VANJA TROBIĆ
INNER SPACE OF THE WORLD: LIMBO / TIME CRYSTALS
20.9. – 29.9.2013.

Opening of the exhibition on 20th of September 2013 at 7 pm.

PM GALLERY
Trg žrtava fašizma 16
10000 Zagreb

Opening hours:
Wednesday – Friday 11 am – 7 pm
Saturdays and Sundays 10 am – 6 pm
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays.

INNER SPACE OF THE WORLD: LIMBO / TIME CRYSTALS

In her artistic creativity, in which the primary medium is painting, Vanja Trobić discusses the ideological subordination of humans to the material spheres, lack of spirituality, identity development of individuals and society, and the imbalance that occurs as a result of ubiquitous technophilia and alienation from nature. She describes loss in the apocalyptic atmosphere of their own environment, searching constantly for peace in a chaotic world.
The author’s preoccupation is places, spaces, and landscapes in the metaphysical sphere, in which she incorporates awareness, the subconscious, or something on their edge. She is withdrawn in these places, simultaneously drawing us in, showing us reality and what we could be or what we can become. The recognizable and omnipresent dreamy atmosphere of Vanja Trobić’s paintings evokes images of the worlds known to us that we repress just like in a real dreams. Therefore her places are so powerful, strongly metaphorical and moving. The places are inhabited by ghost-like images of animals and people. Children, the symbols of change and regeneration, or – as the author herself called them, a small army of tomorrow, follow us with their empty looks, from canvas to canvas, equal in alienation. Animals are on the other hand the symbols of nature and they function as opposed to the author’s story of the human race. The narrative simplicity of the paintings is an illusion of the invisible and unshown multidimensional meaning which is reflected in visual language of Vanja Trobić, not exhausting it.
The inner space of the world is the author’s mythical place of searching that connects us all. It changes through the pursuit of the humanity and becomes a sphere of new dilemmas. At the same time, it is also a mythical place of return, which is represented by this exhibition as an closed cycle. The exhibition is divided into two poles, which are further broken into several smaller ones. The first pole consists of the triptych “Limbo”, the painting  “The place of power” and the portraits “Cosmic Dancers”. The second pole represents the diptych “Visions of the Underworld” and the paintings “Eastern Sky” and “In a Glass House”.  The series of drawings and collages “Time Crystals” builds on the entire cycle and closes it by dealing with the theme of time and memory. Every time, this cycle again confirms the originality of thinking in the final version. Regardless of the medium, canvas or paper, the painting and drawing techniques are combined: acrylic, collage, ink-jet transfer and oil.  The specific grammar of permeation, constant adjustments and combining, constructing and deconstructing, analysis and synthesis of a different media, creates a visual metaphorical expression that ignores boundaries. The central section shows triptych Limbo metaphor for the spiritual state of modern man whose way of life threatens the nature and life itself (“Fire on the Mountain”). Although by its affiliation inseparable from the community, the individual is alienated (“Living on the riverside”), without the possibility of individual expression, captured by the material imperative and inhibited their ambitions and aspirations (“Overture to the sun”).  Limbo represents a mythical place in which we are constantly going back to the origin; it recapitulates our existence, forming itself in that way into a place of the eternal return.
The fragments of memory, presented in a series of watercolor drawings and collages “Time Crystals”, function as debris of social memory, which is inherited from generation to generation as a kind of archetypical heritage. Ancient code of the intimate myths causes nostalgia, but it is about consciousness that is no longer discussed, but simply is itself.
The realization of the author’s thinking embodies itself in the surreal atmosphere of a dream as in a moment before waking, when there is a familiar feeling of tangibility. One can almost reach for the dream act, to reconstruct the story again, to recognize the characters. But the reality is catching up with us, suppressing the subconscious again and winning a world of dreams. Pervading the world of fantasy and reality, the author filters existential questions, that catch our breath like a nightmare, in an innovative way. A melancholic atmosphere and the memory of the inner world still remain recorded, as if the reality on canvas is enchanted by a veil of dream.

Marijana Paula Ferenčić

This exhibition is made possible by the City Office for Education, Culture and Sport Zagreb.