Tadej Vindiš: Untitled Figures

7. 3. 2014, MMC KIBLA

The photos, or better, photographic objects, which form Vindiš’ exhibition, are part of a creative process that began during his final year at FAMU, Prague. The works displayed in KiBela are the final stage of this process and show the authors idea in its most perfected visual expression. The monumental photographs have a fine quality, which isn’t achieved through pictorialistic manipulation, but with mastery of métier and well-planned lighting. The objects made of wire, nylon and wax are submerged in water, carefully illuminated and thus placed into a spaceless realm of dull, almost monochrome color. The traditional visual strategy of placing dramatically illuminated objects before a neutral background is perverted by submerging the figure. The water softens the object, blurs its edges and begins to dissolve it in negative space. At first glance the objectivity of the figures still seems preserved, but in fact the figures are somewhat loosened. This infringement of the figures material sovereignty by no means takes away their presence. They become harbingers of a great evocative potential that forms the conceptual axis of the exhibition.
The series of photographs is marked by well-planned use of anthropomorphisation – a psychological process, in which people attribute human characteristics to nonhuman agents. Anthropomorphisation is a universally present phenomenon ranging from attributing human traits to gods to metaphorical ways of thinking about everyday appliances. Untitled Figures activates our automatic reaction when facing the unknown – looking for human or human like characteristics. Through ascribing human attributes we are trying to establish a relation, a certain empathic connection with the inanimate object. The suggestive, grotesquely gnarled figures remain unknowable and distinctly ambivalent. Sometimes they seem like reminiscences of Huzjan’s homunculi and other times they allude to Gigeresque Aliens. Thus they swing between the extremes of compassion and repulsion, but at all times radiate an intense aesthetic allure. The refined nuancing of the muted tones and the subtle texture of the background push the objects towards the viewer leaving behind a gaping emptiness. The cocoon-like figures slowly consume the viewer. They pull him into their constructed reality and entangle him in a dialogue with dead matter, which invites him to imbue it with life.

Žiga Dobnikar

Tadej Vindiš, born in Maribor 1990, studied photography at FAMU in Prague, where he obtained his BcA in 2013.
Selection of solo exhibitions: Avtoportret, Mladinsko razstavišče Avla, Maribor (2009), Izmostitev, Galerija Media Nox, Maribor (2009), Untitled Grass Series, Kavárna & Galerie Róza K., Prague (2011).
Selection of group exhibitions: (Bez)Tíže / Weightlessness (?), Famufest 2011, GAMU, Prague (2011), Moj – Jom, Razstavišče Lubadar, Pekarna, Maribor (2011), Prague Photo Festival 2012, Center sodobnih umetnosti DOX, Prague, (2012), PV in/v NTK, Galerija NTK, Prague (2012), QueerDeer, OFF Photo Festival, Bratislav (2012), Premiera 2012, Galerija sodobne umetnosti, Celje (2012), Vystřelený šrapnel uklidní pozorovatele, Czech China Contemporary Museum, Bejing (2013).

The author would like to thank Nina Šulin and Matic Gselman.

March 7th 2014 – April 30th 2014
Opening: March 7th 2014 at 8 pm
KiBela / KIBLA Maribor KiBela, space for art, is open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 10pm, and on Saturday from 4pm to 10pm.

Links

Dnevnik TV Maribor 13.3.2014 14:41-16:39
4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/dnevnik-tv-maribor/174265673

Radio Študent: Kulturno uredništvo / Kulturne novice 10. 3. 2014 (14:10) 3:40-5:55 – Intervju z Žigo Dobnikarjem o razstavi
radiostudent.si/kultura/kulturne-novice/radio-povezava-z-mrtvimi