UTTER / The violent necessity for the embodied presence of hope

Pavilion of Slovenia at 56 Biennale di Venezia

2015

Site-specific Installation and durational performance

This project, representing Slovenia at the 56th Venice Biennial International Art Exhibition, defines JAŠA's intent to conceive the artwork as both a poetic stance and a dynamic, politicized presence. The work, presented by UGM / Maribor Art Gallery, the Ministry of Culture Slovenia, and WEARE Production, was realized as a spatial installation and on-site performance designed to bind the artist, his collaborators, and the public for the duration of the Biennale. The core components consist of an installation—an architectural drawing activated as a reflection of thought—and a durational performance expressing the necessity for embodied re-action. These elements coexist to form the integral experience.

The project focuses on three major conceptual themes: resistance, collaboration, and hope. This energetic premise was resolved through the long-term coexistence of a performative body within an architectural shell, the co-creation of repetitive actions, and the production of harmonic moments. A polyphonic situation of visual, sound, and performance adhered to a rigorous weekly script, repeated 28 times from May 9th until November 22nd. Occupying this substantial temporal span, the project utilized the Biennale platform as a stand against prevailing reality.

JAŠA maintains that an artwork achieves a political dimension solely when driven by an inspiring, non-dictatorial ideology. The project is structured as an act of discipline, serving as a call toward collective sensibility. Through continuous repetitive actions and the transformation of gestures into rituals, the performers summon a rebellious force that, through the power of poetry, asserts a realization of community and unification.

JAŠA states: “It is my goal to use the Slovenian pavilion as a platform to confront an international audience with the overall project experience as a living functional mechanism driven by the solidarity of all elements involved: installation, visual elements, lighting, projections, sound, and performance. Thus, I intend to create and enable an overall experience of solidarity as an efficient way of operation. I believe in continuous and sustainable collaboration as a basis for the development and communicative value of the project.”

The work consciously progresses JAŠA’s prevailing concern with communication—specifically, his urge to fracture rigid, conventional forms. His use of poetry as a stance is the foundation of his voice, with the site-specific installation and durational performance, based on the ideology of togetherness, complementing his imperative to react and formulate a vision of communal experience.

JAŠA (Mrevlje-Pollak), born in Ljubljana in 1978 and trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, is recognized for his rhapsodic interpretations of situation, narrative, sculpture, and performance. Driven by an alchemistic connection with material and content, he transforms spaces into experiences, pushing them toward their poetic and ecstatic potentials. He has cultivated a rich body of work over two decades, utilizing his studios in New York and Ljubljana to foster the contextual and visual eventuality integral to his practice.