Maja Babič Košir: Ciao Amore — RAVNIKAR GALLERY SPACE

MAJA BABIČ KOŠIR
Ciao Amore

January 17 —
March 10, 2024

MEET THE ARTISTFebruary 15, 2024, 17.00

LOCATION
RAVNIKAR GALLERY
Vošnjakova ulica 4
1000 Ljubljana

TEXT & CURATOR
Michal Stolárik
Piera Ravnikar

SOUND & PHOTO
Śresta Das Ananda
Diana Tamane

PHOTOGRAPHER
Mario Zupanov

STATEMENT

   A deeply-rooted essential aspect of the human experience, a multi-layered emotion that is hard to define. An inexhaustible source of the philosophic, artistic and scientific examination. Attraction to people, animals or objects, stealing our attention and seizing our life-space. Caring and concern through good times and bad, compassion or empathy. Affectionate and unconditional, but also parasitic and toxic. Love is complicated.

Ciao Amore, I no longer want to see you.

   The works of Maja Babič Košir are at once diverse in material, expansive, and minimalistic, concrete and fluid in interpretation. Visual fragmentation, variability and the artist’s intuitive approach make them exist in a peculiar temporal interspace connecting past to present. Put up on delicate foundations and temporarily anchored in a particular moment of time they naturally claim space of their own. We observe intimate archives or the finds of accidental encounters. They are taken out of their original context and embedded in new causal relations, thereby intensifying our hunger for exploration as triggered by their inherent visual appeal and rigorous selection.

   In her broad-scale intermedia practice Babič Košir incorporates sculpture, object, collage, assemblage, photography and complex spatial installation. By re-using and re-contextualizing found or inherited materials she creates intimate monuments which organically draw on the individual or collective memory. Various objects with more or less of a straightforward purpose spark her curiosity and trigger her imagination. While respecting their formal qualities or aesthetic features, she re-evaluates and analyses the ties to the original owners. Through an act of creative selection and subsequent re-configuration Babič Košir communicates themes related to the transience and fragility of being, to forgetting, ageing, loss and relationships.

   The large solo exhibition Ciao Amore in the RAVNIKAR draws upon the author’s line of work that she has been continually unfolding since 2018. Deeply affected by her father’s death, she started researching, analysing and processing the estate of his graphic and design art works. She combined manifold discarded materials, foils, sheets of paper, envelopes and drafts into a series of collages and assemblages titled Love Letters, which in the process became a metaphor of a transformation of a traumatic and complicated relationship and the path of reconciliation. In her current project, she proceeds to introduce to the intimate-public discourse the troubled relationship with her mother, manifesting it through objects in mother’s possession. In the gallery space, Babič Košir creates a complex environment naturally divided into two narratives re-evaluating family ties, emotions, various forms of affinity, options of forgiveness, or forsaking the material aspect of being.

   The right side of the gallery is dedicated to the father, presented in a reductive minimalistic installation. Vertically stacked plastic rectangles are painted in light pink, author’s distinctive colour, evoking nonfunctional pillars, styled towers or piled-up layers of diverse emotions and memories. Aesthetization of the found material is self-evident, however, so is the inability to part from it. The innocent pink applied brings about an agreeable visual and emotional layer, as well as a sort of a cleansing or conservation principle, further expanded by deformed plastic processed into ready-made objects which create time capsules and materialize unique moments.

   At the father’s side, the found material is applied within a process leading towards re-establishing a connection to another human being, whereas the mother’s side illustrates the complicated relationship with self. The installation of various more or less visually appealing pieces of furniture (kitchen parts, a nightstand, a leather car seat) embodies the inability to let go of the material fragments of life. Hoarding of unused items can be the result of common impulsive buying, indecisiveness or fear of squandering, at the same time it is rooted in a trauma or a loss, providing relief from emotional stress to those affected and serving as a means to deal with the current state of play. As documented by one of the audio recordings, the mother’s desire to let go of the hoarded items is strong, however, she simply lacks the ability to do so. Maja Babič Košir does not judge her. She uses the items to build a monument, and accepts her for what she is. Love may be complicated, but as long as there is a flash, like that of the found neon letter L, it still does exist.

Ciao Amore, I hope to still see you again.

Maja Babič Košir holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Following her academic journey, she pursued advanced studies in creative illustration and visual communication at EINA University School of Design and Art in Barcelona.

She actively participates in international contemporary art fairs and shows, showcasing her work at established venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia; UGM Maribor Art Gallery; Cukrarna in Ljubljana; ARCO Lisboa; SPARK Vienna; Berlin Art Week; Vienna Contemporary; SWAB Barcelona; and Zürich Art Weekend 2022. She has won several awards and acknowledgments, and her works are housed in various private and public collections.

@ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Diana Tamane, Ljuba Babič Košir, Pedro Maia, Śresta Das Ananda

   Globoko zakoreninjen bistveni element človeške izkušnje, večplastno čustvo, ki ga je težko opredeliti. Neizčrpen vir za filozofsko, umetniško in znanstveno raziskovanje. Naklonjenost ljudem, živalim ali predmetom, ki nam krade pozornost in si prisvaja naš življenjski prostor. Skrb, sočutje in empatija, v dobrih in slabih časih. Ljubeča in brezpogojna, vendar tudi parazitska in strupena. Ljubezen je zapletena.

Ciao Amore, ne želim te več videti.

   Dela Maje Babič Košir so istočasno materialno raznolika, ekspanzivna in minimalistična, oprijemljiva in fluidna v interpretaciji. Zaradi vizualne razdrobljenosti, spremenljivosti in umetničinega intuitivnega pristopa obstajajo v posebnem časovnem medprostoru, ki povezuje preteklost s sedanjostjo. Postavljeni na občutljive temelje in začasno zasidrani v določenem časovnem trenutku si naravno lastijo lasten prostor. Opazujemo zasebne, intimne arhive ali najdbe naključnih srečanj, iztrgane iz prvotnega konteksta in vpete v nove vzročno-posledične odnose, s čimer se okrepi naša želja po raziskovanju, ki jo sprožata njihova inherentna vizualna privlačnost in rigorozen izbor.

   Babič Košir v svoji razširjeni intermedijski praksi združuje kiparstvo, objekt, kolaž, asemblaž, fotografijo in kompleksno prostorsko instalacijo. S ponovno uporabo in rekontekstualizacijo najdenih ali podedovanih materialov ustvarja intimne spomenike, ki organsko črpajo iz individualnega ali kolektivnega spomina. Različni predmeti z bolj ali manj neposredno jasno funkcionalnostjo vzbujajo umetničino radovednost in spodbujajo njeno domišljijo. Ob spoštovanju njihovih formalnih lastnosti ali estetskih značilnosti ponovno ovrednoti in analizira njihove vezi s prvotnimi lastniki. Babič Košir skozi gesto ustvarjalnega izbora in poznejšega preoblikovanja predmetov posreduje teme, povezane z minljivostjo in krhkostjo bivanja, pozabljanjem, staranjem, izgubo in odnosi.

   Samostojna razstava Ciao Amore v RAVNIKAR se opira na avtoričino ustvarjanje, ki ga nenehno razvija od leta 2018. Globoko zaznamovana z očetovo smrtjo je začela raziskovati, analizirati in obdelovati zapuščino njegovih grafičnih in oblikovalskih del. Raznovrstne zavržene materiale, folije, liste papirja, kuverte in osnutke je združila v serijo kolažev in asemblažev z naslovom Ljubezenska pisma, ki so v tem procesu postali metafora preobrazbe travmatičnega in zapletenega odnosa ter procesa sprave. V svojem sedanjem projektu se loteva vpeljave zapletenega odnosa z njeno materjo v intimno-javni diskurz, ki ga manifestira skozi predmete v materini lasti. Babič Košir v galerijskem prostoru ustvarja kompleksno okolje, ki je naravno razdeljeno na dve pripovedi, ki ponovno ovrednotita družinske vezi, čustva, različne oblike sorodstva, možnosti odpuščanja ali opuščanja materialnega vidika bivanja.

   Desni del galerije je posvečen očetu, ki je predstavljen v reduktivni minimalistični instalaciji. Vertikalno naložene plastične plošče so pobarvanev svetlo rožnato, avtoričino značilno barvo, in spominjajo na nefunkcionalne stebre, stilizirane stolpe ali nakopičene plasti različnih čustev in spominov. Estetizacija najdenega materiala je samoumevna, prav tako pa tudi nezmožnost ločitve od njega. Nanešene plasti nedolžne rožnate barve ustvarjajo prijetno vizualno in čustveno komponento, obenem pa vzpostavljajo tudi nekakšno načelo čiščenja ali ohranjanja, ki ga še razširi deformirana plastika, predelana v ready-madepredmete, ki ustvarjajo časovne kapsule in materializirajo unikatne trenutke.

   Na očetovi strani je najdeni material uporabljen v procesu, ki vodi k ponovni vzpostavitvi odnosa z drugo osebo, medtem ko materina stran ponazarja zapleten odnos s samo seboj. Postavitev različnih bolj in manj vizualno privlačnih kosov pohištva (kuhinjski elementi, nočna omarica, usnjeni avtomobilski sedež) uteleša nezmožnost, da bi se znebili materialnih drobcev življenja. Kopičenje neuporabljenih predmetov je lahko posledica običajnega impulzivnega kupovanja, neodločnosti ali strahu pred zapravljanjem, hkrati pa ima korenine v travmi ali izgubi, prizadetim pa zagotavlja olajšanje čustvenega stresa in služi kot sredstvo za spopadanje s trenutnim stanjem. Kot je dokumentirano v enem od zvočnih posnetkov, je materina želja, da bi opustila nakopičene predmete, močna, vendar ji preprosto primanjkuje sposobnosti, da bi to tudi storila. Maja Babič Košir je ne obsoja. Predmete uporabi za postavitev spomenika in jo sprejme takšno, kakršna je. Ljubezen je morda zapletena, a dokler obstaja preblisk, ki najde odsev v blisku najdene neonske črke L, še vedno obstaja.

Ciao Amore, upam, da te še kdaj vidim.

Maja Babič Košir je diplomirala in magistrirala iz kiparstva na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani. Podiplomski študij kreativne ilustracije in tehnik vizualne komunikacije je zaključila na EINA v Barceloni. Umetničin ustvarjalni proces temelji v meditativnem, introspektivnem principu. Snov črpa iz svojega okolja in svoje osebne zgodovine, še posebej iz bogatega družinskega arhiva najrazličnejših materialov. Njena umetniška praksa zaobjema sliko, risbo, fotografijo, video in prostorske instalacije. Redno se udeležuje mednarodnih sejmov in razstav sodobne umetnosti, na primer ARCO, SPARK Vienna, Berlin Art Week, Vienna Contemporary, Art Collection Telekom, SWAB Barcelona in Zürich Art Weekend. Njena umetniška dela so v številnih zasebnih in nekaterih pomembnih javnih zbirkah. Živi in ustvarja med Ljubljano in Portom.

@ZAHVALA
Diana Tamane, Ljuba Babič Košir, Pedro Maia, Śresta Das Ananda

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