Layering

Artists: Igor Andjelić, Maja Babič Košir & Nevena Aleksovski, Mirsad Begić, Emerik Bernard, Viktor Bernik, Vanja Bućan, Mito Gegič, Marjan Gumilar, Stane Jagodič, Žiga Kariž, Dušan Kirbiš, Janja Kosi, Marko A. Kovačič, Polonca Lovšin, Mina Fina, Alen Ožbolt, Alenka Pirman, Ivo Prančič, Adrijan Praznik, Mojca Senegačnik, Small but dangers, Mladen Stropnik, Maruša Štibelj, Andrej Štular, Tugo Šušnik, Terrah, Marko Tušek, Žarko Vrezec, V.S.S.D.

Following a series of group exhibition projects focusing on different thematic areas, this exhibition is the first to focus on painting, but also on sculptural practices, in the medium of collage and assemblage. The collage or cut-and-paste technique – whose beginnings and developments date back to the modern era of European art, Cubism and later Dadaism, New Realism, Pop Art, Conceptualism and Postmodernism, through to contemporary multimedia art – has been further developed in physical and pictorial terms by artists in its more monumental form – assemblage – achieving a greater collage effect in the formal architecture of the pictorial field, greater prominence of contents and connections between used elements as well as the possibility of incorporating "outside stuff" in the form of waste material. In this sense, assemblage represents a more complex form of collage.

Although the beginnings of the collage technique can already be sought in the ancient history of mosaics and mediaeval stained glass, in this case, it is a method of construction used to create a recognisable figurative or geometric motif from a single material, i.e. stone or glass. The artistic techniques of collage and assemblage, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with the construction of an artwork by deconstructing the original material – be it paper, textile, wood, PVC, etc., which is cut, torn, broken and twisted – and repositioning and juxtaposing it in a new context, thus giving the resulting works the possibility of new readings. Artists select the materials for their compositions from various sources, building them up by following the principles of contrasting and layering. However, a simple description of the individual components does not provide a complete understanding of what a particular collage, montage or assemblage is. In the end, this is not so important, because what is essential for understanding an artwork lies in the capacity of its message, which is grasped through the totality of its meaning at the level of perception in all directions of the gaze, whether from detail to the whole or vice versa, each in their own unique way. 

While collage is typically easy to distinguish from assemblage – the basic rule being that if it hangs on the wall, it is a collage, and if it occupies a space, it is an assemblage – in practice, this boundary is often blurred. These techniques reached their peak during modernism, a movement fundamentally concerned with breaking down boundaries of all kinds. In this type of modernist tradition – both in methodological approaches and in its thematic meanings – nearly all artistic movements and directions adopted the technique, right up to the present day, where we find a rich legacy of earlier practices in highly modified and heterogeneous forms of artistic artefacts. The stylistic features of collage and the assemblage process developed rapidly alongside visual art in the 20th century, extending into literature, film, music, architecture and even philosophy. However, they are not dealt with in this exhibition due to their specific nature. 

The exhibition Layering includes works by selected Slovenian artists of all generations who have employed these techniques, either as a primary or occasional working method from the late 1970s to the present. It invites reflection on the gap between clear definitions and artistic practice, as it becomes apparent that works that can be clearly categorised as belonging to one technique or another are the exception rather than the rule. Some artists hang their three-dimensional works on the wall instead of placing them in the space, while others position two-dimensional works in the space or even use collages and assemblages to create installations.

The design of the exhibition is an integral part of its set-up. This time, the designer has embraced it in three design layers emerging from the white wall, the colour and the freestanding structure. In this way, the title and theme of the exhibition are suggestively defined and visualised in a contrasting dynamic together with the artworks to form a coherent, atmospheric whole.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday, November 15th, 2024, at 7:00 PM at Cukrarna Gallery.