As the centennial of the Bauhaus is being celebrated, Igor Andjelić presents a new artistic project. After a successful exhibition Cinecittà (Galerija Fotografija, 2018), which was inspired by the black-and-white world of Italian neorealism, he is now thematically linked to the great tradition of the German Bauhaus. His project does not relate to the Bauhaus in the literal sense of a transference of motifs, but rather through an ideological interpretation. The main principle of his new project is Walter Gropius’s famous idea which focusses on the interconnectedness of all areas of creativity and the demolition of boundaries between »high« and »craft« art, which ultimately leads to a culmination of all visual art – a gesamtkunstwerk.
Thus, Andjelić is not limited to a single artistic medium in his project, but enters different fields of production in his work. The exhibition includes works produced in varying contexts of his artistic career. He presents photographic works which he alters through interventions, changing them into sculptural, almost architectural constructions. His source of inspiration in these collages is the very minimalist and modernist architecture promoted by the Bauhaus, which morphs into abstract compositions and geometrical forms through his photographic lens. The Bauhaus, however, is not his only source of inspiration, especially in regard to architecture. Throughout, he relates German architecture to the object of his greatest fascination, the Italian modernism of Casa Malaparte, located on the island of Capri. He dedicates to the famous house a model of his own architecture, which rises from the ground in the manner of Malaparte and functions symbiotically with the rising and setting of the sun. The echo of Italian post-war art can also be observed in the bicycles which the artist exhibits as interventional objects. Through photography, he presented them already in his project Cinecittà, where they were related to De Sica’s film Bicycle Thieves, but now offers a different interpretation. He relates to Italian neorealism in the sense of the bicycle as a social object, an item of great and understated value. The bicycles are connected to his involvement in social life and his commitment to projects which are communal, even humorous in nature. He reinvents the bicycles, changes them into artistic works by adding antlers instead of handlebars, loaves of bread instead of the frame, etc. In that way, the ready-made bikes become objects without their primary function, morphed by Andjelić, who has a personal fascination with them. The works speak about the versatility of the artist, who lives and breathes his work, drawing inspiration from his vehicle in the manner of Marcel Breuer, who developed his idea of bent-steel furniture in the same way almost a century before at the Bauhaus.[1] Andjelić uses a similar method of social intervention in his project Point of View – he exhibits a cube which turns into a catholic cross if observed from the right perspective and angle of light. Once again, the project is not as much conceptual as it is a »social sculpture«. The artist created it during his stay at Hvar island, where he wanted to create an artwork for local residents. The work was included in an exhibition held in a church, and positioned as an altarpiece. Due to the placement of the work, churchgoers held prayers underneath it, and in a way consecrated it as a work of special value. Finally, the artist includes fashion design in his project, devised as a combination of fashion and artistic techniques. The merging of photography, intervention, architecture and fashion design is founded in the idea of the Bauhaus – that a true artist cannot belong to a single method of creation. As Walter Gropius famously writes in 1919: »Art rises above all methods«[2], and the path to creating works of quality is the mastering of different fields of art.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the exhibition, however, is the house in which it is placed. Andjelić sees a special kind of connection between Škuc and the Bauhaus. The latter was not only a school of art or an artistic movement, it was a place of socializing and exchanging ideas for eccentric artist who were in search of a creative haven between the two wars. It was the social aspect of the Bauhaus which allowed the school such innovation in the development and production of art, as well as the promotion of its ideas after it closed its doors in 1933. The same could be said of Škuc gallery, which had a decisively societal role since its founding in 1978, as it presented a meeting point for alternative youth culture. Their exhibitions were often designed as social gatherings – visual art in combination with music, dancing, celebration. Andjelić, who is an undeniable part of Ljubljana’s cultural scene, in the nature of his depictions as well as through personal interactions, is calling attention to the aspect of an exhibition opening, an important but often overlooked part of an exhibition. Its societal/social function presents fertile ground for the development of an artistic discussion, an exchange of opinions, which turns an exhibition into an »event«, a comprehensive artwork with the notion of a happening, expressed both through the artist’s creative versatility as well as the social nature of the exhibition opening. It represents a space of interaction, communication, and is aware of its double nature of an artistic and social event. Škuc functioned this way throughout history, and Andjelić was its crucial part in the 90s. The role of the artist in the development of Škuc is still visible in the space – the ventilating system he installed greets us at the entrance and he even left his mark on the toilets, which he redesigned almost thirty years ago. Škuc is a place he invites us into, as if he would his own home – into a house like him.
Curator: Hana Čeferin
[1] Cristopher Wilke, Marcel Breuer, Furniture and Interiors, 1981, p. 37.
[2] Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Manifesto and Program, 1919.
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Igor Andjelić (1961) finished his studies in photography and opened a studio for graphic design. He worked as a photo journalist for Mladina weekly and Ambient magazine, and avtively exhibited his works in the meantime. He helped form numerous public spaces in his career, such as Škuc gallery, K4 Club, Salon Minimal, etc. The latter is his most important achievement, since the forming of the exhibition space was recognized by international media. He is also known as the organizer of intriguing and innovative artistic and social conceptual events, is regularly collaborating with MG+MSUM and Galerija Fotografija gallery, and contributed to projects of Neue Slowenische Kunst as a photographer.
Hana Čeferin (1995) is a postgraduate student of Art History at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, who received a bachelor’s degree in Art History and English in 2018. In 2015 she started working with Galerija Fotografija, a photographic gallery in Ljubljana, which directed her into research of contemporary art, new media and specifically photography. During that time, she has collaborated with several artists (Boris Gaberščik, Igor Andjelić, Tanja Lažetić) and supported their work with exhibition texts. Her articles are published in publications and catalogues. Most recently, she wrote about photography and the Bauhaus in the journal Bauhaus-Baumensch.
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We thank the company DuPont for support.
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Photo: Klemen Ilovar