Nika Span
dal 25/11/2010 al 20/12/2010
Segnalato da
25/11/2010
Nika Span
Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana
The Ljubljana installation of 'The Big Sleep, pole-position' consists of two spatially separate segments. Both parts of the exhibition space are lined with strips of white paper. In the first area, which is brightly lit, the paper strips run from the wall to the windows; on the opposite side, in the second, darkened area, the paper strips stretch from the windows over to the opposite wall.
Galerija Gregor Podnar / DUM Artists’ Association is pleased to
announce The Big Sleep, a solo exhibition by Nika Špan, which will be
presented at the Galerija Gregor Podnar Project Space, Kolodvorska 6,
Ljubljana.
Nika Špan, who lives and works in Düsseldorf, examines the existing
conditions of exhibiting and production that relate directly to her
own principles of thought and everyday experiences. In her work, she
often plays the theme of how an artwork comes to be, or rather, the
impossibility of its total mediation.
The Ljubljana installation of The Big Sleep, pole-position consists of
two spatially separate segments. Both parts of the exhibition space
are lined with strips of white paper. In the first area, which is
brightly lit, the paper strips run from the wall to the windows; on
the opposite side, in the second, darkened area, the paper strips
stretch from the windows over to the opposite wall. In the first
exhibition area there is a bench; in the second, a low chair with a
high back, which in one position is intended for thinking and in the
other for dreaming.
The exhibition is connected with Špan’s first exhibition at the
Galerija Gregor Podnar, in 2005, when the gallery was still in Kranj.
That show, which was also called The Big Sleep and composed of two
sections, featured, on the one hand, a number of paintings with red
dots and, on the other, slide projections showing the artist asleep.
The paintings, as objects of value, entered into dialogue with the
slide projections.
The selection of slides showed a person (the
artist) in a detached state who without her knowledge was being
photographed in her sleep. Similarly, in The Big Sleep, pole-position,
Špan very clearly presents physical and mental spaces that cannot be
completely divided. By thematizing the exhibition space itself, the
Ljubljana project brings out even more certain underlying principles
of exhibition practices within contemporary art, that is, it exists in
a kind of pole-position.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of
Slovenia.
Image: Nika Span, Farbenlehre, 2008, installation video (film still)
Opening Friday, November 26 at 7 pm
Galerija Gregor Podnar
Kolodvorska 6 | 1000 Ljubljana
open Tuesday–Friday, noon–6 p.m., and by appointment
free admussion