V-F-Ljubljana
Exhibition
11.–18. 5. 2023
Project Room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
Opening: Thursday, 11. 5. 2023, 18.00
The exhibition will be open every day from 12. to 18. 5. 2023, between 12.00 and 17.00.
Image: Neza Prince
The exhibition presents the current phase of the multi-year artistic and research project of the visual artist Neza Knez, which will ultimately be condensed into an experimental film. By exploring a specific space, the former aunt's plot in the middle of a forest with abundant vegetation, and immersing herself in childhood memories and experiences in this space, the author investigates the interweaving of memory and passing. He experiments with materials and records organic memory and chemical-physical imprints left on the film strip by plants and objects in the form of phytograms and photograms.
The exhibition intervenes in space with a kinetic installation of a converted film projector. Special emphasis is placed on experimenting with the materiality of analog mechanisms and organic processes that elicit images, light and sound from the film strip. The magic of film is manifested more than in the actual film image in revealing the process of complex mechanical structure of image production.
Within the framework of the V-F-Entertainment Ljubljana festival, the artist will lead an experimental workshop on the materiality of filmstrip and phytogram production.
Infinite loop of light diffraction
The artistic practice of Neze Knez is characterized by exploring properties and questioning the appearance and materiality of images while documenting reality. The artist constantly checks the existence of things that she shows us in her works through their subject properties. It reviews, reinterprets, intervenes and interferes with what is seen. He reflects on the quality of representational techniques and questions the reliability of perception and understanding. It plays with the uncertainty that lurks in what is seen and heard, materiality, corporeality and time.
In the spatial installation of analog diffraction #1, he experiments with the staging and materialization of elusive feelings and memories from childhood by means of optical laws of travel and diffraction of light, which also illuminates areas of shadow. These enigmatic images and sounds are not a linear narrative or metaphor, as we are used to from feature films and literature. By intertwining several abstract projected moving and static images, he creates a non-verbal poetry of sensory perceptions.
The images were not recorded by the camera – these are chemical marks left by plants on the surface of the film. Fleeting moments of encounters of organic matter with the materiality of the filmstrip left random traces and abstract images. The artist used plants from the space from where the memories of her first authentic contacts with the forest and wild vegetation originate. Using the phytogram technique, in addition to the image, the soundtrack created by the vegetation was obtained on the filmstrip.
The rustling and croaking of plant sounds are accompanied by amplified sounds of the operation of the film projector. With the installation, she presents and exhibits at the same time, playing with the ways of extracting image and sound from filmstrips, slides and from a projection device. The artist writes that the techniques of reproduction and representation in the installation are positioned in such a way that it is not possible to verify whether the patterns belong to the painting or its support. By accepting both positive and negative equally, he invites us not to give up new perspectives. By constantly repeating, duplicating, copying and showing the same thing in a different way, the original and the copy lose their identity. They become a stream of textured light, soundtracks and film perforations that are constantly changing, thereby becoming new originals.
The spatial site-specific installation in the SCCA Project Room is the result of a real-time process of mounting 16-mm film and assembling the projection structure with the help of the elements already present in the room. The creator calls it an experimental poetic hybrid that questions itself, produces images and sounds that multiply, repeat, dance and point to itself – through and through, in an endless loop.
Exhibition opening
Photo: Asiana Jurca Avci
Exhibition layout
Photo: Asiana Jurca Avci
Neza Knez (1990) Graduated and received her master's degree in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and design (ALUO) in Ljubljana. She was educated at the International Academy of music in Zagreb, where she also attended the school of documentary and experimental film RESTART. She is the winner of some of the most prominent awards: the award (2012) and the award (2014) for outstanding academic achievements at the Aluo in Ljubljana, the award for an innovative approach to artistic graphics "Golden press" (2015), the Presern award (University of Ljubljana) for outstanding academic achievements (2015), and for her master's thesis she received the highest award with the distinction Summa Cum Laude (2017). In 2017, she participated in the Biennale of youth in Tirana. In 2018, she received an Oho group award and was on a two-month artist residency at the premises of residence Music Unlimited in NE Animatork. In 2021, she was the recipient of the MK working scholarship. She presented herself at a series of Solo and group exhibitions, screenings and performances. He lives between Ljubljana and Zagreb. (Photo: Sanja Bistrici/)
The exhibition is part of the International Festival of experimental audiovisual practices V-F-Entertainment Ljubljana , which is taking place this year between 11. and 14. May at the Slovenian Cinematheque.
The exhibition will be open every day from 12. to 18. 5. 2023, between 12.00 and 17.00.
Curator: Vesna Bukovec
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana / Diva station
Co-production: Slovenian Cinematheque
Support: Ministry of culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana - Department of culture
Thanks: Hrvoje Spudi / <url>, Klubvizija (Zagreb), Forum Ljubljana, Kud Network