BLOOM

JAŠA website – www.jasha.org
Album – https://jasha-studio.bandcamp.com/
Cloud Tailor (videosingle) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IccSJCpoiFA

One of the most internationally successful Slovenian contemporary artists JAŠA (Mrevlje-Pollak) will occupy the entire Kino Šiška building for one day on September 3, presenting the last decade of his creative journey. The latter has led him around the world, including to New York, to the Venice Biennial, where he represented Slovenia, and to Berlin, where, as resident artist of the Kühlhaus Berlin institution, he is displaying his two-year project The Monuments.

The project includes the release of the BLOOM album, the public spatial installation UNNAME, the international workshop for young artists Making It and the final act on September 3, when JAŠA will take over the entire Kino Šiška building for one day with a live programme.

At Kino Šiška, JAŠA will create visual stories with a distinctive author’s touch through an innovative mix of installations, performances, sound and music. As he often uses space itself as a medium in his art, he will take advantage of the technical and spatial capacities of Kino Šiška – the large and the small hall, the intermediate spaces and the courtyard –, letting visitors fully immerse themselves in his work with unique authorial interventions.

“The event will last only one day, from morning to evening, in both halls, intermediate spaces and in front of the building. The visitor can stay in each of the areas for five minutes or the whole day, it will be their decision. I want to give them something they have never seen, heard or experienced before, in the context of either Kino Šiška or contemporary art.” – JAŠA

The main artistic collaborators in the project are the excellent musicians KALU (Luka Uršič) and Bowrain (Tine Grgurevič). A number of renowned artists also participate in the project in various roles, such as intermedia artist Lina Rica, actor and performer Primož Bezjak, drummer Jan Kmet, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mario Babojelič and many others.

The project is supported by the City of Ljubljana, the Ministry of Culture and Zavarovalnica Triglav.

MUSIC

The excellent musicians KALU (Luka Uršič) and Bowrain (Tine Grgurevič) are JAŠA’s long-term collaborators in creating music for his intermediate art projects. They recently released the album BLOOM on the Kamizdat label, which will be played exclusively at Kino Šiška with an expanded 18-member band.

PUBLIC SPATIAL INSTALLATION UNNAME

August–September

In August, as part of the project, JAŠA is setting up UNNAME, a public spatial installation in front of Kino Šiška, around which a series of performances and art events will take place during the main event. The installation will last until the end of September.

»UNNAME is the absence of a monument. What we see is merely its structure. This represents the effort of the collective, which is the driver of social progress. The binder of this load-bearing construction is constructive dialogue. The emptiness reverses the perspective and thus the load-bearing structure becomes a monument; a monument and tribute to the unstoppable force of collective action.« – JAŠA

MAKING IT INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

August 21–3 September

In August, JAŠA, in cooperation with KiD PiNO, will lead an international workshop for young artists titled Making It. The workshop is based on the manual Making It: The Artist’s Survival Guide, which he published with Pulitzer finalist Noah Charney via the American publishing house Rowan & Littlefield.

About the book:

“This book gives you the freedom to follow its proposals or to mock them – to mock the rules, the rules should be there. If you do not need a ‘making it’ guide for your work, you are not an original creative genius, you are an idiot.” – Slavoj Žižek

Workshop participants will present their work at the main event at Kino Šiška.

BLOOM

3. 9., final event, Kino Šiška

KATEDRALA HALL
11:00–12:00 Walk-in installation: Apnea’s Rhaphsody
12:00–13:00 Walk-in installation: Cloud Tailor
13.00–14:00 Sentences
14:00–15:00 Walk-in installation: Gods Came for Dinner Last Night
15:00–16:00 Walk-in installation: Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth
16:00–18:00 Walk-in installation: Compositions
18:00–19:00 B.side Utter – Junzi
19:00–20:00 Concert: Stains of Time – Kalu, Bowrain & guest
20.00–21.00 Concert: Boys and Guns – Kalu, Jaša & Jan Kmet
21.30–22.30 Concert: BLOOM side B – Bowrain z 18-člansko zasedbo
22:30–00:00 Walk-in installation

KOMUNA HALL
11:00–17:00 Final individual presentation by students of international workhop Making It
17:00–18:00 Debris & Boys and Guns
18:00–19:00 Walk-in installation: Apnea’s Rhaphsody
19:00–21:00 Walk-in installation: Cloud Tailor
21:00–23:30 Walk-in installation: Gods Came for Dinner Last Night & Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth
23:30–01:00 Dj set – Junzi

UPPER AND LOWER LOBBY
11:00–00:00 Live sessions: DEBRIS – Mario Babojelič & JAŠA

OUTSIDE, LOBBY
11:00–00:00 Individualni in skupinski performansi in situacije / Individual and group performances and situations

BIO

After studying and successfully starting his career in Venice in 2005, JAŠA (Mrevlje-Pollak) moved to Ljubljana, where he drew attention to himself with a series of high-profile projects carried out in collaboration with the Ganes Pratt Gallery, with artists of the so-called “Venetian generation” (Meta Grgurevič, Jasmina Cibic, Ištvan Išt Huzjan) and other artists who also collaborated with the gallery (Mark Požlep, Viktor Bernik, Žiga Kariž and Arjan Pregl).

Projects such as Bad Girls & Bad Boys, Radikal Chic and last but not least The Lovest, which lasted almost three years at the Museum of Modern Art, brought freshness, poignancy, multimedia and the practice of close horizontal cooperation with artists from various fields to the Slovenian contemporary art scene.

Between 2013 and 2018, the artist moved to New York, where he successfully continued his career in collaboration with the On Stellar Rays Gallery. In 2015, he represented Slovenia at the Venice Art Biennale with the project UTTER/The Violent Necessity for the Embodied Presence of Hope. He has presented him work with numerous projects elsewhere in the world. Through his continuous work, he has established himself as one of the most important Slovenian contemporary artists of his generation.

In 2021, he moved to Berlin, where as a resident artist of the Kuhlhaus Berlin cultural institution, he started the project The Monuments, which will last a year and a half.

In the fall of 2021, American publishing house Rowan & Littlefield published his autobiographical manual, Making it: The Artist’s Survival Guide, written with Pulitzer Prize winner Noah Charney. In it, he strongly emphasizes the importance of collaboration. The manual is intended primarily for younger artists at the beginning of their careers.

About the book

“Making It: The Artist Survival Guide is a book every true artist cannot but love. It is, of course, impossible to condense the complex process of creativity into the form of ‘making it’ guides which provide ready-made formulas for success, love life, getting friends, etc. – but for this very reason one should do it. This book gives you the freedom to follow its proposals or to mock them – to mock the rules, the rules should be there. If you do not need a ‘making it’ guide for your work, you are not an original creative genius, you are an idiot.” – Slavoj Žižek, philosopher and best-selling author

“A smashing story of how an artist never stops working, always keeps moving, doesn’t allow rejection to define him, and who makes art that finds large audiences against all odds. An every-artist story.” – Jerry Saltz, senior art critic New York Magazine, author of How To Be an Artist

More: www.jasha.org

Tickets on sale online and at Eventim outlets.

PRODUCER: Agencija Glasilka, We.are Institute

PARTNERS: CUK Kino Šiška, KiD Pina, Kamizdat, ŠKUC

SUPPORTERS: City of Ljubljana, Triglav, Ministry of Culture