You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition on Saturday, 15 June at 8 pm at Račka Gallery.
Bojana Križanec will carry out a participatory performance at the opening.
The Celje artists Bojana Križanec and Tomaž Črnej have conceived an art project especially for Račka Gallery in which they create fields of playful intimacy and engage in a game of intentions and coincidences, fantasies and relationships by presenting various working processes and their failed and successful outcomes. They invite visitors into spaces of visual stimuli and objects, where the rooms simulate living spaces, but merge with the character and history of Račka Gallery, as well as with a studio atmosphere and certain current exhibition solutions. The individual chapters of the exhibition thus gradually reveal erotic stimuli and humorous loops trigger either shy associations or bold curiosity.
In their respective creative mediums – ceramics and photography – the artists in the exhibition search for the commonalities that are fertilised by similar, if not identical, phenomena or conditions of art-making. Both mediums are based on craft qualities, and it is the unintentional error, or rather the moment when the image is fulfilled in its imperfection, that gives them their active creative charge alongside the artist’s interest and concept in content.
The term “serendipity” refers to an unintended discovery or happy coincidence that leads to positive and unexpected results. It is associated with an unintended discovery that also applies to the creative process, scientific discovery and innovation because of its unexpected but successful results. This is the basis on which Tomaž Črnej created his photographs with an artificial intelligence-based application. The use of technologies and processes typical of photography passes into harmony with the digital manipulation of images. When selecting the motifs of intertwined naked bodies, the photographer does not conceal the implications of the AI interface but uses it to explore the anomalies and deformations that give the images plasticity, grotesqueness and expressiveness. The fictional photographs created using deliberate commands – terms (for instance, nude, body, ceramic, studio, etc.) and the selection of unforeseen consequences of the codes create a dialogue with the sculptures of Bojana Križanec, who also plays with ambiguous forms in the production of her ceramic works and other sculpture pieces, relating the series of works to sexual themes and the concept of desire. These range from explorations of ancient iconography and Asian cultures to various cultural rituals and unconventional sexual practices. Her works often invite a tactile engagement with the content of objects, materials and forms. The artist’s gesture in presenting her works is always inviting, sometimes ritualistic, and she challenges the often repressed notions of pleasure in the installation itself as well as at the opening of the exhibition through the possibility of tasting and touching.
The encounter of the two artists in the exhibition Embracing the Unexpected at the Račka Gallery is an attempt at an otherwise random game of serendipity that confronts the codes of eroticism on the one hand and creates surprises on the other. Pleasure and fantasy are never unambiguous, and the treatment of materials or concepts in the digital world can often be unpredictable, but the artists nevertheless direct our gaze themselves, creating a bold balance of visual messages.
Bojana Križanec (1973) is an independent cultural artist who graduated in Sculpture from the Famul Stuart School of Applied Arts in Ljubljana. Her original sculptures and ceramics always touch on chapters of her life or creative journey, which stretches from Ireland to China. She works mainly with clay and stone, and makes ceramics for culinary masters and gastronomic events. Her art practice also extends to performative practices, frequently exploring gender stereotypes in performance and often combining themes with culinary undertones. She has held solo exhibitions at Herman Pečarič Gallery in Piran, Charlama Gallery in Sarajevo, Media Nox Gallery in Maribor and Račka Gallery in Celje, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. She has received several awards for her work, including the May Salon Award for best young artist and the Piran Coastal Galleries Award for most original work at the Ceramics Ex-tempore. Her works are included in the permanent collection of the Center for Contemporary Arts.
Tomaž Črnej (1963) began in the medium of photography as a self-taught photographer and soon turned to a field that moves between narrative documentary and art photography. He attracted attention with the Slovenian Press Photo 2010 award-winning series Mistake, which he presented at the Plevnik – Kronkowska gallery (Celje) and at the Center for Contemporary Art Celje, where he has shown his projects in group exhibitions on several occasions. He has participated in the festivals: Photonic Moments (Janez Boljka Gallery, Ljubljana, 2016), Celje Focus (2015), Lighting Guerilla (Ljubljana, 2016) and 4th KAOS Festival of Contemporary Collage (Kranj, 2022). In 2019, he presented himself at Likovni salon with a solo exhibition and the photo series Father was a Hunter. Črnej has exhibited in Slovenia, Italy and Austria. He has received national and international recognitions and awards for his photography work. His works are included in the permanent collection of the Center for Contemporary Arts.
