Ljubljana

MGML

Train station in Trbovlje © Boris Beja

Location

Match Gallery

Trg francoske revolucije 7
1000 Ljubljana

T +386 1 24 12 590
T +386 1 24 12 500
E galerija.vzigalica@mgml.si

Opening hours

Tuesday–Sunday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Monday: Closed
1 January, 1 November, 25 December: Closed
24 and 31 December: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Press kit

More about the artists and their work (.pdf)

Sporočilo za javnost (.doc)

Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia VIII

Tubolje

9. 4. 2024–12. 5. 2024

The focus of the eighth edition of the exhibition series Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia is on Zasavje. The exhibition with a title of broad relevance, Tubolje reveals the artistic potential and cultural influences of the local districts through the works of Boris Beja, Đejmi Hadrović, Maša Jazbec, Matic Kos, Milan Razboršek and Ulla Žibert.

At Trbovlje railway station, when commuters are rushing off the train, one may wonder whether the sign on the board could also be read as Tubolje (HereBetter). Is it better here or is it a pain? Both, perhaps? For the locals of Zasavje, persevering in a town brimming with hope for a better future is often associated with remoteness and compromise, while the vision of the future is inextricably linked to work as a value on the road to self-fulfilment.
The local identity and the cultural and commercial landscape of Zasavje region are strongly influenced by the mining tradition that brought development and self-sufficiency to the area in the late 1970s and golden 1980s. The people of Zasavje are proud of Laibach and Laibach Kunst, which is rooted in the legacy of Janez Knez. Together with painter Franc Kopitar and sculptor Stojan Batič, they formed a cultural landscape whose tradition was taken over by Dejan Knez, a member of Laibach, and Roman Uranjek of IRWIN. The miners’ spirit is also present in the work of the international award-winning maestro of comics and animation, Dušan Kastelic. The renowned painter Nikolaj Beer and the performance and multimedia artist Marko A. Kovačič also found their creative milieu in Zasavje.
At the eighth exhibition of the Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia series at the Match Gallery, we would like to emphasise the importance of artists from Zasavje who are less visible in Ljubljana, to showcase their artistic visions, and thus contribute to their increased presence on the art scene.
Artist and scientist Maša Jazbec presents her multimedia project MIKKEL: Made in Trbovlje. MIKKEL is the artist’s android entity, her posthuman alter ego, which establishes a dialogue with the artist, across a time portal from the future, through letters that are rendered in front of the visitor.
In the manner of a shaman artefact inspired by the Jimmie Durham’s artistic practice of natural mysticism, Matic Kos creates atmospheres and characters out of scrap materials in his multi-media composition The Rise and Fall of a Peculiar Society, which are representatives of historical shifts.
Ulla Žibert’s spatial painting installation, Little Edit, uses light and shadow effects to create a play of words on the canvas and establish a dilemma: “If we cannot foresee the future, can we at least edit it?”
Milan Razboršek is represented by his series of so-called collateral paintings. These portraits are the result of the painter’s creative process of depicting apocalyptic visions on large canvases. Out of the pastel background on which he mixed the colours, he automatically and spontaneously traced the faces of the apocalypse’s witnesses.
In the video Pretend It’s a City: A Letter to Fran Lebowitz, visual artist Đejmi Hadrović discusses her international artistic path in relation to the places where she grew up. The title is a tribute to the directness and poise of the well-known New York writer Fran Lebowitz, which is a humorous commentary on life and the inhabitants of her city.
Composition Alongside Composition - the discipline of the marching song alongside the discipline of the body, culture alongside physical culture, collective music alongside a collective exercise: these are the relations that the sculptor Boris Beja, recalling the traditions of Zasavje, presents as a series of drawings in combination with oak parquet, in which the herringbone appears as a recurring texture both on the gym floor and on the choirmaster’s score.
All the artists presented in the exhibition weigh in their works the question of the well-being and specificity of life in Zasavje, where they tackle the Tubolje (HereBetter) through their peculiar mysticism and visions of the future.

You can read more about the artists and their works HERE

Colophon

Production: Museum and galleries of Ljubljana
Curator: Jani Pirnat
Artists: Boris Beja, Đejmi Hadrović, Maša Jazbec, Matic Kos, Milan Razboršek, Ulla Žibert
This project has been supported by: City of Ljubljana