Mateja Kavčič and Alja Piry: THE SWAMP

Mateja Kavčič and Alja Piry: THE SWAMP
11 October‒9 November 2024
MMC KIBLA/KiBela

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition THE SWAMP by Mateja Kavčič and Alja Piry, which will take place on Friday, 11 October 2024, at 7 p.m. in the KiBela, space for art. The presentation of the artists will be held by the curator Mojca Štuhec.

INVITATION 1 (PDF)
INVITATION 2 (PDF)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

The artistic dialogue between Mateja Kavčič and Alja Piry essentially stems from a deep respect for nature and a personal experience of coexistence with the plant world, which has been translated into an artistic language. This language indirectly rejects the paradigm of anthropocentrism, calls for spreading awareness of responsible co-creation of relationships and criticizes the application of the principles of ever-changing norms to preserve the quality of natural resources. The painters are close to the poetic premise of the ecologist, ornithologist, essayist and poet Iztok Geister (1945), who explains in his book On Trust in Nature (2022) that our relationship with nature should be based on respect for living beings by adapting to their changes and not the other way round.

In the current works, the artists each work in their own way with grasses of different plant species. In the urban environment they are usually referred to as weeds, a little further from the city limits they are an integral part of the meadow, the moist soil of the wetland. The latter, as an actual natural space and as a metaphor, is the motivic starting point for this exhibition project in Kibla. To realize it, the two authors spent some creative time together last summer in the idyllic surroundings of Kostanjevica on the Krka. They visited damp meadows with flowering vegetation and gradually the idea for a unique spatial installation made of natural materials took shape. These were contributed by Mateja Kavčič and complemented by text works in the form of visual poetry by Alja Piry.

The Swamp by Mateja Kavčič and Alja Piry is a comprehensive multimedia artwork that is not a random accumulation of dead organic materials in a gallery space (in the sense of the principles of arte povera), but a more complex visual composition in which individual elements – in the manner of OHO's Reism – co-create a unique ambience. The presence of its individual parts, its shape, smell and tactility are mental triggers for the visitor’s senses, which stimulate the mind to recognize the intertwining of two creative processes and two different forms of artistic expression, linked by a shared belief in the unconditional nurturing of a healthy relationship between humans and the environment.

Biographies

Mateja Kavčič (*1970, Novo mesto) graduated from the department of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 1994, where she later completed her postgraduate studies. In 2007, she completed her pedagogical and andragogical training at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. She has had the status of an independent artist since 1995. She works as a visual artist in the fields of painting, drawing, printmaking, spatial installation and land art. She participates in restoration projects and leads intergenerational workshops and creative workshops for children. She is the winner of the main prize of the May Salon in 2023, the 2021 Ivana Kobilca Award for current production and the May Salon Award in 2011. Her works are in the collections of major galleries in Slovenia, one is exhibited in India, as well as in private collections in Slovenia and abroad. Since 1993 she has continuously participated in solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. She is known for her paintings and drawings in round formats and large charcoal drawings applied directly to the walls of galleries, as well as spatial installations made from materials found in nature and experimental outdoor projects.
Projects in 2024: exhibition Retrovisions with Anja Jerčič Jakob, open studio, Švicarija, Ljubljana, SI; performance on the banks of the Ganges, Varanasi, IN; spatial installation in public space, Forchheim, DE; exhibition Shramba, granary of Homestead Pr´ Lenart, Belo, SI; art residency supported by the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Vienna, AT.
She lives and creates in Škofja Loka and occasionally works in the studio of the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica na Krki.

Alja Piry (*1982, Ljubljana) is visual artist from Ljubljana, living and working in Vienna.
Her practice takes place at the intersections of visual art and literature. Independently or in collaborations, she develops photographic series, video essays, and graphic works, characterised by a distinct lyricism. Participative and socially engaged projects play an important role in the development of her practice.
Master in Fine Arts Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (2010), Degree in Art History, Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani (2007). Solo and group shows (selection): Confort mental, Paris (2022), Galerija P74, Ljubljana (2019), Galerija DLUL, Ljubljana (2017), MAXXX Project space, Sierre (2015), Media Nox, Maribor (2015), Forum Stadtpark, Graz (2014), MUSA Startgalerie, Vienna (2012). Grants to work in residencies in Paris, Budapest, Sierre, Hartheim and Berlin. Collections: Austrian Federal Photographic Collection, Art Collection of the City of Vienna, Arthotek des Bundes Belvedere 21, Hubert Kretschmer Künsterbücherarhiv, Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E.

MMC KIBLA/KiBela, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor
Opening hours: from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.