move us out of the established tracks and direct our gaze towards what remains hidden in plain sight.

︎︎︎ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Živa Drvarič (1988) finished the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main under the mentorship of Judith Hopf and holds an MFA degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She also studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna under the mentorship of Brigitte Kowanz. Her work is inspired by observations related to everyday objects, gestures, language, thoughts and processes – it revolves around looking for similarities between things, transforming ordinary objects, repurposing motifs from her own archive of photographs and looking for new possibilities within the constraints of existing techniques. She has exhibited her work in various group and solo exhibitions at venues such as Galerija Alkatraz, GalerijaGallery, MGLC and Ulay Foundation in Ljubljana, UGM Studio in Maribor, Kunsthalle Bratislava in Bratislava, Laurenz Space and Parallel Vienna in Vienna, Spoiler in Berlin, Sharp Projects in Copenhagen and Portikus and Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main.

Gašper Kunšič (1992) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien and Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule in Frankfurt. He received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia to study abroad. He has exhibited at Škuc Gallery (Ljubljana, 2023), House of Spouse (Vienna, 2023), Wien Museum MUSA (Vienna, 2022), Municipal Gallery of Ljubljana (2021), Gallery Gallery (Ljubljana, 2021), Austrian Cultural Forum (London, 2019), Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture (Ljubljana, 2018), Krinzinger Projekte (Vienna, 2018), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (Vienna, 2017), UGM Studio (Maribor, 2016). He participated in the Biennale Mediterranea 19 (San Marino, 2021). In his work, he appropriates visual references from the Slovenian countryside of his childhood, as well as folk motifs and pop culture from the former Yugoslavia. Through interventions and works, he transforms exhibition spaces into emotionally charged environments that subvert the traditional, creating a new (folklore) world for those who do not belong. He lives and works in Vienna and Frankfurt.

Živa Drvarič in Gašper Kunšič se skozi prizmo ujetosti v konvencije in čarobnosti branja med vrsticami, ki ju sugerira naslov Začarani krog, tokrat tretjič predstavljata na skupni razstavi. Njuni individualni umetniški poetiki pri tem vizualno in konceptualno ostajata prepoznavni, jasni in nagovarjajoči izkustvo sveta, ki ga zaznamuje ujetost v ustaljeno, konvencionalno in vsakdanje ter izvabljanje pomenov, skritih za simboli, družbenimi pojavi in navidez običajnimi predmeti.

Objekti in podobe Žive Drvarič pod vprašaj postavljajo funkcijo uporabnih predmetov, jih abstrahirajo ter vabijo h kontemplaciji ustaljenih predstav in tistega, kar pričakujemo od materialnega sveta. Rezultat je igra objektov in njihova interakcija z razstavnim prostorom. Kakor ponavljanje besede do točke, v kateri izgubi svoj pomen, nas razstavljeni objekti spodbudijo k premisleku samoumevne rabe vsakdanjih in vseprisotnih orodij, kot so na primer žeblji, stikala in okna, ki že naseljujejo vsak prostor, v katerega vstopamo. Umetnica te predmete osvobodi njihovih primarnih funkcij, tako razbremenjeni pa lahko vstopijo v igro vidnega in nevidnega, ki sugerira izmenjevanje realnih in miselnih prostorov, med katerimi vsakodnevno obstajamo. Miselni prostor, kot podaljšek realnega, nam omogoča individualno interpretacijo resničnosti in vsakdana, v katerem stvari ne obstajajo zgolj zato, da jih aktiviramo mi, ampak tudi zato, da one aktivirajo nas. Galerijska postavitev razpre duhovit vpogled v ozadje izščiščenih postavitev umetniških razstav, v katerem žeblji uspejo prerasti svoj osnovni namen ter prosto vijugajo na drugi strani sten, stikala pa podčrtajo konstantni tok preklapljanja in konstantnih sprememb znotraj vsakdana.

Tudi Gašper Kunšič se skozi serijo risb, nabitih s patosom, približuje drugačnemu uvidu in razumevanju besedil čustvenih pesmi ter z njimi povezanih simbolov. V svoji značilni barvni paleti upodablja motive, ki so obenem preprosti v svoji pripovedni in izpovedni moči ter hkrati polni pomenov, ki jih na površje izvabljajo modri, rdeči, rožnati in vijolični barvni svinčniki. S prirejanjem pomena besedil pesmi zabavne glasbe, popa, turbofolka ali popevk ustvarja prostor lastne poetike in novih interpretacij, ki lahko vzniknejo, ko poskušamo izstopiti iz navidez nespremenljivega. Pomembna lastnost pesmi, ki ga nagovarjajo, je namreč njihova priljubljenost in z njo mainstream razumevanje, ki je največkrat heteronormativno. Umetnikova vizualna in pomenska reinterpretacija omogoča drugačno branje znanih napevov, identifikacijo ter udomačitev čustvenih verzov nekomu, ki išče dom v razcepljenosti med nostalgijo, idejo doma kot zavetja, njegovih podob, barv in zvokov ter resničnostjo, v kateri je dom točka, kamor ni povratka.

Začarani krog je v tokratni materializaciji podoba sveta, podvrženega večnemu vračanju enakega, ki se v vizualnem izrazu Žive Drvarič in Gašperja Kunšiča izmika črno-belemu obstoju, konstantni binarni izbiri ter ponavljanju vselej istih dogodkov in konceptov. Razstavljena umetniška dela nas subtilno premikajo iz ustaljenih tirnic ter naš pogled usmerjajo k tistemu, kar ostaja skrito prav pred našimi očmi.

Živa Drvarič (1988) je pod mentorstvom Judith Hopf zaključila študij na Städelschule v Frankfurtu na Majni ter na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani magistrirala iz slikarstva. Pod mentorstvom Brigitte Kowanz je študirala še na dunajski Univerzi za uporabno umetnost. Njena umetniška dela nastajajo na podlagi opazovanja predmetov, gest, jezika, misli in procesov iz vsakdana. Izhajajo iz iskanja podobnosti med stvarmi, transformiranja vsakodnevnih objektov, obujanja motivov iz lastnega fotografskega arhiva ter raziskovanja novih možnosti znotraj uporabe klasičnih tehnik. Svoja dela je predstavila na različnih skupinskih in samostojnih razstavah, med drugim v Galeriji Alkatraz, GalerijiGallery, MGLC-ju in Ulay Foundation v Ljubljani, UGM Studiu v Mariboru, Kunsthalle Bratislava v Bratislavi, Laurenz Space in Parallel Vienna na Dunaju, Spoiler v Berlinu, Sharp Projects v Kopenhagnu ter Portikus in Städelschule v Frankfurtu na Majni.

Gašper Kunšič (1992) je študiral na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje Univerze v Ljubljani, na Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien in Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien ter na Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule v Frankfurtu. Za študij v tujini je prejemal štipendijo Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije. Razstavljal je v Galeriji Škuc (Ljubljana, 2023), House of Spouse (Dunaj, 2023), Wien Museum MUSA (Dunaj, 2022), Mestni galeriji Ljubljana (2021), Galerija Gallery (Ljubljana, 2021), Avstrijskem kulturnem forumu (London, 2019), Centru urbane kulture Kino Šiška (Ljubljana, 2018), Krinzinger Projekte (Dunaj, 2018), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (Dunaj, 2017), UGM Studiu (Maribor, 2016). Sodeloval je na bienalu Mediterranea 19 (San Marino, 2021). Kunšič v delu apropriira vizualne reference slovenskega podeželja svojega otroštva ter folklorne motive in popkulturo območja bivše Jugoslavije. Razstavne prostore z intervencijami in deli preoblikuje v čustveno nabite ambiente, ki pokvirjajo tradicionalno in s tem ustvarjajo nov (folklorni) svet za tiste, ki ne pripadajo. Živi in dela na Dunaju in v Frankfurtu.

︎︎︎INSTALLATION VIEWS