Dear Spectrites,
It is my great pleasure to announce that I am curating the
presentation of the new work of Robertina Šebjanič
"Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia)".
It will be exhibited in Ljubljana on August 31st. This is
going to be a nice way to end the Summer. Come and join us !
You will find below the press release. Feel free to forward.
Best
Annick
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*Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), Robertina Šebjanič, 2018*
On August 31st, Robertina Šebjanič premieres her new
installation, Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), curated
by Annick Bureaud, at the gallery of OSMO/ZA in Ljubljana.
Lygophilia weaves together mythologies and sciences, history
and future, fears and desires, continents, cultures, humans
and non-humans. Lygophilia folds and unfolds the stories
carried by those fascinating creatures that are the Mexican
Axolotl and the Slovene Proteus.
From immortality to regenerative medicine— both animals
are, as adults, in a state of “eternal youth” (neoteny)
showing extraordinary longevity and regenerative abilities
that put them at the center of ancient myths as well as
current cutting-edge scientific researches.
Ironically, Axolotls and Proteus are endangered species in
their natural environment. Both have found habitats in very
specific and located places, in the swamps of the lakes
around the City of Mexico for one and in Europe in Dinaric
karst caves for the other, showing an example of parallel
evolution, endemicity and adaptation to narrow and extreme
niches.
Hiding from the sun and daylight both are in love with
darkness, lygophilia (from the Greek lúgē and philéō)
With cabinets that evoke the old natural history museums
displays as well as the scientific labs glove boxes or the
maternity incubators, through objects, texts, videos and
paraphernalia, playing with a crossed mirrored approach
where each element, each story, each animal is echoing,
reflecting but also diffracting and counteracting the other,
Šebjanič invites us to a journey into our cultural gaze and
its evolution. Lygophilia offers the visitors to gain a more
profound view of interspecies cohabitation in the
contemporary world for a common future.
Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), Robertina Šebjanič, 2018
31. August - 2. September 2018
OSMO/ZA (Slovenska 54, Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Friday August 31st
4 pm Panel discussion
7 pm Exhibition opening
Curator: Annick Bureaud (FR)
Production: Projekt Atol (Uroš Veber), Slovenia &
Arte+Ciencia (UNAM), Mexico, 2017, Sektor, Slovenia
Production support: Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and the
Municipality of Ljubljana
Lygophilia is a series of research-based artworks initiated
in 2017 by Robertina Šebjanič in Mexico and pursued in
Slovenia to explore the love (Gr.: philéō) of darkness (Gr.:
lúgē) and the unknown dwellers in places inhospitable for
humans.
Panel Discussion
Speakers: Carlos Pascual (writer), Gregor Aljančič and
Magdalena Năpăruș-Aljančič (Tular Cave Laboratory),
Robertina Šebjanič (artist), Annick Bureaud (curator and art
critic, director Leonardo/Olats).
The panel discussion will present some of the topics and
issues shared by those two remarkable creatures, living two
continents apart: the Mexican Axolotl and the Slovene
Proteus. Their ecology (both are endangered species in their
natural environment), their biological singularity (both are
neotenous dwellers of the dark) and their cultural
appropriation (both are cultural phenomena) will be addressed.
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