Janja Batič: My Illustrated Life

Janja Batič: My Illustrated Life
13 September–12 October 2024
artKIT

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition My Illustrated Life by Janja Batič, which will take place on Friday, 13 September 2024, at 7 p.m. in the artKIT exhibition space.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

Janja Batič’s visual diary is an extraordinary work of art that spans various artistic media. The viewer is offered glimpses of everyday life in digital drawings, embroidery, cushions and spatial installation as the final medium in the artist's media palette.

We create in order to be able to experience life anew again and again. For the first time in the moment in which we perceive and experience it. And then again in retrospect, in a time-lapse of time fragments, through which the experienced moment sinks into our hearts differently, but can still be savored and experienced many more times.

Between the space in which we are and the space into which we go lies the space of the observer, the creator himself and the source, for life emerges from us.

Of all the places we could be, of all the memories we can remember, of all the glimpses that life offers us, we will never be able to grasp the totality, but only fragments of moments and only a few fragments of time that seem timeless. And of all the possible decisions we can make every day, we decide anew every day where, with whom and next to whom we want to be.

“Time stood still. My gaze focused on what was right in front of me. And suddenly everything was interesting, valuable and safe. Since then, I have made at least one digital drawing, my visual diary, my illustrated life. Proof that I am alive and that there is something worth preserving every day.” (Janja Batič)

The view of the everyday is unique. We select motifs, glances, views, colors, perspectives with our eyes and our hearts, we see things that others do not see and thus experience them in a unique way. Captured and enclosed by our gaze. However, the creative gaze does not always suggest new motifs or new concepts. Motifs can also repeat themselves, because they are our places, our surroundings, our people and the home of our constancy, the homeliness that surrounds us and accompanies us through our familiar everyday lives. But within the repetition there is always variety. Everyday life is made up of fragments of visual impressions, a mosaic of an infinite number of tiny snippets of sensations, glances, places, people and objects that surround us at every moment.

Biography

Dr. Janja Batič (1977) is Assistant Professor of Art Education at the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor. Her research interests include art education, teacher training and visual and multimodal literacy. She interweaves her scientific and pedagogical work with artistic creation, focusing on various artistic media. Recently, she has been working intensively with digital drawing and embroidery.

The artist’s website:
https://www.instagram.com/wonderingandmore/

< Janja Batič: From My Visual Dairy, digital drawing, 2024

artKIT, Glavni trg 14, Maribor
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.