Melodies of Hope

Irreversible 1

Irreversible 2

Irreversible 3

Irreversible 4

Irreversible 5

Irreversible 6

Irreversible 7

Irreversible 8

Irreversible 9

Irreversible 10

Melodies of Hope 1, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 2, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 3, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 4, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 5, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 6, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 8, 40x40cm

Melodies of Hope 8, 40x40cm

The Heritage of Prometeus, 80x160cm

URŠA VIDIC: MELODIES OF HOPE

Ganes Pratt Gallery, Ljubljana / May 2009

Melodies of hope is an art exhibition that shows more than just painting techniques. In the Irreversible series, the art piece is a photo montage which uses existing art works for its key motifs. Urša Vidic combines non-painting medium with a distinctively subjective, painting attitude towards the image and the subject that lies within her. She reaches into art history and uses a series of paintings by Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder for her new work.

Two layers of images trapped into a twinkling surface of Plexiglas demonstrate how the past enabled the present. Urša Vidic erased the human figures from the paintings which were the first in the western art of the modern times portraying every day life in the village. The society which was increasingly dependant on trade, but at that point still had a strong sense of community, already carries within the beginnings which lead to the irreversible loneliness of the modern subject.

In the intimate painting cycle Melodies of Hope carrying the name of the whole exhibition, the artist also goes into history, this time deeper, to the ancient mythology. Prometheus livers, which are being pecked in eternity by an eagle as a punishment for stealing the fire, are in Urša's paintings transformed into a heart. Anatomic figure of the heart is melted into a treetop nested by the birds. Despite their beauty, colorful songbirds carry a sinister aura and reveal human pain. In the part of the cycle where brighter colors prevail, the heart is mutilated, wounded or captured in the moment of explosion. As in previous paintings, the artist plays with passing of an abstract stain into an image, limiting the sculpting from the painting.

The transition of the ancient elements into present is complemented by a video which can be comprehended as a dynamic painting stemming from her opus. The projection is captured in a box which also functions as a frame of the image. The box alludes to the one from which Pandora released diseases, difficulties, sorrows and hatred into the world. The captured light with sounds and moves – the choreography and performance was trusted to Leja Jurešič – shows the viewer that which remained captured in another, lost time.

tekst:Petja Grafenauer, translation: Nina Vidrih