Nada Maleš – Dalmatinka
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Monday, 10th July 2018, at 20:00
NMG@PRAKTIKA, Klub KOCKA Dom mladih Split, Ulica slobode 28
Artist Kristina Marić is exhibiting the interactive computer installation titled Duel, where the observer is confronted by the artist in virtual space in real time. The work focuses on the relation between the observer and the aforementioned artwork. After entering the exhibition space, the visitor gains access to a white gun, with which he can assassinate the character of the artist in the projected video. What intrigues Kristina is the reaction of the observer and the contemplative moments after they leave the duel. The provocation hidden in the decision to leave the duel is evident in the fact that the artist’s character remains still on the screen looking back, while the observer leaves with a new experience which they have just taken part of. The question that the artist poses is do the observers themselves feel exposed and vulnerable or do they occupy a dominant position? As she states:
“It is a paradoxical duel between oppositions: the real and the virtual world, the audience and the artwork. Every side is in a specific advantage compared to the other one. The figure is unarmed, but her strength and the ability to fight back are evident in her constant regeneration and apparent permanence.”
The second part of the work is the performance “On the gunpoint”. The video projection of the performance is shown in this exhibition. The author now takes the dominant role by holding a photosniper in her hands. Calmly waiting for the visitor to come into position, she raises the camera and takes a shot, thus creating a photo documentation of the encounter. The potential anxiety of the visitor is highlighted here due to the nature of the photosniper, as well as the exposure and a certain endangerment at the hands of the author. Although her works are esthetically pure, clear and somewhat “cold”, that which shapes them is the participation of both audience and author. That interaction of the visitors creates an uncertainty, and with a dose of the dramatic, transforms the work into an infinite process, opening a number of themes regarding the relationship between the author, artwork and audience, with emphasis on the real/virtual world and changes taking place within them.
– Jozefina Ćurković
Nada Maleš completed her undergraduate studies in Visual communications design at the Arts Academy in Split, while spending the last semester at the Peter Brehens School of Arts in Düsseldorf under the mentorship of Mareike Foecking. After trying out various creative and design practices in her studies, she eventually settled for photography as her primary medium.
In 2014 she started working on a series of portraits in which she places an individual in what is traditionally perceived as a rural environment, exploring the everyday transformations of the protagonists. Ever since she has been working in the field of documentary photography and dealing with themes of individual and communal identities and the process of living and constant change. She currently lives and works in Düsseldorf.
CURATOR:
Jozefina Ćurković
NMG PROGRAMME CURATORS:
Lana Beović, Natasha Kadin, Tina Vukasović Đaković, Ivana Vukušić
DESIGN:
Nikola Križanac
LECTURE AND PROOFREADING: Ivana Vukušić
EXHIBITION LAYOUT AND DOCUMENTATION: Tihana Mandušić
DONORS:
Ministarstvo kulture RH, Grad Split, Splitsko-dalmatinska županija
MAVENA SUPPORTED BY: Zaklada Kultura nova
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
KUM, PDM, HULU, MKC
