''Duplex veritas" – dispersed exhibition, border walk
preVETRItev/interVENTI in castello
Avgust Černigoj, i suoi collaboratori e allievi
Il salotto Biedermeier dei conti Coronini
Mostra fotografica retrospettiva di Goran Antlej »Inkognito«
Duplex veritas is an art installation which changes and builds upon in time. Elements of the exhibition are put in a straight line which with time is breaking down, it is blurring. The exhibition is a reflection and a parody on the historical border line, that was drawn on a map with a ruler by Churchill and his associates, after the II. World War. The project plays with border’s function and its representation.
Duplex veritas (work in progress)
Duplex veritas is an art installation which changes and builds upon in time. Elements of the exhibition are put in a straight line which with time is breaking down, it is blurring. The exhibition is a reflection and a parody on the historical border line, that was drawn on a map with a ruler by Churchill and his associates, after the II. World War. The project plays with border’s function and its representation.
Growing up by the borderline that was defining the West from the East in the geopolitical sense, but not in geographical and ethnical, it compels you to think the line and to give it meaning. It becomes a daily task of questioning, adjusting and modifying, according to the existence of the border. After the pandemic lockdown of the countries and with the line reestablished once again, it became again omnipresent in our intimate and collective consciousness and in our factual and emotional memory.
Crossing the border daily, you recognise that the border is merely a phantom. It does not exist in the realm of reality despite being physical and tangible. Where it lives and grows is in the mind.
Even today, with the border, walls and rails gone again, we come to realise that the border still exists and it might be even stronger than before. With the lack of its physicality it became stronger.
We question our own borders, boundaries, lines that we put up. A border creates dualisms. We exist in the in-between space, between fiction and documentary, between reality and imaginary.
From this questioning the project Duplex Veritas was born. I question all kinds of borders and lines and their materialisations. Likewise in art everything begins with a dot and grows into a line.
The base of the exhibition is the site specific installation, made out of cacti, which were planted in a straight line along the border line between Slovenia and Italy and were removed by the council in the 2017. The line then takes on new forms, where it reflects the delimitation and its consequences.
The project includes different works, different materialisations of the same idea; video, paintings, performative action, sculptures of frozen colour, photographs and prints. This is a reason for different locations that include former custom posts and locations along side of the border.
The base of the human experience is everyone’s internal landscape which spreads outward into the next landscape and into the next and into the next and so on into the eternal play of building up and tearing down the borders. Crossing and eliminating the borders of all kinds is virtually impossible, but trying to succeed is what makes us human.
CV
Vanja Mervič (Jugoslavija, 1973) lives and works in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. For two years he frequented the Accademia di Belle Arti Venezia, Venice, Italy. He transferred and then graduated in Painting at the Accademia di Brera in Milano, Milan, Italy in 2001. He did his Masters degree studies at the ALUO in Ljubljana, Video and New media course, where he finished the post graduate course in 2008. He primarily works in mixed media. He believes each idea has its particular way of manifestation.
In 1999 he was as an Erasmus exchange student at Hoogeshool, 3-D multimedia in Gent, Belgium. In 2007 he was as a Leonardo exchange student at UCOL, Wanganui school of design, Wanganui , New Zealand and in the same year a Leonardo exchange student at FH Digital media, university of applied science, Hagenberg, Austria.He primarily works in mixed media.
His work has been extensively presented in his own country and internationally.
Selections of exhibitions and festivals 2018–2021:
2018:
- “Modules“, Millepiani, Rim, Italija
- “Druga strana svijeta – Svjetlo“, Sarajevska zima festival – Colegium artisticum, Sarajevo, Bosna in Hercegovina
- “Obskurni mehanizam svjesti”, Sarajevska zima festival – Historijski muzej BH, Sarajevo, Bosna in Hercegovina
- “My wall is not your wall – Your wall is not my wall“, z OR Poiesis Petra Kapš , Gallery Schleifmühlgasse 12-14 , Dunaj, Avstrija
- “Humus Park 2018 - land art”, skupaj z Aleksandrom Veliščkom, Palú di Livenza – Caneva/Polcenigo, Italija
- “Imago Mundi - Luciano Benetton Collection exhibition“Join The Dots/Unire le Distanze, Salone dei Incanti, Trst, Italija
- “Kronstadt Stories—3. Slowness”, State Museum of the History of St Petersburg, Saint Petersburg Museum of Printing, Sankt Peterburg, Rusija
2019:
- “Endemic versus Global”, Visogliano, Italija
- “Endemic versus Global”, Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad C3 – UNAM, Mehika
- “Edukacija”, Fonticus city gallery, Grožnjan, Hrvaška
- “Majski salon - Slika “, Narodna galerija/National gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenija
- “EwaPartum.Mygalleryisanidea.GaleriaAdresarchive“, Studiogallery, Varšava, Poljska
- “KURZ stumm film festival/SHORT silent film festival“ in "Zeche Carl", Essen, Nemčija
- “II Muestra de Video Arte Faenza 2019”, Bogota, Kolumbija
- 50. FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE VIDEOARTE UN MINUTO, ESPACIO LAMOSA, Cuenca, Španija
- “Fiesta de Fuego in the context of the XXXIV Festival del Caribe”, Santiago de Cuba, Kuba
- “Lanzarote Arts Festival“, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Španija
- “LARROQUEARTFESTIVAL2019”, LaGalerie’LaVieillePoste’81140, Larroque, Francija
- “Megalith”, pavilion by Jeremy Cahill & Seong, wielo in Longyearbyen Svalbard , Norveška
2020
- “International Video Art Festival – Gaza III (Oxygen)”, French Cultural Institute – Gaza, Palestina
- “Outside the Form - Fringe Arts Bath Festival“, Bath, Velika Britanija
- “X-Ray“, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin, Nemčija
- “Borders”, Galerija Eisenwaren Kamp, Vienna, Avstrija
2020:
- “60Seconds Festival 2020”, Köbenhavn, Danska (nagrada žirije)
- “Zamisli in zasnove“, kurator: Dominik Olmiah Križan, gallery ZDSLU, Ljubljana, Slovenija
- “FAÇADE VIDEO FESTIVAL 2020“ (TOP 10 SELECTED BY THE JURY), Plovdiv, Bolgarija
- “SMIFF2020 11th Seoul Metro International subway Film Festival“, Seul, Južna Koreja & Barcelona, Španija
2021:
- “State of Liberty/Stanje svobode”, Carinarnica, Nova Gorica, Slovenija
- “Endemic versus Global”, San Luis Potosi, Mehika
- “3rd VIDEOARTFORUM“, SASC DAMMAM, 2021, Dammam, Savdska Arabija
- “Slovenija odprta za umetnost“, Sinji Vrh, Slovenija
- “VIDEO VEČER“, Galerija Photon, Ljubljana, Slovenija
Awards:
Ex Tempore, Piran 1996; štipendija Erasmus; štipendija ministrstva za kulturo za podiplomski študij; štipendija Leonardo; delovna štipendija; nagrada ZDSLU Majski salon; Srebrna pahuljica Sarajevske zime; 60Seconds Festival 2020, Köbenhavn, Danska (nagrada žirije); FAÇADE video festival 2020 (TOP 10 izbranih od žirije), Plovdiv, Bolgarija
Residences:
2014: NCCA, Kronstadt, Rusija
2015: Dolomite contemporanee – Progetto Borca, Slovenski paviljon, Borca di Cadore, Italija 2015: november, december, januar 2016 Citè des Artes, Atelie de la Slovenie, Paris, Francija 2016: September Citè des Artes, Atelie de la Slovenie, Paris, Francija
2018: October Citè des Artes, Atelie de la Slovenie, Paris, Francija
Luogo: Museum on the border
Dal:
5 nov 2021
Al:
16 nov 2021
Locations:
Museum Collection Pristava, Museum Collection Kolodvor, Customs post, Customs post Solkan, Railway station Nova Gorica
curatrice per le sedi del Goriški muzej: Katarina Brešan