son:DA

Škuc.psd

October 17  – November 11, 2007

You are kindly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, October 17th at 8  p.m. at Galerija Škuc.

You are kindly invited to attend the guiding tour on Thursday, October 25th at 7 p.m. at Galerija Škuc.

This is the third local solo exhibition of the son:DA duo this year, which is a great achievement for the two young artists. However, among the public familiar with their work, doubts have been raised as to whether the artists can offer something new every time and what can they surprise us with.

Duo son:DA belongs to the generation of artists whose work is marked by digital technology and continual technological progress. In using electronic media, artists mostly 'examine' their advantages, while son:DA 'abuse' them and imbue their enthusiasm over modern technology with a good measure of irony and sarcasm. Their work focuses in a humorous way on different electric appliances, the (il)logical use of cables and their

(un)aesthetic appearance, communication tools and situations/environments of the contemporary consumer. Consumerism, which has penetrated every aspect of society, has affected art as well, as visitors always want something new, different, something more. The typical Slovenian advertising slogan "more than...", which can be seen everywhere, has found its way into the exhibition space, where 'overloaded' visitors always want 'more', whatever that means.

In their work and main concept, the son:DA duo coherently question contemporary society, characterised by the possessive use of new technologies and means of communication. They seek to unveil civilisation's system of cables and point the finger at every connection (cable), without which the whole system would immediately collapse. The romantic belief in the independence of the system is merely an illusion to make people feel like autonomous thinking beings, and is the only way the system can operate. Maribor artists challenge us with this fact in their performances, installations and computer drawings, and take advantage of 'high tech' gadgets in a 'low tech' way by parasitising contemporary technologies.

During the škuc.psd exhibition, the big windows of Škuc Gallery, which mostly serve as 'peepholes' into the exhibition space, will become big light-boxes with images of both the artists and the curator, who will stare at passers-by. The drawings, in a typical son:DA technique, bring together elements and details which will allow us to browse their earlier drawings with typical son:DA motifs, including landline phone, mobile phone, charger, socket, cable, radio, TV  set, computer and electrical wiring. The everyday objects in the drawings are taken for granted, so we do not even notice them anymore, which is what makes them so unusual, interesting or even funny in a bizarre way, when someone puts them right in front of us.

The inside of the gallery will serve as an extension of the windows, as light-boxes will be 'fuelled' from the sockets in the two front rooms, where lectures, presentations, talks and workshops usually take place. The 'illuminated' artists and curator will literally draw the (electrical) energy from the front rooms, where knowledge and know-how is passed on to the public, and pass it on to the passers-by. In the remaining rooms, the artists will do a minimalist and humorous intervention in the parts of the space where all the gallery’s exhibitions in the last decades have been held. The exhibition will refer both in terms of content and space to the concrete space of Škuc Gallery, as the artists will combine the content of the rooms with their view of the gallery’s history without seeking to satisfy visitors governed by the desire for 'something more than'.

You are kindly invited to attend the creative workshop for children and adults on Saturday, November 3rd at 12. a.m. at Galerija Škuc. The workshop will be lead by

son:Da.

Curated by: Alenka Gregorič

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The programme of Škuc Gallery is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture.
 

For further information contact Alenka Gregorič, artistic director of the Škuc Gallery on +386 1 251 65 40, galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si.