JANJA KOSI
Serving suggestion
September 15 —
October 25, 2021
LOCATIONR SPACE
Gosposka ulica 16
1000 Ljubljana
CURATORPiera Ravnikar

TEXT
Eva Simonič
PHOTOGRAPHER
Mario Zupanov

︎︎︎STATEMENT
            R SPACE is a project space whose exhibition programme thematises the question of space and at the same time addresses a broad spectrum of the nuances of its meaning. Participating artists have the opportunity to explore and interpret the concept of space, either in its manifestations or as abstract metaphors, using a non-standard exhibition format and, above all, pursuing their own creative process in the course of realising the exhibition. The exhibitions in their initial form do not represent the final, complete totality of the creative process, but consist of three phases of development and continue to change during the first week after the opening. The focus is on the process of making the exhibition. The artists constantly document their process (inside and outside the gallery space), creating the exhibition as well as its archive and providing an insight into the background, the cogs of the mechanisms involved in the conception, preparation and realisation of the exhibition.

           R SPACE, a new artistic initiative of RAVNIKAR GALLERY SPACE, was launched in collaboration with ZRC SAZU and is aimed at the youngest generation of artists who present themselves mainly in the mediums of painting, drawing and sculpture in all its dimensions and forms.

           The artist Janja Kosi will be the first to present herself in R SPACE with the project Serving Suggestion, which has already been shown in part at DobraVaga Gallery and at Art Stays Festival of Contemporary Art. It is based on the idea of the postcard as the bearer of the image of the most brilliant architectural and other sights a place has to offer. Here, however, the illustrations of Ikea chain shopping centres from 11 different cities beam at us. These are now admired "like a tourist studying a mediaeval cathedral" and treated as a superior experience that such consumer spaces always promise. Using the postcards as templates, she went on to produce modular paper models of the buildings depicted, the individual parts of which can be freely assembled into any composition. In a final step, she reproduced the resulting formations in an illusionistic stroke on canvases; like following an instruction manual for the step-by-step assembly of furniture, the artist intervened in the chain of successive, thoughtful interventions in various materials and mediums to finally achieve an appealing image of the final, promotional product.

           In the new installation, Kosi continues her exploration of architecture as the process and site of an event, experience, story. She combines her memories of family trips to Ikea with the idea that we make sense of our own (home)life through architecture, without which we cannot even imagine living. A particular space (a built structure) only becomes architecture when a living story of people becomes entangled in it, when it absorbs an experience that merges with it to such an extent that the characteristic design of a space can become a sign of the experience itself – in this sense, for the artist, shopping in Ikea centres will forever be linked to its architectural form and the childhood memories associated with it. We can conclude that architecture is not only a physical, "real" space, but also and above all a space of human experience of what happens in a given space. The space is both the scene and the evidence of an event, it is a witness, a memory of an event: a certain event and a certain space are inseparable. From this perspective, the artist also sees the gallery as a home space that she herself furnishes and to which she gives meaning by bringing in her experience – her artwork. Assuming that architecture has the capacity to sustain the emotional charge and attachment of its users to it, the artist will leave an indelible mark on R SPACE with her exhibition (event, experience). She builds (up) the exhibition step by step and in several stages that correspond to the phases of her artistic approach described previously.

RAVNIKAR GALLERY SPACE in collaboration with ZRC SAZU.



︎︎︎ABOUT THE ARTIST
            Janja Kosi (1994, Maribor) studied Painting at the Academy for Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she graduated in 2016. In 2020, she completed her master studies with the thesis The Everyday Life of Heterotopic Space and practical piece X°Y’Z’’ N – A°B’C’’ E, for which she received the ALUO Award for Outstanding Creative and Study Achievements. She spent part of her studies on an exchange programme at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. She works in the fields of visual art, painting, illustration and animation. So far she has presented herself in the solo exhibitions Serving Suggestion (DobraVaga, Ljubljana 2021), darling the roof is leaking (DLUL Gallery, Ljubljana 2019) and in many group exhibitions, such as Art Stays (Fo.Vi Gallery, Kidričevo, 2021), EKO8 (UGM-MTT, Maribor 2021), Temporary. Until further notice. (Fotopub, Ljubljana 2020), EKO 8 Launch Days (UGM-MTT, Maribor 2020), 4WD; The Polycentricity of Painting Issues in the Works of Four Authors (Moderna Galery, Zagreb 2020), Another time and place (Improper Walls, Vienna 2019). Spatial installations and the integration of different mediums characterise her practice. In her work, she often explores the concepts of (non) space, home and homeliness, and the relationship between man and architecture.



            R SPACE je projektni prostor, čigar razstavni program bo tematiziral vprašanja prostora in obenem naslavljal širok razpon njegovih pomenskih odtenkov. Sodelujoče umetnice in umetniki bodo lahko skozi nestandardiziran format razstav, predvsem pa njihovemu ustvarjalnemu procesu prilagojen potek realizacije razstave, z raznolikimi metodami raziskovali in tolmačili pojem prostora, interpretiranega bodisi v njegovih pojavnih oblikah bodisi kot abstraktne metaforike. Razstave v svoji začetni obliki ne bodo končna, zaključena celota ustvarjalnega procesa, temveč bodo sestavljene iz treh razvojnih faz in se bodo v prvem tednu po odprtju še spreminjale. Poudarek bo na samem procesu izgradnje razstave, umetnice in umetniki bodo z nenehnim dokumentiranjem svojega procesa (v galerijskem prostoru in izven njega), sproti ustvarjali tako razstavo kot tudi njen lasten arhiv, obenem pa nam posredovali vpogled v zakulisje dogajanja, v kolesje mehanizmov zasnove, priprave in realizacije razstave.

            R SPACE, nova umetniška iniciativa RAVNIKAR GALLERY SPACE, je nastal v sodelovanju z ZRC SAZU in je namenjen najmlajši generaciji ustvarjalk in ustvarjalcev, ki se bodo predstavljali pretežno v medijih slikarstva, risbe in kiparstva, v vseh njihovih razsežnostih in oblikah.

            V R SPACE se bo prva predstavila umetnica Janja Kosi, s projektom Predlog serviranja, ki je bil deloma že prikazan v galeriji DobraVaga in na festivalu sodobne umetnosti Art Stays. Osnovan je na ideji razglednice kot nosilke podobe najsijajnejših arhitekturnih in drugih znamenitosti, s katerimi se kraj ponaša, le, da se na njih bleščijo ilustracije trgovskih centrov verige Ikea iz 11 različnih mest. Ti so sedaj občudovani »kakor turist proučuje srednjeveško katedralo« in obravnavani kot vrhunsko doživetje, ki nam ga tovrstni prostori potrošnje zmeraj znova obljubljajo. Po predlogah razglednic je nato izdelala modularne papirnate modele upodobljenih zgradb, katerih posamični kosi so lahko svobodno sestavljeni v poljubne kompozicije. V zadnjem koraku je nastale formacije v iluzionistični potezi upodobila še na platnih; kot bi korak za korakom sledila napotkom za sestavljanje pohištva, je umetnica v verigi zaporednih, dobro premišljenih intervencij posegala v raznovrstne materiale in medije tako, da je naposled dosegla privlačno podobo končnega, reklamnega izdelka.

            V novi postavitvi Kosi nadaljuje svoje raziskovanje arhitekture kot procesa in kraja dogodka, izkušnje, zgodbe. Spomine na družinske izlete v Ikeo je povezala z razmišljanjem, da lastno (pre)bivanje osmišljamo skozi arhitekturo, brez katere si bivanja sploh ne znamo predstavljati. Specifičen prostor (grajena struktura) postane arhitektura šele, ko je vanj vpeta živa zgodba ljudi, ko pridobi izkušnjo, ki se z njim spoji do te mere, da lahko značilno oblikovanje nekega prostora postane znak za izkušnjo samo; v tem primeru bo za umetnico nakupovanje v Ikeinih trgovskih centrih za zmeraj povezano z njeno arhitekturno formo in otroškimi spomini, vezanimi nanjo. Sklenemo lahko, da arhitektura ni le fizični, »realni« prostor, pač pa tudi in predvsem prostor človekovega doživljanja tega, kar se v danem prostoru dogaja. Prostor je prizorišče in hkrati dokaz dogodka, je priča, spomin o nekem dogodku: specifičen dogodek in specifičen prostor postaneta neločljivo povezana. Skozi to perspektivo je umetnica tudi o galeriji razmišljala kot o domačem prostoru, ki ga opremlja, torej osmišlja tako, da vanj vnaša svojo izkušnjo – svoje umetniško delo. Če velja, da ima arhitektura sposobnost ohranjati čustven naboj in navezanost njenih uporabnikov nanjo, bo umetnica s svojo razstavo (dogodkom, izkušnjo) za zmeraj zaznamovala R SPACE. Razstavo bo (iz)gradila postopoma, v več stopnjah, ki se bodo ujemale s prej opisanimi fazami njenimi umetniških postopkov.


            Janja Kosi (1994) je študirala slikarstvo na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani, kjer je leta 2016 diplomirala, v letu 2020 pa študij zaključila z magistrsko nalogo Vsakdanjost heterotopičnega prostora in naslovom praktičnega dela X°Y’Z’’ N – A°B’C’’ E, za katero je prejela nagrado ALUO za izjemne ustvarjalne in študijske dosežke. Del študija je preživela na izmenjavi na Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst v Leipzigu. Deluje na področju vizualne umetnosti, slikarstva, ilustracije in animacije. Svoja dela je predstavila na samostojnih razstavah v R SPACE, DobraVaga in Galeriji DLUL ter na skupinskih razstavah v Sloveniji in tujini, med drugim na festivalu Art Stays na Ptuju, v Umetnostni galeriji Maribor, v Fotopubu v Ljubljani, na trienalu EKO8 v Mariboru, v galeriji Academia Moderna v Zagrebu in v galeriji Improper Walls na Dunaju. Za njeno umetniško prakso so značilne prostorske instalacije in kombiniranje različnih medijev. Kosi pogosto raziskuje koncepte (ne)prostora, doma in domačnosti ter odnos med človekom in arhitekturo.

︎︎︎INSTALLATION VIEWS