10/05 — 19/06/2024
Zimmermann Kratochwil
Graz, AT

The exhibition GRAZLJUBLJANA arises from the idea of connecting the two geographically close cities of Graz and Ljubljana and their art scenes more closely through a joint exhibition. On the initiative of Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Ravnikar Gallery Space and artist Maja Babič Košir were invited to create an exhibition together with Graz-based artist Veronika Hauer.
While each artist will show her most current work in an individual room of the gallery – Love is Real by Maja Babič Košir and blue and melting by Veronika Hauer, their practises will collide in the room situated at the heart of the gallery. Here, both artists meet in an interplay of their works and show subtle similarities in their artistic engagement, such as the layering of material and lines.

Maja Babič Košir shows her newest installation Love is Real and invites us to an intimate exploration of loss and memory. Through a deeply personal lens, she navigates the complexities of grief following the death of her father, transforming found objects from her family’s archives into vessels of confrontation and thus invites us to confront our own mortality and ultimately, to find solace in our capacity to love.

© Essay: Dr. Renée Gadsden, 2024

Death and the Girl, or Return to the Planet of the Apes
A brief look at the work of Maja Babič Košir and Veronika Hauer in the exhibition Graz—Ljubljana

Veronika Hauer has created a very exciting juxtaposition of ideas, shapes, spaces, colors and forms in the exhibition Graz — Ljubljana. Originally intended to be a solo show, Hauer decided to challenge herself by looking for an artist to exhibit with, in order to experience new ways of artistic thinking. This is easily understandable when looking at her approach to life and art. Not only is she an accomplished professional artist, she is also a passionate art teacher. Her philosophy of life is highly oriented on the exchange of knowledge and the enrichment one receives from being open to new people and ways of using materials. Her intuition to ask Maja Babič Košir to join her for this show has created a synergy effect for all involved, far beyond what was originally thought of. That is the function of art and creative activity at its best, enriching all who are taking part in it.

At first glance, the two artists seem to have very different concerns that they want to work through and work on. Upon further consideration, one can see a very deep common interest: how to understand pain. For Hauer, the psychic, and one could even say, spiritual, pain that monkeys experience through their contact with humans. How they are used in experiments, how they are studied and apparently understood by researchers and zookeepers. Hauer’s sensitive portraits of monkeys as musicians in a historical orchestra, inspired by her looking at 18th century monkey porcelain musician figurines, are dreamily psychedelic. Gentle blue and purple colors, flowing lines and delicate pencil strokes which only become visible upon close inspection are the predominant features of these new works. She also has created, in Pop Art style, an oversized pine cone spiked with little stones that is a monstrously sized version of the treats that monkeys in captivity are given, for their alleged entertainment and “intellectual” stimulation. This object, which looks like a toy or something playful, can be seen as a symbol of oppression and manipulation — packaged innocently and nicely. It is easy to recognize parallels in patterns of human behavior towards other humans, and to be reminded of our ceaseless compulsion to seek distraction and amusement.

Košir has an umbrella term for her installation, sculptures and graphic works on display: “Love is Real”. Is this her observation, the wise conclusion of her life’s tribulations, or is this a plea and a wish directed at the universe? The large stack of plastic sheets that massively take over the first room of the gallery, like giant pieces of paper stacked up on a desk, look delicate and are painted partially pink by Košir, giving them an airiness that belies their actual weight of over four tons. It was a tour de force of the staff to install this work that brings such powerful Minimalist sculpture energy to the beautiful Altbau rooms of the gallery. All of the works on display have been created from the remnants of materials left behind in the studio of her deceased father, an industrial designer. Using his materials, giving new life to them, examining and handling them, are ways that Košir has found to manage the pain that her relationship with her father created in her soul.

Veronika Hauer, together with Maja Babič Košir, have transformed the gallery space into a cabinet of possibilities, a meeting point for human and animal interaction, a crossroads for emotions that transcend death and the boundaries of time. The show is a cooperation between the Gallery Zimmermann Krachtowill in Graz and the Ravnikar Gallery Space in Ljubljana.The show’s title Graz—Ljubljana reminds us of the unity of Europe, the geographical reality and the historical relationship between these two cities. We can see that Austria and Slovenia, the past and the present, animals and humans, are part of a greater good that we, together, can make a reality. The individual can overcome shadows and darkness to seek the light. The society as a whole can do the same. The relationship between animals and humans can be one of respect. We, the viewers of the show, are visually delighted while being provoked to deeper consideration of the fundamentals of existence.

The exhibition GRAZLJUBLJANA arises from the idea of connecting the two geographically close cities of Graz and Ljubljana and their art scenes more closely through a joint exhibition. On the initiative of Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Ravnikar Gallery Space and artist Maja Babič Košir were invited to create an exhibition together with Graz-based artist Veronika Hauer. While each artist will show her most current work in an individual room of the gallery – Love is Real by Maja Babič Košir and blue and melting by Veronika Hauer, their practises will collide in the room situated at the heart of the gallery. Here, both artists meet in an interplay of their works and show subtle similarities in their artistic engagement, such as the layering of material and lines.

Maja Babič Košir shows her newest installation Love is Real and invites us to an intimate exploration of loss and memory. Through a deeply personal lens, she navigates the complexities of grief following the death of her father, transforming found objects from her family’s archives into vessels of confrontation and thus invites us to confront our own mortality and ultimately, to find solace in our capacity to love.

Veronika Hauer`s newest installation blue and melting uses the so-called monkey chapel of the porcelain factory Meissen as a motif. Here, the monkeys playing music blur and merge, revealing a distorted image of the human gaze on their counterparts. An oversized melting pine cone with inserted glass beads satirized objects of so-called species-appropriate animal husbandry.