Sašo Sedlaček
Supertrash

Overview Exhibition

Jakopič Gallery, Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana
Slovenska 9, Ljubljana, Slovenia
27 March – 13 May, 2012

Opening:
Exhibition opening: TUE 27 March 2012 at 7 pm

Book presentation:

TUE 27 March 2012 at 6 pm
with Sašo Sedlaček, Dr Luka Omladič and Dr Petja Grafenauer

 
 

Ljubljana’s Jakopič Gallery is hosting an overview solo exhibition of Sašo Sedlaček with the title Supertrash. Initially shown in the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts in Slovenj Gradec in late 2011, the exhibition incorporates for the first time Sedlaček’s most typical projects created during the last ten years. The exhibition is accompanied by an overview catalogue designed by Studiobotas and presenting texts by Dr Petja Grafenauer and Dr Luka Omladič.

Photo: Matevž Paternoster/MGML

“Do hairs, dirt, excrement, all these ‘vile and worthless’ things, have an idea of their own? What to do with all these unseemly and rejected things – with all this waste? How could we possibly treat them equally? This is Socrates’s abyss, a refuse pit in fact, from which he diverts his gaze and which he would prefer to leave alone exactly where it is. But this is impossible, Parmenides reminds him. In some sense, wisdom begins precisely with waste; Socrates will have matured philosophically once he is able to reflect upon waste.” (Luka Omladič)

The exhibition Supertrash features the projects Picnic on a Dump (Piknik na deponiji), Beggar (Žicar), Urban – woodenware vending machine (Urban – Avtomat za suho robo), Space Junk Spotting (Vesoljske smeti), The Ex, No Lego, Just Do It!, AcDcWc, The Big Switch Off (Veliki izklop) and others, all of which demonstrate Sašo Sedlaček’s ability to reflect upon waste. Moreover, regardless of whether he deals with recycling faeces or analogue televisual waves, waste remains the key topic of Sedlaček’s oeuvre.

“It is very clear where the interest of Sašo Sedlaček’s art works lies. Recycling. (Re)use of the rejected. The improvement of the world and a warning that people in the West are not the only inhabitants of this planet. His projects shift between local and global problems of waste. The artist is interested in topical themes that fall into the category of the age-old efforts to improve human life. Fortunately, he does not tackle these issues in a naïve, bigoted or moralistic manner, but rather with humour and incentive. His ideas are witty, creative and, above all, useful. I wonder why Ribnica has not yet started producing the Urban – woodenware vending machine. We should not be surprised at all if, in a few years, while strolling around BTC City – Ljubljana may well be just one of its districts by then – we happen upon a pricey lavatory that produces its own lighting, which is something that Sedlaček has already shown us with his AcDcWc lavatories.” (Petja Grafenauer)


This exhibition was first presented at

Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts
Glavni trg 24, Slovenj Gradec
11 November – 10 December, 2011



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sašo Sedlaček is, no doubt, one of the key figures of contemporary art in Slovenia. He has received several awards (OHO, Vida 11, Spaport, Zogo Toy, etc.); he has been an artist-in-residence three times (in Germany, Japan and the United States); he has had exhibitions in Slovenia, Japan, Taiwan, the USA, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Russia, Estonia, etc. – including established exhibition venues such as the Secession in Vienna and the Lentos Museum in Linz – and he has participated in major international biennials (Taipei, Taiwan 2008 and Ogaki, Japan 2006) and festivals.
His project The Big Switch Off was just on display at the Project Space Aksioma in Slovenia. He has recently problematised the sell-out of frequency space (Manifesto, 2008, and Infocalypse Now!, 2007) and he is particularly recognisable for his interventions into consumer Meccas: using bricks made of printed advertising materials, he closed the entrances to department stores in Ljubljana (Just Do It!, 2003) and built a pavilion for eavesdropping and dwelling in BTC City (Loop, 2004); in 2006, he took the Beggar – a robot for the materially deprived, which he lent to the homeless people of Ljubljana the following year – for a walk around Citypark and the streets of Tokyo and Taipei; etc.

[More]



Author: Sašo Sedlaček

Curator for Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts: Jernej Kožar
Curator for Jakopič Gallery: Marija Skočir

Production of the exhibition: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011

Coproduction: Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts and Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

Executive producer: Marcela Okretič

Projects Space Junk Spotting (2007), Just do it! (2003), Loop (2004) and Beggar 1.0 (2006) produced by: Institute K6/4 – Kapelica gallery
Project Beggar 1.1 (2008) produced by: Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan
Project Žicar 2.0 and Space Junk Spotting (2006) produced by: IAMAS-Institute for Advanced Media Art and Science, Ogaki, Japan
Project Urban – avtomat za suho robo (2007) produced by: Miklova Hiša, Ribnica
Project The ex (2010) produced by: Moderna galerija
Project Globe Heaters (2010) produced by: MGLC Ljubljana
Projects Infocalypse Now! (2007), Manifesto (2008), AcDcWc (2010) and The Big Switch Off (2011) produced by: Aksioma –Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana

Thanks to:
Hilger Contemporary, Vienna, Austria; Miklova hiša, Ribnica; KD Group, Ljubljana and KGLU, Slovenj Gradec for lending the works, and Pavle Sedlaček for technical assistance on the majority of the projects.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Slovenj Gradec.

Media sponsor: Mladina




Contacts:
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana

 
PRESS RELEASE
 
 
 
PREVIOUS SHOW
 
This exhibition was first presented at

Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts
Glavni trg 24, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia

11 November – 10 December, 2011

Slideshow on Flickr
 
CATALOGUE
 


Sašo Sedlaček
Supertrash


Published by: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana and Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts

Represented by: Janez Janša and Marko Košan

Edited by: Petja Grafenauer

Texts: Luka Omladič, Petja Grafenauer

Translations: Polona Petek
Proofreading: Eric Dean Scott, Nataša Simončič

Reproductions by: cf. captions
Courtesy: Aksioma and Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts

Graphic design: studiobotas
Printed by: Stane Peklaj, s. p.

Print run: 600 copies
Printed in the EU.
Ljubljana, November 2011

© Contributors, Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Aksioma


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INFOCALYPSE NOW!

MANIFEST

AcDcWc

THE BIG SWITCH OFF