P L A T E A U R E S I D U E: Terra Ignota

25 August 2021 > 03 September 2021 You are cordially invited to the opening of the first part of the exhibition P L A T E A U R E S I D U E, Terra Ignota in Kino Šiška, on Wednesday, 25th August between 18.30 and 20.00. The second part of the exhibition opens on Thursday, 9th September at the Miklova hiša Gallery in Ribnica.

Kino Šiška, 25 August – 3 September 2021
Opening: Wednesday, 25 August, 18.30–20.00.
Miklova hiša Gallery Ribnica, 9 September – 7 November 2021.

P L A T E AU R E S I D U E are Aljaž Celarc and Eva Pavlič Seifert. At the heart of their research is landscape ecology. They are interested in the sustainability and cultivation of the land with natural approaches, which they also imaginatively implement through Mandrova House, where they have established a self-sufficient existence in cohabitation with nature by reviving the cultural heritage. Mandrova House is an example of how the artists put their life views into practice. Their landing page states that one begins to be aware of what one is capable of only when one begins to make and produce things oneself. In fact, the statement conceals the guiding principle of their activities; empowerment and encouragement towards more conscientious and sustainable action, connected to nature, which is essential for our existence and the existence of all living things that inseparably surround us. In their past projects, they have addressed the effects of climate change on concrete examples from the immediate geographical area. In their multimedia projects, they have, among others, presented the post-glacial landscape of the almost gone Triglav Glacier, the drastic reduction of permanent cave ice in a cave in Kočevski Rog, human forest management, and the consequences of over-exploitation in the past.

Their latest sensory video installation, Terra Ignota, addresses the sensory experience of biodiversity loss. It consists of a video projection and showcases inspired by natural history museum dioramas. Their showcases, unlike the ones in museums, which serve as a speculative depiction of the functioning of ecosystems as seen by mankind, depict the decay of species in the Sixth Holocene Extinction. The latter has become inevitable due to mankind’s global destruction of ecosystems, anthropogenic climate change, and the perpetuation of persistent social injustice. Despite the fact that at the civilisational level we are aware of what extinction brings, monitor it quantitatively and try to visualise it through computer simulations, we cannot comprehend it, as it is unimaginable and too far in the future for our understanding. The project seeks to ambitiously reduce the human cognitive bias about the future that prevents us from making better personal and collective decisions for a more acceptable tomorrow. Through artistic treatment of current scientific and technological processes, products and related practices, the project addresses socially and environmentally relevant topics by including nature conservation and environmental issues. It seeks to approximate and embrace the hyper-objectivity of the already ongoing extinction, underlined by the all-encompassing and slow extinction of animal species, including humans, which will be among the last to be affected due to operating within a wider ecological niche.

The strong visual component of their installations is complemented by sound, most often the work of younger artists. Music for this project was contributed by Ana Kravanja and Samo Kutin, renowned experimental multi-instrumentalists and members of the group Širom. The project also brought together a wide curatorial and production group, consisting of individuals working at the SCCA-Ljubljana Center for Contemporary Arts (Vesna Bukovec, Miha Kelemina), the Kino Šiška Center for Urban Culture (Anja Zver), Miklova hiša Gallery (Ana Pucelj) and KUD Mreža (Ana Grobler, Sebastian Krawczyk). The first part of the project will be presented at Kino Šiška, and the second part will follow a week later at the Miklova hiša Gallery in Ribnica.

The P L A T E AU R E S I D U E tandem consists of Aljaž Celarc (BA in Geography and MA in Photography) and Eva Pavlič Seifert (BA in Art History and MA in Visual Culture). Their artistic production is based on researching landscape ecology, which they present in the form of extensive video installations in order to raise public awareness. In their works, they give voice to project participants, natural formations such as rocks, air, organisms and other clusters of substances, which they reorganize into new unusual forms and new media systems. They have been operating as a tandem since 2017. That same year, they attended a residency at the V2 Institute for the Unstable Media Rotterdam in the Netherlands, then a residency at the MGLC Švicarija Creative Center in Ljubljana a year later. In 2017, they received the TESLA Award from the Museum of Transitional Arts – MoTA. Their work has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and internationally. They live and work in Novi Kot, in the hinterland of the forests of the Goteniška Gora and Snežnik mountains.

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Video installation design and implementation: Aljaž Celarc and Eva Pavlič Seifert (P L A T E AU R E S I D U E)
Music: Ana Kravanja and Samo Kutin.
Quotes in the video: dr. Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik.
Essays: Aljaž Celarc and Eva Pavlič Seifert (P L A T E AU R E S I D U E), Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik, Ph. D.
Proofreading: Inge Pangos, Aleš Lampe, Daniel Sheppard.
Translation: Daniel Sheppard.

Filming locations provided by: Center Noordung, National Gallery of Slovenia, Marmor, Sežana d. d., Slovenian Museum of Natural History, ZOO Ljubljana, Park of Military History Pivka.

Production: SCCA-Ljubljana, Center for Contemporary Arts, Kino Šiška Center for Urban Culture, Miklova hiša Gallery, KUD Mreža/Alkatraz Gallery.

Supported by: the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture, the Ribnica Municipality.

Thanks: Kočevje Business Incubator.