Uroš Weinberger & Gregor Balog: Blur Techno

Blur Techno, a joint exhibition project of Gregor Balog and Uroš Weinberger, draws its idea at the intersection between technology and art – two entities that have, from the historical perspective, often inter-fecundated, observing one another in each other and, in this way with their specific tools also stimulated their own development. The authors are exposing points of junction of both fields as well as their development in time. By thematization of earlier technological achievements that we, nowadays, take as granted and familiar, they question our ambivalent attitude towards the technological universe that is coming to being.Gregor Balog and Uroš Weinberger are - with the exhibition that is not trying to hide its experimental nature - undertaking a poetical research of the past, or more precisely; they are interested in how our ancestors were looking out into the future world, into the world of the unanticipated technological development yet to occur. Within this context art has often provided a critical platform for the testing of the visions of the future and new technologies; as such it has also had concrete effects on the further technological development.

The authors supply their visual material from countless sources; they draw from various media, freely borrow and rearrange it, and the in-such-way-acquired material organize according to the principle of collage or free associative sequences, and compose them into new narrative integrities. The basic construction components of their narrative, focusing on the moving image and sound, are particular products of the early modern age like the television set, electric chair or light bulb, that seem a granted part of the human experience, while they were - at the time of their invention – raising all sorts of different reactions, based on both, the affirmative as well as declining assumptions about the fatefulness of technological novelties. Techno-landscapes, reflected in the rear-view mirror in this way encourage a reflection on technological progress and our attitude towards it. With a fair share of doubt the authors are turning back to deconstructed ideals of the past, in order to re-evaluate them and, with the help of their own poetics, harness them into new idiomatic entireties, again make strange that what is familiar and, introducing them into the field of the fantastic and dreamy. The result is an ambiental installation, revealing the imaginative cross-evaluation and recontextualization of technological achievements, in order to tear them out from their utilitarian-ness, and subject them to a completely different usage, whilst simultaneously bringing them closer to the new experiential paradigms. Their retro-futuristic digital landscapes, marked with hisses of the omnipresent electromagnetic radiation, at the same time delicately exposing the pixel as the very basic construction element of the image of techno contemporaneity: transitions of visual fields begin and end with a pixel, the »God particle« of the new, media-constructed world.

Matjaž Brulc

Uroš Weinberger (b. 1975) finished his studies in painting in 2003 and completed his Master's degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in 2005. In 2002 he perfected his studies at the National Academy of Art Sofia, Bulgaria. He received several awards, such as Prešeren Student's Award by University of Ljubljana in 2001 and in 2011 he was the winner of the Biennial Exhibition – A Look at Visual Arts in Slovenia 6: I, Here, Now. In 2009 he participated at Artist-in-residence program of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia in Berlin, Germany. In 2013 he participated at Artist-in-residence program at European House of Art, Upper Bavaria-Schafhof in Freising, Germany.

His most important solo exhibitions are: Control-Delete, Coastal galleries Piran (2010); Soft Techno with Gregor Balog, Sokolski dom, Novo mesto (2010); Info vs. Info, EQURNA Gallery, Ljubljana (2011); Paintings, Galleria A+A, Venice, Italy, (2011); Blur Techno with Gregor Balog, Simulaker Gallery, Novo mesto (2012); Displaced world, deplasiran svet., Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor (2013); Kϋnstler aus Slowenien stellen sich vor: Mitja Ficko, Simon Kajtna und Uroš Weinberger, Museum fϋr Abgϋsse Klassicher Bildwerke Mϋnchen, Munich, Germany (2014) and most important group exhibitions: Zeit fϋhlen – Zeit leben, Kϋnstlerhaus Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria (2010); Figural, figurabile, figurative, Space for Contemporary Art, Coastal Galleries Piran, Portorož (2011); Beautiful painting is behind us, Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor 2012 European Capital of Culture, Maribor (2012); Trans.form 4, Kϋnstlerhaus Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria (2013); Transfer > Slovenia, European House of Art, Upper Bavaria-Schafhof, Freising, Germany (2013). He lives and works as an independent visual artist in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Gregor Balog (1983) is completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He deals mainly with painting and video installations. In 2008 he was awarded by Academy of Fine Arts and Design for outstanding achievements in the academic year 2007/2008. So far, he has performed in group exhibitions and festivals: Po-kopališče Kolezija, a media event, Kolezija, Ljubljana (2007); Get Ost, Kunstfest zum Osten, Basel, Switzerland (2008); Universal Cube, Group exhibition by young artists, Leipzig, Germany (2009); Plein Air Tues Toruń, Toruń, Poland (2010); 18. MFRU, 18. International festival of computer art, Central station, Maribor 2012 European Capital of Culture, Maribor and Future of void, IV. Independent Biennial, Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana (2013).

In 2009 he participated in the project video for MTVs Staying Alive campaign, in 2010 in projects video work for short electronic form festival (KEF) 2010/11, on the theme "30 sec in ex-Yu" & Tamara Stošič video and biography Makrocosmos of Marko Modic. With Uroš Weinberger he cooperated in projects Soft Techno, Sokolski dom, Novo mesto (2010) and Blur Techno, Simulaker Gallery, Novo mesto (2012). He lives and works in Ljubljana.