We invite you to the opening of the exhibition Project Beam and goodness of the world, by Katja Smerdu, Marjeta Medved and Natasha Spiranec, on Friday, 16. 1., at 19. uri in art KUHA / Art ODEON Gallery, 4 Street of Overseas brigades, Izola.
It is a continuation of the art project presented in 2024 at the Veseli vrt Gallery of the Society of fine artists Ljubljana (DLUL) under the title on the doorstep of Zharkina's kitchen – zor premen.
Description:
The Rays and goodness of the world is a performative, multi-faceted symbolic and branched sensory spatial installation that enters the world of sensuality and aesthetics of invisible life forces in a peculiar exploratory way. In the corners it almost smells of spirituality and esotericism, but already at the same moment it is grounded on the threshold of contemplating the organicity of life and the possibility of transforming and reviving manifestations.
Marked by femininity, emotionality and sensuality, symbolic connotations and the capture of dichotomy, the spatial setting is excited by what is behind and invisible, but so very active and decisive. The authors emphasize that their joint work enacts the contradictions of the world, the tension changes that ignite and swirl life processes in this world: "the changes of opposites, like the play of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and the mysterious quintessence of every being, happen all the time, and every time we contemplate them in our own way. They raise questions, sometimes give an answer in themselves, but they are definitely the engine of life.«
The common motivation of the exhibition project is the Ray, an emerging charismatic mythological phenomenon that personifies light and goodness. This is perceived by the authors in a randomly found trunk of a cut Yew Tree, dumped and abandoned on the side of the road, to which academic sculptors Katja Smerdu and Marjeta Medved breathe life again. Once living matter, created and deprived of life in hard and callous human hands, is transformed into a totem of museum or gallery value, which professes the light of the world and the goodness of life, by rekindling the bond between materiality and life.
The deeper opposite that the authors touch, however, is the rebellious attitude on the side of the world, which, without a hint of empathy or gratitude, cuts the scales of the pure metaphysics of goodness – the possibility of life, that it is and exists only on itself. Their feminist composition combines in a display of sensitivity, empathy and emotional positioning towards the marginal world, towards those and those who have trampled rights and their roots intersect. After all, their body is neither rewarded nor commemorated, but merely thrown away and forgotten. The world is still clothed in patriarchy, whose hand is callous, his attitude manipulatively rational, and his victims too many.
The installation is a precious tribute to sensuality and life, a gentle, kind-hearted creative energy that inspires life and gratefully turns to it. The Ray sculpture, drawn out of wood by Dajetka Medved and dressed in metal clothes by Katja Smerdu, acts as an altar to goodness – that metaphysical phenomenon that is often not seen, as it is not exposed, dazzling, and covered by a multitude of empty kindness and good-heartedness, bad images of what actual goodness is. Goodness is that energy that arises from itself and is not perishable and does not disappear in the world, in contrast to the manifestations of the consumer world, in which everything has an expiration date and instructions.
The Ray sculpture in front of us comes to life in the world of manual creativity by women authors, fabrics and watercolors, as well as smells created by botanist Natasha Spiranec. Each of the artifacts on display is an expression of one element of life. The visuality of creative manual is only part of the phenomenon; there is much more to it. We pass to this with symbolism, already known and that which arises here and now, creating and binding new sign language, new poetics of spaces, creation and compassion. In the material lying somewhere along the road, one can find that vividness and goodness that shaped it, which gave birth to it.
The Ray and goodness of the world are woven together by the opposing dimensions of the world, visibility and matter with an invisible atmosphere co-created by smells and energies. They stretch the space, break the appearance of existing matter and draw us into a world of environmental, emotional and energetic installation, through which the artists communicate with gentle and subtle activism what kind of world they want to co-shape.
The exhibition will be open until 3. 4. 2026.
Vabimo vas na otvoritev razstavnega projekta Žarka in dobrote sveta, avtoric Katje Smerdu, Marjete Medved in Nataše Špiranec, v petek, 16. 1., ob 19. uri v ART KUHA / Galerija ART ODEON, Ulica Prekomorskih brigad 4, Izola.
Gre za nadaljevanje umetniškega projekta, ki je bil leta 2024 predstavljen v Galeriji Veseli vrt Društva likovnih umetnikov Ljubljana (DLUL) pod naslovom Na pragu Žarkine kuhinje – zor premen.
OPIS:
Žarka in dobrote sveta je performativna, večplastno simbolična in razvejano senzorična prostorska instalacija, ki na svojstven raziskovalen način vstopa v svet čutnosti in estetike nevidnih življenjskih sil. V kotičkih skoraj zadiši po duhovnosti in ezoteriki, a se že v istem trenutku prizemlji na pragu zrenja v organskost življenja ter v možnosti preoblikovanja in oživljanja pojavnih oblik.
Prostorska postavitev, ki jo zaznamujejo feminilnost, čustvenost in čutnost, simbolične konotacije in zajemanje dihotomije, se navdušuje nad tem, kar je v ozadju in nevidno, a tako zelo dejavno in odločilno. Avtorice poudarjajo, da njihovo skupno delo uprizarja nasprotja sveta, napetostne premene, ki netijo in vrtinčijo življenjske procese na tem svetu: »Premene nasprotij se kot igra Zemlje, Vode, Ognja, Zraka ter skrivnostne kvintesence slehernega bivajočega dogajajo ves čas in vsakič znova jih zremo na sebi lasten način. Odpirajo vprašanja, včasih tudi same po sebi podajajo odgovor, vsekakor pa so gonilo življenja.«
Skupna motivacija razstavnega projekta je Žarka, nastajajoča karizmatična mitološka pojavnost, ki pooseblja svetlobo in dobroto. To zaznajo avtorice v naključno najdenem deblu porezne tise, odvrženem in zapuščenem ob cesti, ki mu akademski kiparki Katja Smerdu in Marjeta Medved vdahneta vnovičeno življenje. Nekoč živa materija, ki je v trdih in brezčutnih človeških rokah postvarela in bila prikrajšana življenja, se spremeni v totem muzejske ali galerijske vrednosti, ki izpoveduje luč sveta in dobroto življenja, s tem ko ponovno oživlja vez med materialnostjo in življenjskim.
Globlje nasprotje, ki se ga dotikajo avtorice, pa je uporniška drža ob boku sveta, ki brez kančka empatije ali hvaležnosti poseče bilke čiste metafizičnosti dobrote – možnosti življenja, da je in obstaja samo na sebi. Njihova feministična sestava se združi v prikazu senzitivnosti, empatičnosti in čustvene pozicioniranosti do robnega sveta, do tistega in tistih, ki imajo poteptane pravice in se jim sekajo korenine. Navsezadnje njihovo telo ni niti poplačano niti obeleženo, ampak zgolj odvrženo in pozabljeno. Svet je še vedno odet v patriarhat, čigar roka je brezčutna, drža manipulativno racionalna, njegove žrtve pa premnoge.
Instalacija je dragocen poklon čutnosti in življenju, nežni, dobrosrčni ustvarjalni energiji, ki navdihuje življenje in se k njemu hvaležno obrača. Skulptura Žarke, ki jo je iz lesa povlekla Marjetka Medved, v kovinska oblačila pa odela Katja Smerdu, deluje kot oltar dobroti – tisti metafizični pojavnosti, ki je pogosto ne uzremo, saj ni izpostavljena, bleščeča, in jo prekriva množica prazne prijaznosti in dobrosrčnosti, slabih posnetkov tega, kar dejanska dobrota je. Dobrota je tista energija, ki se poraja sama iz sebe in ni kvarljiva ter v svetu ne izgineva, v nasprotju s pojavnostmi potrošniškega sveta, v katerem ima vse rok uporabe in navodila.
Skulptura Žarke pred nami zaživi v svetu ročnih ustvarjalnosti avtoric, tkanin in akvarelov ter tudi vonjav, ki jih je ustvarila botaničarka Nataša Špiranec. Vsak od razstavljenih artefaktov je izraz enega elementa življenja. Vizualnost ustvarjalne manualnosti je le del pojavnosti; za njo je dosti več. Do tega prehajamo s simboliko, že znano in tisto, ki se poraja tukaj in zdaj, ustvarja in veže nove znakovne govorice, nove poetike prostorov, ustvarjanja in sočutja. V materialu, ki leži nekje ob cesti, je mogoče najti tisto živost in dobroto, ki ga je oblikovala, ki ga je rodila.
Žarka in dobrote sveta stke nasprotujoče razsežnosti sveta, vidnost in materijo z nevidno atmosfero, ki jo soustvarjajo vonjave in energije. Te prostor raztezajo, razbijajo navideznost obstoječe materije in nas potegnejo v svet okoljske, čustvene in energetske instalacije, skozi katero umetnice z nežnim in subtilnim aktivizmom sporočajo, kakšen svet si želijo sooblikovati.
Razstava bo na ogled do 3. 4. 2026.