22.11.2017 – 15.12.2017DUM Project Space
Kolodvorska 6 I 1000 Ljubljana

The exhibition entitled Removal is part of Duet, a long-term series of exhibitions that seeks to engage the relationship between art practices that emerged in different temporal, geopolitical, social and economic contexts. Context often contributes to the concept of a work of art, and in particular to the production options, which is frequently linked to the formal aspect or the choice of expressive medium. The series attempts to use visual and conceptual similarities to show how contemporaneity expressed by a work of art depends on how the latter functions in a given time and space and not the specific place or time of creation. This exhibition combines the works of Goran Trbuljak and Ištvan Išt Huzjan, who both question the role of authorship and consequently their positions within the art system from different perspectives. The exhibited works, which were created in different periods of time, establish a relation between the historical and current output, while displaying a sensitivity towards current art discourse.
Most likely the works of both artists in terms can be examined in terms of the relations between conceptual practices and the successors of conceptual tradition that focus on the idea of a work of art, questioning the physicality of an object as the conveyor of meaning. However, both artists are never interested in complete annihilation of the object but rather in the idea of the conveyor, which is always consciously anchored in carefully selected expressive media ranging from an exhibition, street happening, object, painting, book, photograph, texts or something that exist on the edge of materiality. Perhaps their shared interest in the expressive medium is the greatest similarity of their works. Both even seem to be focused on the ‘flexibility’ of the medium, as it were, which is usually linked to the themes engaged by the artists. Continuous examination of the medium also allows them to elude various qualifiers, as their flexible choice of medium prevents them from being labelled with a ‘signature style’ in Greenbergian terms, while the attention to the medium sets them apart from the rigid tradition of analytical conceptual art. The medium is one of the features that enable the viewer to recognise an artist and their expressive language, and, consequently, authorship. The juxtaposed work of Goran Trbuljak from 1973 and 1991 and the works of Ištvan Išt Huzjan created in the last five years presented at the exhibition Removal all engage the issue of artistic authorship. Through different media, the art of Goran Trbuljak focuses on the status of a work of art and the artist, and their relationship to the system. This is pointedly presented in the work Without Title, where Trbuljak ‘subverts’ his early work, his status as an artist, with a minimal and ironic gesture, while applying the same amount of criticism to the ‘institution’ of art, represented here by the acclaimed French artist Ben Vautier. Ištvan Išt Huzjan employs a somewhat different approach to examining the issue of authorship and his position, as his recent works travel between exploring personal, intimate stories, historic references and formal possibilities of a work of art. The selection should not be understood as an affirmative presentation of works but rather as a selection whose inner structure reveals the dual position of the artist, questioning his position within the art system.
Perhaps we will never discover the moment when both artists decided to create their works of art, which are both characterised by the continuous suspense in relation to their own position, the work of art, the art system or the viewer. Both Trbuljak’s and Huzjan’s gestures are minimal, ephemeral, humorous and often subtle compared to more ‘traumatic’ and directly engaged contemporary works. Yet these simple artistic gestures that first seem to embody a ‘romantic’ feel manage to provide a careful insight into the relationships between the artist, the work of art, the space and the viewer upon a more detailed reading, and also touch upon, more deeply than one would assume, the issues governing everyday life.
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Kustos / Curator: Tevž Logar
Produkcija / Production: DUM društvo umetnikov
Zahvale / Acknowledgements: Galerija Gregor Podnar (Berlin), Goran Petrov, Maša Radišić, Žiga Rebek (O.K.VIR d.o.o.), Sabina Sabolović in/and Ana Šeba (WHW, Zagreb), Andrej Zavodnik.
Podpora / Supported by: Mestna občina Ljubljana, Oddelek za kulturo