Sodobna umetnost (Aljoša Abrahamsberg),
11. marec 2017
― Sacred and secular rituals are a universal characteristic of human society. From long ago, they have had an important role in raising awareness about belonging to a certain community and building a collective consciousness. Jaka Vatovec is interested in traditional, spiritually connected, ritualistic practices, arising from that interest he observes and comments on today’s meaning of ritual. In the works of Jaka Vatovec we encounter images of skulls, coffins, zombies, blood, candles, spiders, snakes, knives. There is a grotesqueness present, people are disfigured, disembodied or the living dead. To acrylic on canvas he sometimes adds shining elements such as glitter or gold leaf. On the canvas he even pastes imprints of drawings on carbon paper, resulting in thin lines of colour, partly faded and smudged with purple. Post-Christmas Depression creates a radical disharmony, since the presented symbols do not fulfill our expectations: there’s no family sitting at the table, the light is not a source of warmth, the Christmas tree is merely waste. Jaka Vatovec therefore makes a calls for a binding understanding and a practicing of rituals as well as for an understanding of their original meaning and message. Jaka Vatovec (Horrid Habits, 1989, lives in Postojna and Leipzig) after attending the Secondary School for Design and Photography, he finished his study of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana (UL ALUO). He is also active as a creator of fanzines. He has exhibited his work on numerous solo and group exhibitions in Slovenian and abroad.
