15 September – 4 October 2022
P74 Gallery
You are cordially invited to attend the opening of the exhibition High-maintenance by Maruša Uhan on Thursday, 15th September, between 7pm and 9pm at the P74 Gallery in Ljubljana.
>The exhibition will be on view until 4th October 2022 at the usual opening hours of the gallery (Monday to Friday, 12.00 to 18.00, extra viewings upon individual arrangement).
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In pictorial form, the weather most often appears as a contemplative frame, as a display of atmosphere or transition – it is a minimal story, which in the history of art mostly serves as a symbol for an individual’s inner mood. As long as the weather forms slowly and fluidly, we pay no attention to it; only when it becomes theatrical do we see that it is always in motion. As a system, it is unstable and amorphous; we only see its face, unaware that it inhabits four dimensions. With its abilities and internal energy, it jumps between time zones, changes charges, and is full of unpredictable turns. Weather, as a free entity, rises, falls, rotates. As it loses power at one end, it gains it at the other. With the mechanisms of identifying potential developments, we create a virtual control and think that we know how to predict it. The possibility of meteorological forecasting also brings income to many: in addition to Cambodia’s traditional, illegal bets, last year saw an increase in online bets on the weather. Therefore, the preliminary analysis of the conditions in the sky is most of the time more important than the conditions themselves.
The High-maintenance project by Maruša Uhan deals with the phenomenon of meteorology, i.e., weather. She tries to place it in an artificial habitat that has the capacity to facilitate it, thus addressing the desire for its demystification. In that way, the weather no longer appears as mighty, but almost mechanical. The exhibition setting includes a projection with typography that the artist developed from symbols related to weather phenomena, as well as ready-made objects and sound. The projected video includes text with various information about weather phenomena and their changes with an emphasis on storms which the author obtained in various contexts, from conversations with meteorologists and lightning hunters to data from the Internet. But the visual part is not based on the images and recordings of the weather, as we are used to. Instead, the artist uses recordings from inside the car wash and its automated process which she understands as a predictable micro-simulation of weather changes. The car wash is functional, cyclically oriented, and its components carry the potential of creating various controlled meteorological phenomena. The author’s personal fascination with the intangibility of the weather led her, through research and its results (and on the other hand, the lack of them), to the presentation of the project, where we almost get the feeling that she is trying to understand or treat a person – the weather is somehow personified.
Modernity shows that we are not open to coincidences and like to protect ourselves from the dominance of chaos. Reality tells us there will never be enough data for an optimized and completely reliable forecast; the lack of control obscures our view like a rain curtain. Weather doesn’t just break through the initial ice or crust. It is a universal language, an atmospheric battle of unimaginable proportions. It is not just a cycle of phenomena that illusively diminishes and which we follow more or less attentively until they disappear. Small, initial air changes can lead to unpredictable developments. Constantly updated weather information is an unattainable goal, an eternal gamble.
The exhibition is part of the Open Term for a Young Intermedia Artist series. We introduced this program unit in 2015 and it is intended for the presentations and promotions of young intermedia productions and upcoming, inventive artists who enter the world of art and show much potential.
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Maruša Uhan (1994, Ljubljana) completed her studies at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, the Netherlands. Pedagogical work focused her interest in observing naivety, or losing this naivety in the process of growing up, as well as the subsequent gradual transformation into a “socially welcomed trend hybrid”. Her works can be read as a comment on everyday ‘doings’ and modern attitudes. She participated in several exhibitions, most recently: Postponed Until Further Notice, The Wrong Biennale, online exhibition; Such a that even birds go on foot, Night Window Display Gallery Pešak, Ljubljana (2022); A Blueprint for Movement, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana (2021); Triple BLT: Lettuce, IG Bildende Kunst Gallery, Vienna, Austria; s02e03, Simulaker Gallery, Novo mesto (2019); Art on the Edge, Leeuwarden, Netherlands (2018), Kolla festival, Steinfort Mirador, Luxembourg (2017), It’s not Bami, Y2 Gallery, Groningen, Netherlands (2017). She also participated in the Rucka Artist Residency in Latvia (2021), Open Studio, DobraVaga Gallery in Ljubljana (2018), and Antropical in Luxembourg (2017). Last year, she took over part of the organization and the work of curator in the new gallery space Portal 2-7-7-7-8, on Špica in Ljubljana. She lived in Groningen and Linz, currently lives and works in Ljubljana.
Thanks to: Elesprom Inženiring d.o.o., Avtopralnica Kozama
