Temporary Exhibitions

Martina Koritnik Fajt (1947−2020) has graduated in 1973 in the class of Professor Gabrijel Stupica in the Painting Department at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. The most noticeable influence in her artistic poetics was left by Professor Zoran Didek. As a prominent cultural and educational figure, she influenced generations of pupils at the primary schools in Kostanjevica na Krki and Podbočje. She lived in Krško. From 1993, she worked as a freelance artist and was a longstanding member of DLUD and ZDSLU.

Andrej Brumen Čop focuses on figurative motifs. He uses various techniques in his artwork. Mostly he works in the media of drawing, watercolour and painting, less often in printmaking. His motifs are plants, animals, people, natural and urban environments as well as various events in which he combines these elements.

The paintings of the human figure shown in this exhibition can be divided into several groups. One group consists of portraits: most of them are busts, some are half-length portraits, and some are standing, sitting or reclining. In addition, there are full-length and half-length nudes. An important group of representations are the self-portraits, of which there are many in the painter’s oeuvre, both in painting and especially in drawing. Equally extensive is the group of paintings depicting people involved in current or past events, or whom the artist has encountered through other works of art. The sitter is caught in the moment, so the painting tells and illustrates a story.

Nuša, 1991, oil on canvas, 43 x 43 cm, private property.
Dolores, 1991, oil on canvas, 43 x 43 cm.
Miha 3, 2009, oil and wax on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

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.

In her art practice, Iva Tratnik strolls boldly through visual art, within which she works with various mediums such as painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and through performance, within which she explores voice, movement, mask. In her exhibitions, she also combines the visual with the staged, often positioning her paintings in a spatial manner as a kind of scenography and underscoring them with light and sound so that the viewer can experience them with the whole body and all the senses. The exhibition at Rajhenburg Castle is divided into two parts. The main part, showcasing paintings and textile collages, is installed in the Great Hall in a classical arrangement that meets the specific requirements of the space and its use. The second part, consisting of a spatial-sound installation, on the other hand, is featured separately in the Round Hall. All the works shown in the exhibition have been created in the last 10 years, with a focus on the most recent works.

As an author, Vladimir Leben bases his work on the classical medium of oil paintings on canvas. The original artist combines skilfully perfected figurative compositions with richly narrative statements, employing witty multi-level meanings to surpass comprehension on a purely symbolic level. From the beginning of his artistic carrier in the nineties and to this day, he has been working as a solo artist as well as collaborating in different projects, which brought together several artists. He is one of the founders of The Museum of Too-Modern Art, the so called collective of self-proclaimed “too-modern” artists (Oliver Marčeta, Boštjan Plesničar, Tomaž Drnovšek, Gregor Mastnak, Vladimir Leben, Ervin Potočnik, Josip Rochus Pongrac, Filip Gregorowitz and Gregor Nemec), who rejected the academic elitist approach at the end of the 20th century and expressed their tendencies for liberalisation of artistic expressions, turning away from narrowly limited artistic movements, individual styles or tendencies in order to strive to realise the ideal of pure creativity (Ivančič, n.d.). Within the collective, the artists worked on their individual productions and at the same time promoted the idea of “too-modern art”. In 2003, Leben was part of the creative team involved in the realisation of the animated movie Bizgeci (Beezes), and in 2004 he worked in tandem with sculptor Damijan Kracina, realising the attention-grabbing Galapagos project, which used a conglomerate of illustrations, paintings, objects and video to form a perception of a different, better world, “[…] where nature experimented in its creativity” (Kracina, n.d.), just as the artists did.

At Rajhenburg Castle Vladimir Leben presents his work through a series of wooden objects and a number of large dimension paintings on canvas, featuring animals as their principal protagonists. Animals have been Leben’s constant artistic motive, as they offer a wide thematic thesaurus. They perform entirely “human” acts; they ride trains, get their hair done at a salon, party at a discotheque and dance to the rhythm of music. Intensive colour registers refuse to try to mimic realistic manifestations of portraits, the artist intensifies the images’ narrative quality with their multiplicity, every one of his subjects caught in action, each part of the same circus, reflecting the view of the contemporary Anthropocene society.

Jošt Dolinšek, Jošt Franko, Katja Goljat, Ciril Jazbec, Irena Jurca, Jurij Korenjak, Primož Korošec, Tereza Kozinc, Meta Krese, Robert Marin, Dejan Mijović, Matej Povše, Boštjan Pucelj, Matjaž Rušt, Klemen Skubic, Nina Sotelšek, Ana Zibelnik, Manja Zore, curated by Klavdij Sluban