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In the period where sculpture itself is more and more difficult to define, where various artistic media is entering the field of so called object art instead of sculpture, and where classical form is no longer predominating way of production, the thinking on exhibition that has intention of presenting actual production starts. Current zeitgeist and artistic production is making its way toward contemporary art practices, conceptual forms of expression, abandoning the mainstream of modernist sculpture, oriented towards certain formal poetics and modelling of materials has migrated to the state where the concept, message, content and overall statement are the most significant values of today?s production. In that sense I would like to avoid all the evaluations and estimations, reaching from counter points of modernist and postmodernist state of mind: what is more significant, the form or the content, the formal perfection, aesthetic elements or the central idea? 

The exhibition titled ?In the Maelstrom of European Values? has the intention to combine both mentioned elements. For the point of view of typical contemporary artists, already definition of sculpture brings second thoughts and on the other hand, for the modernist oriented sculptors the problem is first of all the necessity of satisfying the given topic. The general content of this group exhibition is touching upon every citizen of Slovenia, now also the citizen of European Union and focuses on the so called common values that have evidently been present in political in cultural discourse in recent years. As always when constituting a particular complete geographic and political space and search for common roots, history and ideology is basic task for the authorities. United Europe is based on the values of democracy, human rights and social policy, but the real state of mind and situation is elsewhere. Fortress Europe is hermetically locked and inaccessible for the people with ?wrong? passport, we are facing increasing homophobia and more and more severe monitoring on his life and habits. All these elements brought various feedbacks from the artists that are, like all the other individuals, involved in various ideologies and beliefs. In that sense the stereotype of critical contemporary artist, always aware of unjustness, always keen to social criticism, usually leftist is not the only relevant approach of participants, as they are coming from different backgrounds and belonging to different generations.

Maybe the most interesting fact of this year?s exhibition is the variety of formal approaches and comprehension of the subject matter at hand because individual artists highlighted many accents that are becoming the spirit of contemporary Europe. The artists built on completely personal viewpoints on the most pressing details and topical political and economic events, or focused on aspects of what is otherwise continuous individual production. Majority of works express criticism towards the dogmatic ideas of Eurocentrism, democracy and the free market, what was so widely celebrated in the recent years. Others subtly give in to multifaceted interpretations or sum up the positively oriented expression of glorification without critical distance. If the formal approaches of the artists are extremely diverse, usually adopted to the optimal realisation of the idea, and so almost impossible to systematize there are some lines of presenting certain conceptual ideas. One group of the artists are dealing with the treatment of the free market, addressing the problems of mass production and illegal migrations: Lara Badurina is speaking through cheap vases, imported from China but shattered and reassembled according to careful museum principles, Jernej Mali is dealing with illegal migration of people and legal trade in goods, depicted in hyper-realistic sculpture of freight container filled with plastic snails.

Another path is the strong ecological concern presented through the ?trashy? installation ?Before ? After? of Marjeta Ba?a and in three-part project of Alen O?bolt, drawing attention to the quantity of every person?s waste materials. Visions of recycling materials are brought up by Marko Kova?i? with the engaged installation titled ?Workplace?, also investigating the value of the today?s labour. Strong issues of social (in)justice is most directly presented with the project of Bo?tjan Kav?i? ?Perspective of Poverty?, three-dimensional relief image of euro coin, depicting stooping figures of truth poverty. With the same intentions Bojana Kri?anec is presenting the situation of the impoverished and manipulated inhabitants of Europe through the sculpture with media image of Notre Dame (Our Lady), resembling Carla Bruni as the cliché example of contemporary populism.

More neutral topic of omnipresent duality of modern people is presented with Primo? Pugelj?s monumental metallic sculpture titled ?John Donne?. Completely opposite side of the formal and conceptual approaches are visible with the modernist way of dealing with materials and surfaces of ?tefanija Ko?ir Petri?, indicating either positive hope of European values or concealed cynicism. The overall picture of the annual sculpture exhibition is showing the great variety of artistic approaches, materials and concepts, considered as suitable for definition of contemporary sculpture, from various installations, spatial set ups to artificially modelled objects. Maybe the most important conclusion is strongly connected to the weak production conditions for sculpturing in Slovenia, what turned out as main reason for overall minimalistic and non-monumental implementation of most of the projects.

However, the project of guest participant Gregor Kregar, Slovenia native living and working in New Zealand is one of those doubtlessly considered as monumental. His large-scale installation entitled ?Dwelling for Noordung? has been created in a site-specific manner, intended specifically for Ljubljana. This outdoor installation, settled in front of the municipality building in very old town, beside baroque monument of Francesco Robba from middle 18^th Century is perfectly corresponding with the surrounding area, square, statue and buildings. ?Dwelling for Noordung? plays with viewers? visual perception through metaphysical and elaborate construction, its form representing a super-terrestrial mass of reflections ? literal mirror images of its surroundings. The sheet metal construction is completely abstract in its form ? a utopian and metaphorical floating bulk, offering thousands different views and interpretations. The reflections on the mirror-like surface of this amorphous installation change their surrounding into a completely disassembled cubistic form, as architecture mixes with the sky and the paved street merges with the clouds. The procedure and materials itself are extremely interesting: it is constructed out of myriad pieces of laser cut and bending plates, assembled in a precisely defined order, so that finally all that is seen are clean triangular surfaces, specifying the form of the sculpture. Thus, instead of displaying traditional virtuosity in clay, the sculptor is presented as an engineer, complementing his sculpting skills with modern industrial technologies and knowledge. With the sound component that Gregor collaborated on with Christian Biegai, Berlin based contemporary composer, ?Dwelling for Noordung? represents an exquisite sensory experience, brought about by the ordered chaos of triangular surfaces of reflective sheet metal With its associative form, the construction may symbolize the bonds between atoms, human cells, or microstructures of organic or inorganic matter, representing a thoroughly intricate structure that, in its mathematical perfection, can only be created by a human hand using technology. This monumental public project is successfully rounding the overall picture of the local sculpture production and on the other hand denying the inability of producing bigger scale projects. And the latter is really crucial problem of Slovenian artists working in the field of what we can call sculpture or object art. 

Author: Miha Colner, BA Art History. Curator and Art Critic, Photon Gallery, Ljubljana

2-23 September 2009, Ljubljana, Town Hall
Selectors and Curators: Bo?tjan Drinovec, Miha Colner
Organisation: Slovenian Sculpture Association http://www.kiparstvo-zavod.si