And now for something completely different 5
Nika Oblak & Primož Novak are an artist duo from Slovenia. They are representatives of the new, global art village, moving from one place of the globe to the other, doing residencies, developing projects, exhibiting worldwide. The pneumatic video installations from the exhibition And Now For Something Completely Different 5 – they expose the daily routine, artificially produced consumerist needs. They illustrate our existence as the monotony of operating machines. Despite their appearance and this wider possible reading, the pneumatic video installations presented are also very personal works of art that say as much about the artists as they do about society at large.
- Kunsthalle Bratislava was founded in 201600:00:04.476
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- and we have repurposed its space00:00:08.661
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- for a new exhibition space named Kunsthalle Lab.00:00:12.859
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- This space, which is in a manner of speaking00:00:16.898
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- situated in the street, can be characterized00:00:20.977
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- as a window gallery. It’s completely transparent00:00:24.957
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- and visible from outside, from the street.00:00:28.868
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- We are trying to focus mainly on exhibition projects00:00:31.914
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- with a potential to operate programmatically00:00:35.950
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- with public space and all the passersby and so on.00:00:39.808
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- That is one plane of its spatial and dramaturgical concept.00:00:44.050
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- The second one focuses on the type of visual art00:00:48.100
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- we would like to present here,00:00:52.379
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- that is the newest and the most contemporary00:00:56.554
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- forms of visual art that are in one way or another00:01:00.900
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- interactive, participatory or their medium is light00:01:05.010
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- or sound and so on.00:01:09.271
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- The current exhibition project presents artworks00:01:12.586
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- by Slovenian art couple, Nika Oblak and Primož Novak.00:01:16.429
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- What we liked about them is that even though it is not00:01:20.339
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- a site-specific art their work is capable to communicate00:01:24.010
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- with audience meaning the general public00:01:28.333
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- by the virtue of their playfulness, humor00:01:32.579
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- and visual appeal.00:01:36.638
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- But their focal point00:01:40.884
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- lies in the critique pointed at the contemporary00:01:45.110
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- capitalist society.00:01:49.455
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- The box generally renders00:02:11.882
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- the environment of the screen or media reality00:02:16.019
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- where there is a funny,00:02:19.944
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- or even absurd performance taking place,00:02:24.182
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- when they kick the wall or they knock00:02:28.235
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- on the screen and so on. The object thus moves00:02:32.457
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- into 3D reality, into space,00:02:36.719
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- but as a rule only to a certain context.00:02:40.946
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- There is always a border, a limit the action,00:02:44.913
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- however absurd it is, never crosses,00:02:48.948
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- so the artworks highlight the limits00:02:52.974
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- posed by the media reality.00:02:57.160
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- The exhibition shows one entirely new piece00:03:06.566
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- created by the artists for this show00:03:10.543
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- or let’s say this is the first time they show it.00:03:14.654
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- It’s called Border Mover, where Primož Novak00:03:18.819
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- moves around in an indifferent,00:03:23.003
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- unspecified space of the screen,00:03:27.312
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- or, to be precise, the box,00:03:31.303
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- by his bodily action he moves it00:03:35.694
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- but always only to a certain limit.00:03:39.792
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- After a short walk it comes back to the starting point00:03:42.923
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- which serves as a beautiful metaphor00:03:45.871
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- of the limits of media reality.00:03:48.999