R — MY FAMILIAR UNFAMILIAR
Nevena Aleksovski & Maja Babič Košir
I dreamed there was an island
[May 13 — June 30, 2022]
www.ravnikargallery.spaceI dreamed there was an island is the first joint exhibition project by Nevena Aleksovski and Maja Babič Košir, who work together under the name MY FAMILIAR UNFAMILIAR. The formation of the artist duo was a spontaneous and natural process that came about thanks to their very similar artistic practices and methods. The result is a distinctly multimedia and multilayered experiment, a specific visual dialogue between the two artists, who otherwise work independently in printmaking, illustration, drawing, painting and sculpture, but who share far more than complementary tastes and aesthetics. With certain aspects of their identity (woman, artist, precarious worker and migrant), they tried to find common ground that would help them transform the particular into the universal. They found these initially in their fragmented, minimalist pictorial language, but later also in their exploration of notions of origin and personal as well as collective identity in the context of the Yugoslav arena, in their exploration of the experience of (non-)belonging, alienation and nostalgia, and not least in the question of how the answers to these questions – which are usually never really answered, as they are never absolute – have shaped their artistic practices. Through the creative process, they found that both explore seemingly contradictory relationships that are of constitutive importance to them on a personal and creative level, such as past/present, internal/external, emotional/rational, independent/collective and personal/political.
The new collaboration, which like any partnership requires a certain degree of empathy, led them to an in-depth exploration of their personal archives (both metaphorical and real) and to a constant exchange: they consciously used dialogue as a specific artistic strategy. Their mutual communication took place on various (even unconscious) levels, especially intuitively when they translated it into the visual world; artworks intertwine, complement each other and create their own dialogues, like a living organism they are transformed, destroyed and reshaped depending on the contexts in which they are placed.
The ambient installation consists of spatial interventions with found and manufactured objects and canvases, drawings and collages. The artists paid particular attention to researching archival material and using discarded objects, especially vases and jugs, in the awareness that they have different functions in art and cultural history, from painted ancient vases to their representations in the centuries-old tradition of still life painting. Vases and jars form fragile, delicate columns that, in combination with robust materials (concrete, metal), testify to the search for balance. Reflecting on history through the intimate experience of the past has led them to think about art today, its potentials and possibilities, and their own roles and positions as artists. Their decision to join forces, cooperate and rely on genuine human contact, feedback and relationship can in itself be understood as a hopeful (protest) attitude.
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I dreamed there was an island je prvi razstavni projekt umetniške dvojice Nevene Aleksovski in Maje Babič Košir, ki skupaj delujeta pod imenom MY FAMILIAR UNFAMILIAR. Formiranje umetniškega dueta je bil spontan in naraven proces, do katerega je prišlo zahvaljujoč njunim zelo sorodnim umetniškim praksam in metodam. Rezultat je izrazito večmedijski in večplasten eksperiment, specifičen vizualni dialog med umetnicama, ki samostojno sicer ustvarjata na področjih grafike, ilustracije, risbe, slike in skulpture, a ju obenem druži veliko več kot komplementarna okus in estetika. Z določenimi aspekti njunih identitet (ženska, umetnica, prekarka in migrantka) sta poskusili poiskati stične točke, ki bi jima pomagale transformirati partikularno v univerzalno. Te sta sprva našli v njunem fragmentiranem, minimalističnem likovnem jeziku, kasneje pa tudi v raziskovanju idej porekla in osebne ter kolektivne identitete v kontekstu pojugoslovanskega prostora, raziskovanju izkušnje (ne)pripadnosti, odtujenosti in nostalgije, ter nenazadnje kako so odgovori na ta vprašanja – ki praviloma nikoli niso absolutni – izoblikovali njuni umetniški praksi. Skozi ustvarjalni proces sta ugotovili, da obe raziskujeta navidez nasprotujoče si relacije, ki so za njiju na osebni in ustvarjalni ravni konstitutivnega pomena, kot so preteklost/sedanjost, notranje/zunanje, čustveno/racionalno, samostojno/kolektivno ter osebno/politično.
Novo sodelovanje, ki kot vsako partnerstvo implicitno zahteva določeno mero empatije, ju je vodilo do poglobljenega raziskovanja osebnih arhivov (tako metaforičnih kot resničnih) in neprestane izmenjave: dialog sta uporabljali načrtno, kot specifično umetniško strategijo. Njuna medsebojna komunikacija je potekala na različnih (tudi nezavednih) nivojih, še posebej intuitivno, ko sta jo prevedli v vizualni svet; umetniška dela se medsebojno prepletajo, dopolnjujejo ter ustvarjajo svoje lastne dialoge, kot živ organizem se transformirajo, rušijo in znova izoblikujejo v odvisnosti od kontekstov, v katere so postavljeni.
Ambientalno instalacijo sestavljajo prostorske intervencije z najdenimi in oblikovanimi objekti ter platna, risbe in kolaži. Posebno pozornost sta umetnici namenili raziskavi arhivskih materialov in rabi zavrženih predmetov, specifično vaz in vrčev, z razumevanjem, da imajo le-ti raznolike funkcije skozi celotno zgodovino umetnosti in kulture, od poslikanih antičnih vaz do njihovih upodobitev v večstoletni slikarski tradiciji tihožitja. Vaze in vrči tvorijo krhke, delikatne stebre, ki v kombinaciji z robustnimi materiali (beton, kovina) povedno pričajo o iskanju ravnovesja. Refleksija zgodovine skozi intimno doživljanje preteklosti ju je vodila do premisleka o umetnosti danes, o njenih potencialih in možnostih ter o lastnih vlogah in pozicijah, ki jih kot umetnici zavzemata. Njuno odločitev za združitev moči, za sodelovanje, ki zasleduje pristni človeški kontakt, odziv in odnos, gre samo po sebi razumeti kot upanja polno (protestno) držo.
