TATJANA PREGL KOBE
Ode to life


With the refined fragility of lyrical landscapes of body and soul, the intimate melodiousness of Nataša Segulin and Maja Šivec, with the unfolding of light metaphors that ignite fires in the nests of their artistic expressions, has grown into the dimension of life with all its ups and downs. Something fresh and unexpected happens with the parallel presentation of photographs by two photographers who otherwise create intimately on their own, the first in her studio, the second spontaneously in various places around the world. The intertwining oftheir (initially) very different photographs thus becomes their shared story, an ode to life. The parallel exhibition of photographs by two outstanding artists, in which female figures and the opaque piercing of light in the embrace of darkness and silence play alternating roles, presents a particular challenge. The parallel exhibition of photographs by two outstanding artists, in which female figures and the opaque piercing of light in the embrace of darkness and silence play alternating roles, presents a unique challenge. Both photographers evoke images from dark backgrounds, which can be perceived as an echo of silence: inexplicably mystical in Nataša Segulin's minimalist intrusion of opaque light into the space of images, and suggestively illustrative in Maja Šivec's direct depictions of female nudes. For the most part, photographs confirm that the way we see the world is real, but the different expressive magic called art is reserved only for the best visual storytellers. We view the exhibited works mostly through subjective lenses and create our own perception with a neutral gaze. We do not necessarily see the presented series of photographs as the photographers created them according to their own ideas, but as viewers we (may) have our own perception of them. Yet it is rare to encounter such strong chemistry that allows for the complete fusion of two narratives.

The inspiration behind Nataša Segulin's story about the lumen is her love of art and cultural heritage, but the lumen also means light, brightness, hope. Although she is guided primarily by the formal aspects of contemporary art in her photography, her mystical photographs, woven into a common narrative, can also be read from the background, from spaces disappearing into darkness, from which light, a sense of peace, silence, and harmony shine through. The images, hidden behind the edges of time, are inspired by the minimalism of revelation, by the taming of mystery. 'When we leave here, what will we encounter in the paradise of the hereafter?' whispers like a breath of a vanishing ray of light. How heavy is the soul in Alejandro Iñárritu's film 21 Grams? The non-linear film narrative depicts the past, present, and future in fragments that ultimately come together in a climax, just as the dominant, mysterious light in the remote spaces of the seven photographs in the author's new cycle reveals itself. It seems as though the piercing streaks of light evoke (among other things) the meaning of eternity.

Gustave Courbet's direct depiction of the female nude, The Origin of the World, is not only one of the most scandalous paintings of the 19th century, but despite being more than a century old, it still provokes a similar desire for censorship today, thereby revealing a great deal about contemporary society. The central photograph by Maja Šivec, which contains all  the essential elements of this famous painting, introduces a story about the origin of life, birth and beginnings. The compliance of bodies depicted in this way shows an awareness of the essence of existence, which always begins and ends in the same way. In a desirable crack, large cemeteries of erotic words are born and matured, revealed by the photographer in the quiet of her studio. Her seven staged photographs of female nudes from cycles dedicated to women give the impression of intentional unintentionality, whereby the aesthetics in her photographs cannot be conceived without a thematic connection, starting with her first, distinctly innovative photographs of pregnant women. Certainly, all of her mysteriously seductive images herald the fullness of life.

And what is the weight of their shared visual narrative? Birth, love, death. With all these photographs, whose symbolism of dominant light speaks not of the end but of duration, future, and life, the years fly by and realizations multiply. Such visual stories—in addition to the mysteriously seductive female bodies disappearing into the darkness and the subtle, sublime placement of light in (almost) surreal compositions—convey how to look at the world, how to interpret it, and how to live in it.

And last but not least, how to listen to the ever-alive verses of Pablo Neruda in his poem Ode to Life: 'Slowly dies, he who fails to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he who doesn’t follow a dream.' The message conveyed by these images is therefore a visual story about life that inspires every viewer in the same way as it inspires mysterious poets. Those who witness this beauty (a radiance that seems to emanate from the depths of the human soul)know that it has grown out of silence, solitude, and contemplation. Sometimes a single glance is enough to reveal the gift of creation in its exposed nakedness, which is at the same time an enthusiastic, meticulous hymn to existence, sung with the thinnest of rays, an imaginary dream nesting in a hidden glance.