Lunar / Recycle or Try
Lunar / Recycle or Try
UGM Studio, Trg Leona Štuklja 2
17 March – 17 June 2023
Exhibition opening: Friday, 17 March 2023, 19:00
Afterparty: Gramofonoteka, Tyrševa ulica 7
The exhibition Recycle or Try is the first collaboration between UGM | Maribor Art Gallery and studio Trampolin. The multidisciplinary creative studio Trampolin was founded in 2020 in Maribor by Tine Lugarič, Nenad Cizl and Andrija Šulić. While pursuing creative excellence in their professional field, Trampolin also strives to raise the level of creative energy in the city in general. With this in mind, the exhibition at UGM Studio is a result of their mission of creating didactic, creative, innovative and multidisciplinary events and introducing renowned names in creative fields to Maribor through cooperation and collaboration with organisations, individuals and others. They seek to inspire young and old to pursue creative interests and professions, and to strengthen the position of Maribor on the map of creative destinations. In the coming years, it is Trampolin’s goal to establish a platform called Martha, where their various ventures will connect and thrive. More on Martha coming soon!
UGM | Maribor Art Gallery is proud to present the exhibition Recycle or Try as the very first cooperation between Trampolin and a legacy institution in Maribor. Like Trampolin, we too recognise the great value in banding together, particularly of flourishing players in various creative fields in the city. Together we are pleased to offer a very special treat to our hometown, an exhibition of urban art by the Croatian graffiti and multidisciplinary artist Slaven Lunar Kosanović. Lunar is among the most recognisable and notable graffiti artists in Croatia with a well-established global network within the urban art communities from Seoul to Los Angeles, from Auckland to Amsterdam, going all the way back to the 1990s. Recycle or Try, Lunar's first large solo presentation in Maribor, carries a strong environmental message and poses the question of what individuals can do to reduce their ecological footprint, while also pointing out the responsibility of the industry that produces an overwhelming amount of unnecessary waste on a daily basis. Only recycled and reused materials, such as packaging and other rubbish, is used as the base for works on display in the exhibition.
“In his work, the artist strives to understand and actively respond to the circumstances that effect the conditions of his existence. Among them, as an example, is the general overcrowding of everyday life with waste, objects that accumulate even independently of personal dealings with them or of their use. The frenzied hyperproduction of consumer society creates absurd amounts of packaging, often made of plastic and similar materials, the accumulation of which contributes to local and planetary pollution. Therefore, Lunar consciously chooses products with environmentally friendly packaging, drawing inspiration from an aesthetic as well as from an ethical perspective. They are made by drawing and painting on used, discarded objects, on food packaging, fabric, spray bottles, cardboard plates, boxes, wrappers and other scraps.
In line with the principles according to which the author transforms neglected and run down walls and spaces, Lunar separates almost everything that passes through his hands from the aura of uselessness and undesirability with exceptional ease and conviction, and suggests the true meaning of the artistic, or even an activist gesture. This kinship between media and approaches points to a pattern of creative curiosity that, by responding to new challenges, causes a continuous concentric expansion of interest, communication and meaning. The author builds on the tradition of criticism of consumerism in art that dates back to the 1950s and on an even longer history of the use of found objects (objets trouvés).”
Find the entire text by the art critic and museum consultant at the Ivan Meštrović Museums Dr Barbara Vujanović by following this link.
