The exhibition itself endeavors to juxtapose historical notion of Ulay’s photographic work and his contemporary engagement in the field of Water. One of the key characteristics of Ulay's early work was a tireless research of the medium (photography and performance), and its content, with a decided emphasis on the ethics, which was typical of anti-art artists of the 20th century. This tireless research is also the common thread of the exhibition Earth Water Catalogue, as it juxtaposes Ulay’s recent works installed in Judgment Tower with works three artists of younger generation. As Ulay, with his installation in Judgment Tower, is avoiding his “primary” medium of photography, the juxtaposed works (photograms and photographic series) of artists Daniel Tobias Braun, Andreas Friedrich and Michael Schmidt are making a direct reference to it. With this conceptual turn the exhibition can be read on two different levels. As completely contemporary exhibition, which addresses the issues the issue of water, which is Ulay's primary field occupation now. And on the other hand we can read it as a direct historical reference to Ulay's photographic oeuvres. An artwork and the exhibition as a whole are constituted in relation to the viewers and their perception, which is why an exhibition as a language of mediation cannot ignore this fact. The more effective the exhibition is as monolith of form or content, the more reduced is the viewer’s perception. Thus individual works of art, or an exhibition as a whole, are reduced simply to perceptions through the prism of form or content, not only complementing them. This relationship is somehow the theme of Earth Water Catalogue. Juxtaposing of works creates a tension in the space, toying with the viewer’s perception, which is connected to his/her behavior, memory or rational, emotional or aesthetic experience.
Second part of the exhibition of Earth Water Catalogue is based on the principle that is crucial for the development of the project – collaboration. Exchange of ideas, facts and experiences is crucial for the development of relevant online platform and archive. Of course collaboration itself has its symbolic means – to joint people with similar ideas and overcome individual positions. With this reason the one part of the exhibition will be “choreographed” by an artist Matej Andraž Voginčič who is very well know by his site-specific installations with which he tries to narrate stories about the spaces in which he creates. He always seeks to tap into the unique character of the venue, which he then transforms and enriches with
a whole new dimension through his art. Installation that he will prepare for the exhibition Earth Water Catalogue will have it’s base in the specifics of water as such, using mostly symbols related to that (fountains, bottles,..) and try to connect it to the to the space itself. Vogrinčič is thus among those artists who use the venue to define their objects so as to establish a relationship of interdependence between them - the object cannot function without the venue and the venue cannot function without the object. Another important component of Vogrinčič’s installations, in addition to this reliance on a specific venue, is temporariness. His installations are largely conceived so as to include the perception of looking through a camera lens, which somehow makes photography an integral part of the artwork, i.e. a chronicle of art, not just a record of a past event. Of course, it needs to be stressed that experiencing an installation as opposed to photography is quite different. However, neither enables the viewer to experience a vital component of Vogrinčič’s work -
the creative process. The artist says that his works are created through a creative process and never emerge completed at the very beginning. The process thus coshapesand defines an artwork.
Within the exhibition of Earth Water Catalogue there will be installed an inte
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ULAY, Earth Water Catalogue (Exhibition and Artist Intervention)
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