About the Work of Boštjan Kavčič
Boštjan Kavčič belongs to the middle generation of Slovenian artists who began his art career at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. In the past, he has worked with new media and carried out artistic actions and interventions in public spaces with a socially engaged touch (e.g. Garden Park, 2009; Let's Garden!, 2022; Run for Art, 2007; Made in Venice, 2005; Artificial Ecosystems I, 2001). He was one of the first Slovenian artists to design simple robots with which he drew attention to the reality of life in a digitalised society that causes a loosening of interpersonal relationships (Cubot 2.0, 2002; Rombot 1.0, 2002). At the same time, sculpture guided by the mastery of matter, creative sovereignty, intuition and the conditions of creation finds its way into his work. However, the artist does not perceive the chosen medium in the classical sense. He consciously refrains from using new technologies and materials that pollute the already saturated environment, preferring to use reusable natural materials. His work to date is characterised by a series of works collectively entitled ORGanisms, which began in 2002 and comprises over eighty stone sculptures, sixteen of which have been created this year. In the context of the new exhibition, he is no stranger to the synthesis of sculpture and utilitarian objects, their narrative connections and positioning in historical architecture.
The starting point for the considerations in preparing the exhibition at Rajhenburg Castle was the history of the castle complex, which is heavily burdened by the tragic events of the last century. The settlement of the destitute Trappist Order in 1881 probably had a favourable influence on the castle's surroundings but was less the cause of their expulsion. In April 1941, the German Nazi authorities took over the castle and set up an exile camp in the higher buildings on the manor. Its former peace was not returned during post-war events when the castle was nationalised in 1947. It was in fact soon used as a penal institution for political prisoners with the aim of their comprehensive "re-education" (Fürst, 2016).
Kavčič approaches each space in which he exhibits his works both meticulously and intuitively. When he sets up sculptures, he does so in tune with the energy, feeling and thought that the space evokes. His curiosity is piqued by historical themes and local features. This time it has nothing to do with the inherited tradition of Tolmin, but he was attracted by the place where the Sava River meanders from the Litija-Radeče district through the Posavje plain. The artist believes that the natural energy flows of the wider surroundings and the grounds of the Brestanica castle have come to a standstill, which is why he wants to restore them to their original state with the help of natural elements, natural resources and the visitors to the exhibition.
Boštjan Kavčič works in classical sculpture, and the stones he cuts are more than just material for his work. He is on the lookout for the right piece, but it is always the latter that finds him. He marvels at the fact that stone is not just a solid substance, inanimate nature that he can shape into an associative image with the right strokes of the grinder. Geological periods of time have passed to allow it to come into being. Rain fell over billions of years, rivers eroded the surface and carried sediment into the seas. Without witnesses, the mountains rose. For the artist, a piece of stone is therefore a predisposition of an inconceivably complex fabric of the earth's history that has accumulated in the wealth of layers over so many years and has also absorbed the first organisms into itself. The artist does not shape the stone into fictitious forms but works on its surface by drawing spiral notches in it through which he restores the flow of energy.
Transitions Between Spaces
The exhibition is located in seven locations on the ground floor, in the cellar and in the attic of the castle tower. On the ground floor, under the arcades, the visitor is lured in by the installation Be the Light. Here he receives a lantern, that is The Bringer of the Light, built up on three levels, which metaphorically explains the threefold division of the world. The lantern is the bearer of the idea of the exhibition, i.e. it establishes a connection between the three worlds, which according to shamanic tradition are divided into the middle (earthly), upper (heavenly) and lower (underground) worlds. The shamanic concept of the world was linked to the concept of the soul as the essence of human existence and originated from the image of birds living on the tree of life in the upper world (Gorbačeva, 2019).
After lighting a candle on the top shelf of the lantern, the visitor makes his way to the cellar, where he walks down a narrow corridor past a stone vessel filled with crushed flint, an installation called The Inner Sun. Here he chooses a pebble and places it on the lower shelf of the lantern. He then enters the space with the set-up of The Vortices of the Sava River, where he is greeted by seven buckets filled with water from the Sava. Immersed here are the sculptures ORG LXXXVI – LCII (Water Vortex), even though the viewer can hardly notice them because of the muddy water. He scoops the water, pours it into a bottle and places it on the middle shelf of the lamp.
He returns to the ground floor, to the late Gothic chapel from the beginning of the 16th century. After viewing, he places the candle next to a stone star called Seven Rays. The star is also the formal successor to Kavčič's ORGanisms, which consists of seven identical sculptures. In the form of a curve, it expands into a shallow volume that barely protrudes from the ground and only forms a star shape in the composition of the circularly arranged elements. The installation continues in the next, so-called Romanesque room, which is the complete opposite of the previous one. In a low, dark ambience that evokes anxious feelings, the artist has placed stone tears and piles of salt underneath, the installation The Sea of Tears. Under the stone tear that addresses the viewer, he or she takes the salt and pours it into a bottle of water. He heads towards the round tower, where he is enveloped by a pleasant scent in the spatial set-up of Alchemy. Salt solution, sage herbal distillate and flint are being heated in a copper cauldron. He climbs the stairs to the first of the copper funnels on the balcony and pours the salty liquid from the lamp into it. This flows down the pipes into the cauldron and mixes with the fragrant mixture. With a spoon from a container in an alcove, he catches the herbal distillate and washes the bottle out with it. He pours the contents through another funnel and puts the bottle back in the lantern. He then takes a candle jar from the candle table and places it in the lantern to prepare it for a new cycle. He descends the stairs to the bottom of the castle tower, where he throws the flint stone that he has carried with him all along, into a large cauldron. When he leaves the round tower, he returns the lamp to the place where he borrowed it.
The exhibition ends on the top floor of the castle tower, under the wooden Renaissance roof, which creates an extraordinary ambience with its complex network of wooden beams. Here, the artist has set up the sculptural installation of Golden Birds. The viewer walks past them and the birds sway when touched. This concludes the tour.
Transitions Between Meanings
The course of the story is also dictated by the antipodes of light and darkness, between which man moves, touching and carrying raw materials to further the established process of energetic purification of the spaces and helping to build the meaning of the exhibition. Following the preconceived scenario, the viewer turns on light, transfers water and changes its state of aggregation, rounding off the artist's creative process through his activity.
The artist establishes connections between the selected spaces. In the cellar, the visitor does not yet suspect that the installation of The Inner Sun is conceptually connected to the upper Seven Rays and that The Vortices of the Sava River below are connected to the Sea of Tears on the ground floor. Through these connections, the artist appeals to the resolution of the historical traumas of the spaces. Finally, an old legend tells of two brothers, one of whom lived in the lower castle and the other in the upper one. In a fit of fear and envy, they shot each other with lethal bullets. This created, if only symbolically, a collective rift between the upper and lower castles (the world), which manifests itself to this day in the form of energy disturbances. The final connection is between the installations Alchemy and the Golden Bird, which promotes the revival of the dead river. The turbid water of the Sava from the lower course flows over the pebbles collected in the Sava Dolinka and the Sava Bohinjka, carrying the memory of the upper course, where the river was still clean.
Boštjan Kavčič's work springs from an inner connection with the universe as a whole, "where everything is in dynamic balance, and it is also reflected in his way of life, which expresses a respect to all that exists, a responsible handling of material goods and a harmony with natural rhythms." (Grmek, 2019). The artist's view of the world is thus determined by his work, which appears at Rajhenburg Castle as a Gesamtkunstwerk that conveys a complex message with minimal means. The exhibition is not placed in the gallery area but respectfully grows into the architectural organism of the castle as if it were a part of it. For a short time, it creates a contemplative space that offers the viewer the opportunity to agree or disagree with the idea that man is part of the natural fabric and thus a companion to other beings. As a thinking subject, therefore, he bears responsibility for his actions.
Bibliography:
Fürst, I. (2016). Kazenske ustanove na gradu Rajhenburg 1948–1966. Ljubljana: Muzej novejše zgodovine Slovenije.
Štoviček, V. (2019). Šamanizem ljudstev Sibirije: vodnik po razstavi. Ljubljana: Slovenski etnografski muzej.
Grmek, M. (2019). Linija. Linija/Line: pregledna razstava ORGanizmov 2002–2019. Nova Gorica: Kulturni dom.
