Natalija Šeruga Golob: From the Collection of W. B.: Protocol of the same experiment from (…), t. s. (test subject) Augusta
Natalija Šeruga Golob: From the Collection of W. B.: Protocol of the same experiment from (…), t. s. (test subject) Augusta 15 September–14 October 2023 MMC KIBLA/KiBela
You are cordially invited to the opening of the painting exhibition From the Collection of W. B.: Protocol of the same experiment from (...), t. s. (test subject) Augusta of the artist and painter Natalija Šeruga Golob, which will be held on Friday, 15 September 2023, at 7 p.m. in the KiBela art space. INVITATION (PDF) ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)
The exhibition will feature paintings created in the years 2021-2023 and a video from 2019. The works on display are connected by a painting concept in which time is a hardly elusive competitor.
Artist`s statement:
»Time, which without respite creates beautiful abstract images, is my eternal and elusive rival. The pictures are a record of my attempts to get closer to this great creator. During my work in recent years, I am like the untidy child from Benjamin's One Way Street and other Writings – Each stone he finds, each flower picked and each butterfly caught is already the start of a collection, and every single thing he owns makes up one great collection. In him this passion shows its true face, the stern Indian expression which lingers on, but with a dimmed and manic glow, in antiquarians, researchers, bibliomaniacs. Scarcely has he entered life than he is a hunter. He hunts the spirits whose trace he scents in things; between spirits and things years are passed in which his field of vision remains free of people. His life is like a dream: he knows nothing lasting; everything seemingly happens to him by chance. His nomad-years are hours in the forest of dream. [1]
In the hunt, I intertwined coincidences, painterly milieu and tradition.[2] I did not use tradition as a repetition of what had already been created, but in a broader sense. Tradition, says T. S. Eliot, cannot be inherited, but must be acquired. The impressions of the various giants of all kinds of spirit who have dwelt before me are thus inexorably deposited in me. During work, I am both a medium and a personality, in which impressions and experiences come together in special and unexpected ways. The involvement of the spirit of the great thinker of the past century, Walter Benjamin, in my work is so imminent.
Spatial and temporal scales come into play in these experiments. Versailles is not too big for me, eternity is not too long for me and Palazzo Contarini Polignac is my home. Turning back time made me feel at home. To begin to solve the riddle of the ecstasy of trance, one ought to meditate on Ariadne's thread. What joy in the mere act of unrolling a ball of thread! And this joy is very deeply related to the joy of intoxication, just as it is to the joy of creation. We go forward; but in so doing, we not only discover the twists and turns of the cave into which we're venturing, but also enjoy this pleasure of discovery against the background of the other, rhythmic bliss of unwinding the thread. The certainty of unrolling an artfully wound skein-isn't that the joy...[3]«
[1] Walter Benjamin; One- Way Street and Other Writings, NLB, London, 1971 (Translators Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter), p. 73. [2] Thomas Stearns Eliot: Tradition and individual talent, translated by Janez Stanek and Veno Taufer, CZ, collection Nobelovci 36, Ljubljana, 1977, p. 217–223 [3] Walter Benjamin; On Hashish; THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England 2006 (Translated by Edmund Jephcott), p.123.
Biography Natalija Šeruga Golob (b. 1971, Maribor) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, where she graduated in 1999 and master's degree in 2003. She exhibits regularly, her works are on display in art collections in Slovenia, Austria and Italy. She lives and creates in Radenci.
< Natalija Šeruga Golob: From the Collection of W. B.: Protocol of the same experiment from (…), t. s. (test subject) Augusta, 2023. Photo: Natalija Šeruga Golob
MMC KIBLA/KiBela, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturdays: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
