Brina Ivanetič’s exhibition Shell invites us to step out of our bustling everyday lives and into a thoughtfully constructed dark cube, within which we gaze at alternately illuminated masks that had been used during patient therapy at the oncology department. In her characteristic exploration of absence, the sculptor uses actual traces this time: masks as an imprint, a shell, of the absent subjects, and recordings of the breathing of other, likewise absent persons. By placing the exhibition in a space surrounded by lively, relaxing life, the artist hints at another kind of absence – the prevailing absence of reflection about death in contemporary society.
Brina Ivanetič (1987) graduated in Sculpting, receiving the Academy of Fine Arts and Design Prešeren Award for her thesis. In recent years, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad, with one of her latest solo exhibitions (Vdih/Izdih) held at the Alkatraz Gallery in 2017. In her work, she faces the undesirable aspects of human existence such as fear, anxiety, interpersonal alienation and death. She often reflects on the human body, redefined into its negative form and thus avoiding the classic understanding of figuration. She directs attention primarily towards the issues of absence and its visualisation, with her work thus located within the inherently sculptural interplay of the material and immaterial.
Curator: Iza Pevec.
Organisation: KUD Mreža/Alkatraz Gallery and Kino Šiška.
