[SI ⇊]

Break of Whiteness is a collaborative video installation by two intermedia artists, whose personal interest for the mediums of video and photography has brought them together within the present project. Robertina Šebjanič understands video primarily in the sense of its technical, sculptural, and social characteristics, which often themselves dictate the topic and development of a chosen motive. In her previous installations Niro (2006), Bubble (2008) and Signal 01/02/03 (2008), the subjects of her videos are some kind of phantasms, as if produced by the medium itself and only with a minimal author’s direction, thus existing in the gallery space in the mutual relation to the spectator. Mirjana Batinić is initially interested in emotive capacity of the video. Her video works such as Medusa (2006), In my own time (2007) and Home (2008), represent continuous and disciplined focus on the motive, to accentuate the flexibility of the medium as a trigger for emotive. Experimental aspect of the present project lies on one hand in a combination of both practices, in allowing the medium its technical unpredictability, its animism, while on the other hand in keeping it under a rein of authorship. This way not only the communication between both authors is formed, but as well communication between them and the medium, and furthermore, communication between them, the medium, and the spectator, is created.
The key role in the present installation plays a deliberate disclosure of the structure and the content, i.e. of the process of editing and the evolution of the concept, which simultaneously include and excludes the spectator. At the point when the viewer seemingly grasps the content, the artists exclude him/her with their next move (scene, framing, editing), encouraging him/her to re-feel and re-rationalize what he/she sees once again. The scenes are sequenced on two separate screens like film excerpts, moving photographic images, interviewed by the principle of a scratched repetition and breaking of the same elements on both screens. Visual iconography is complemented by a sound landscape of whisper which enhances the texture of the video. The narrative of the scenes is coincidental, not necessarily intentional; it depends on the perspective of the viewer, on his/her comprehension for some very personal, and others somehow cliché or commonly recognizable emotive images, such as dispersed abstraction of the clouds or rational graphicness of the window frame. The authors manipulate viewer’s perception by switching between emotional atmosphere and production facts, while at the same time allowing enough time to particular scenes to evolve, and enough mental space to the spectator to determine his/her own relation towards the seen. The authors stress out the importance of project’s independency from any philosophical or theoretical interpretations. Contrary, their project is at its basis an emotional video, an irrational field of impressions, similarly as on the unpredictability of the medium constructed equally on the unpredictable empathy of the spectator.
Break of Whiteness is a project of two subjectivities, where both authors simultaneously hold their individual artistic positions and follow their own interests, merging them into an unpredictable result. Emotional interaction with the spectator, spatial definition of the installation, inter-subjectivity, redressed through exchange of impressions of both authors, and playing with the technology of the medium are the central matters of the present project, which culminate in an attractive, aestheticized and subtle, as well as contemplative and associative imagery.
Text by Maja Lozić 

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authors: Mirjana Batinić and Robertina Šebjanič
curators: Jadranka Ljubičić and Maja Lozić
sound: Vladimir Ilić – Lenjin 2, Mario Sammut – Cygna, Mirjana Batinić and Robertina Šebjanič
Production: Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, 2010

Special thanks to: LJUDMILA, Ljubljana Digital Media Lab at KUD France Prešeren, Famul Stuart – School of Applied Arts Ljubljana and Kapelica Gallery.

The project is supported by the the Municipality of Ljubljana.

Lom beline

Razstava Lom beline je rezultat sodelovanja dveh intermedijskih umetnic, ki ju je njuno osebno zanimanje za raziskovanje medijev videa in fotografije povezalo k skupnemu eksperimentalnemu projektu. Robertina Šebjanič razume video predvsem v smislu njegovih tehničnih, skulpturalnih in socialnih karakteristik, ki na nek način dostikrat same diktirajo tematiko in razvoj motiva. V njenih prejšnjih instalacijah Niro (2006), Bubble (2008) in Signal 01/02/03 (2008), so subjekti videov nekakšne fantazme, ki se zdijo kakor da bi jih proizvedel kar medij sam, zgolj z minimalnim avtoričinim usmerjanjem, in ki se na ta način socializirajo oziroma obstajajo v prostoru v vzajemnem odnosu z gledalcem. Mirjano Batinić v izhodišču zanimajo predvsem emotivne zmogljivosti videa. Njena video dela, npr. Medusa (2006), In my own time (2007) ter Home (2008), izpostavljajo kontinuirano in disciplinirano osredotočenje na izbrani motiv z namenom, da preko njega prikaže fleksibilnost videa kot sprožitelja emocij in poseganja v intimno. Ekperimentalna pri pričujočem projektu je kombinacija obeh pristopov, torej puščanje videu njegovo tehnično nepredvidljivost, njegov animizem, po drugi strani pa ga hkrati trdno držati v avtorskih vajetih. Na ta način se vzpostavi ne zgolj komunikacija med obema avtoricama, pač pa tudi komunikacija med njima in medijem, in dalje, med umetnicama, medijem in gledalcem.

Ključno vlogo pri video instalaciji Lom beline igra namerno razkrivanje strukture ter vsebine, torej procesa montaže in razvijanja koncepta, kar gledalca simultano vključuje in izključuje. Ko gledalec pomisli, da je doumel vsebino, ga avtorici z naslednjo potezo (prizorom, kadriranjem, montažo) izključita do te mere, da mora ponovno začutiti oziroma racionalizirati tisto novo, kar vidi pred seboj. Prizori so na dveh ločenih površinah nanizani kakor filmski izseki, premikajoče se fotografske podobe, med seboj povezane po principu prelomljene repeticije ter razbijanja enakih elementov na obeh platnih. Vizualno ikonografijo dopolnjuje zvočna krajina šepeta, ki poudarja teksturo videa. Narativa je v prizorih prisotna naključno, ne nujno namerno, in je odvisna predvsem od gledalčeve percepcije, od njegove dojemljivosti za nekatere zelo osebne, in druge nekoliko klišejske ali prepoznavne emotivne podobe, kot sta npr. razpršena abstrakcija oblakov ali racionalna grafičnost okenskega okvirja. Avtorici manipulirata gledalčevo percepcijo s tem ko ‘prekljapljata’ med emocionalno atmosfero in produkcijskimi dejstvi, hkrati pa dopuščata dovolj časa posameznim prizorom, da se razvijejo, in dovolj miselnega prostora gledalcu, da se opredeli do videnega. Avtorici tudi poudarjata, da je pri njunem projektu pomembna popolna neodvisnost od filozofskih ali teoretičnih interpreatcij. Nasprotno, njun projekt je v svoji osnovi emocionalni video, neracionalni poligon vtisov, podobno kakor na nepredvidljivosti medija, grajen enakopravno na nepredvidljivi empatiji gledalca.

Lom beline je projekt dveh subjektivnosti, kjer obe umetnici hkrati zavzemata svojo osebno ustvarjalno pozicijo in sledita lastnim interesom, ki jih na koncu združita v nepredvidljiv preplet. Čustvena interaktivnost z gledalcem, prostorska definiranost instalacije, intersubjektivnost, ki se vzpostavlja skozi izmenjavanje impresij obeh avtoric, in poigravanje s tehnologijo medija, so temeljni poudarki pričujocega projekta, ki kulminirajo v privlačni, estetiziriani in subtilni, po drugi strani pa kontemplativni in asociativni imageriji.

Maja Lozić
Produkcija: Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, 2010

Program Galerije Alkatraz podpirata Ministrstvo za kulturo RS in Mestna občina Ljubljana, Oddelek za kulturo.

Video je nastal ob tehnični podpori LJUDMILE, laboratorij za digitalne medije in kulturo pri KUD France Prešeren in Šole uporabnih umetnosti Famul Stuart.

Zahvala:

LJUDMILA, laboratorij za digitalne medije in kulturo pri KUD France Prešeren http://www.ljudmila.org/

Famul Stuart – šola uporabnih umetnosti http://www.galerijagt-famul.si/

Galerija Kapelica http://test.kapelica.org/

HULU Split http://www.hulu-split.hr/

www.vimeo.com/11254044
www.vimeo.com/robertina
www.mirjanabatinic.blogspot.co​m

Foto: Ana Grobler in Damjan Fister

Razstava Lom beline umetnic Mirjane Batinić in Robertine Šebjanič gostuje v zahodnem delu kleti Dioklecijanove palače v prostorih Hrvaškga društva likovnih umetnikov HULU v Splitu. Vljudno vabljeni na otovritev, ki bo, 18. avgusta ob 20. uri. Video je bil premierno razstavljen v Galeriji Alkatraz v letu 2010. Prikazan je bil na 14. Mednarodnem video festivalu Videomedeja v Muzeju sodobne umetnosti Vojvodina v Novem Sadu v Srbiji. Do konca leta 2011 bo prikazan še v Galeriji SC v Zagrebu na Hrvaškem in v Prima Centru Berlin v Nemčiji. Kuratorici: Jadranka Ljubičić in Maja Lozić, Zvok: Vladimir Ilić – Lenjin 2, Mario Sammut – Cygna in avtorici