The exhibition combines two artistic media – poetry and photography – and reveals the dialogue between the two artists. Its beginnings date back more than a decade, when Stanka Hrastelj began to create a poetry collection called foothills . At that time, she invited Nina Sotelsek to work together to create a series of photographs at the same time.
The key role in the visual interpretation was played by their conversations, from which the photographer tried to capture the mood and translate it into a visual image of the poem. The photographer did not want to describe a particular motive or define her own photographic practice. She used what came to hand – mostly expired films and a pocket camera obscura. It was matched by its effect, since it limits control at the moment of exposure of the film. This allowed her to be relieved in her search for visual expression, thus approaching the feeling of a poetic proposal. The photographic product is therefore metaphorical and represents the creator's perception of photography as visual poetry.
The sequence of photographs and poems at the exhibition is varied and follows the intuition of collecting impressions and building a sequence of images: black and white images are intertwined with words that unfold the idea of the title of the exhibition in front of the viewer. Words of courage and consolation that everything will be good, sometimes we also say casually. We reach for them to fulfill our duty as a listener when we do not know how, can or do not want to face the difficulties of another. The words merge into a single one, in a twisted and empty all-good that falls like a heavy shadow or may even become a sinister threat ...
Nina Sotelsek (1982) is a trained photographer who graduated in art history at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 2010. In the field of author's photography, she is interested in recording spaces and relates to the cyclical return to certain locations. He collects photographs as fragments and assembles them into completed integers (projects Stardust, s Animtimming and Circles) or tackles conceptually conceived projects (47 kilometers of Slovenian coast, Headlines, Where am I when I sleep?, Limen). She has presented herself at photo festivals in Arles (France), Odessa (Ukraine) and Maribor, as well as at exhibitions at the Maribor Art Gallery, The Stolp Photo Gallery, the Savin Art Salon, The Rajhenburg Castle and the zrc Atrium.
Stanka Hrastelj (1975) has so far published three poetry and two novels. She has received several nominations and awards for her literary works, including the Blue Bird for the best novel, the title of Knight of poetry, the award for the best debut and the title of the best young poet of Slovenia. She is also a mentor of creative writing, editor, moderator of cultural events, author of accompanying words. Since 2009, a freelance cultural worker. The principle of her writing is that with each literary work as an author, she is created anew. Each time she sets herself a different literary style, tone, charge and approach, because she does not want her books to be similar to each other. However, she remains faithful to irony, which is one of her favorite writing approaches.
Razstava vsebodobro združuje dva umetniška medija – poezijo in fotografijo – ter razkriva dialog med ustvarjalkama. Njeni začetki segajo več kot desetletje nazaj, ko je Stanka Hrastelj začela snovati pesniško zbirko Vznožje . Takrat je k sodelovanju povabila Nino Sotelšek, da bi sočasno ustvarila serijo fotografij.
Ključno vlogo pri vizualni interpretaciji so imeli njuni pogovori, iz katerih je fotografinja skušala ujeti razpoloženje in ga prevesti v vizualno podobo pesnitve. Fotografinja ni želela opisovati določenega motiva niti opredeljevati lastne fotografske prakse. Uporabljala je tisto, kar se je znašlo pri roki – večinoma filme s pretečenim rokom trajanja in žepno camero obscuro. Ustrezal ji je njen učinek, saj omejuje nadzor v trenutku osvetlitve filma. Ta ji je omogočil razbremenjenost pri iskanju vizualnega izraza, s čimer se je približala občutju pesniške predloge. Fotografski izdelek je zato metaforičen in predstavlja ustvarjalkino dojemanje fotografije kot vizualne poezije.
Zaporedje fotografij in pesmi na razstavi je razgibano in sledi intuiciji zbiranja vtisov ter gradnji zaporedja podob: črno-bele podobe se prepletajo z besedami, ki pred gledalcem razgrinjajo idejo naslova razstave. Besede bodrenja in tolažbe, da bo vse dobro, kdaj izrečemo tudi mimogrede. Po njih posežemo, da izpolnimo svojo dolžnost poslušalca, kadar se s tegobami drugega ne znamo, zmoremo ali nočemo soočati. Besede se sprimejo v eno samo, v izvotljeni in prazni vsebodobro , ki pade kot težka senca ali nemara celo postane zlovešča grožnja ...
Nina Sotelšek (1982) je izšolana fotografinja, ki je leta 2010 diplomirala iz umetnostne zgodovine na Filozofski fakulteti v Ljubljani. V polju avtorske fotografije jo zanima beleženje prostorov in se navezuje na ciklično vračanje na določene lokacije. Fotografije zbira kot fragmente in jih sestavlja v zaključene celote (projekti Stardust, Swimming in Circles) ali se loteva konceptualno zastavljenih projektov (47 kilometrov slovenske obale, Headlines, Kje sem, ko spim?, Limen). Predstavila se je na fotografskih festivalih v Arlesu (Francija), Odessi (Ukrajina) in Mariboru ter na razstavah v Umetnostni galeriji Maribor, Fotogaleriji Stolp, Savinovem likovnem salonu, na Gradu Rajhenburg in Atriju ZRC.
Stanka Hrastelj (1975) je doslej objavila tri pesniške in dva romana. Za svoja literarna dela je prejela več nominacij in nagrad, med drugimi modro ptico za najboljši roman, naziv vitezinja poezije, nagrado za najboljši prvenec in naziv najboljša mlada pesnica Slovenije. Je tudi mentorica kreativnega pisanja, urednica, moderatorka kulturnih dogodkov, avtorica spremnih besed. Od leta 2009 samostojna kulturna delavka. Vodilo njenega pisanja je, da se z vsakim literarnim delom kot avtorica ustvari na novo. Vsakič si zada drugačen literarni slog, ton, naboj in pristop, saj ne želi, da bi si bile njene knjige med sabo podobne. Zvesta pa ostaja ironiji, ki je eden njenih najljubših pisateljskih prijemov.
