REEN GREGORČIČ ENG
GuestRoomMaribor 2022
REN GREGORČIČ
Ren Gregorčič is an Australian-Slovenian artist, curator, and PhD candidate (Australian National University) working within the field of sculpture and spatial practice. His practice is primarily concerned with interrogating materials and spatial configurations of urban landscapes and the relationships between materiality, form, structure, and power. Gregorčič’s practice-led doctoral research focuses on an investigation of contemporary industrially manufactured concrete products and cast-concrete urban structures. The objective of the study is to generate a body of critical research and artworks on the dominance of concrete as an ordering system and environmental mediator. Gregorčič is currently undertaking a fellowship in Slovenia with the American Slovenian Education Foundation (ASEF).
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Ren Gregorčič, Motion in Division, 2020-21
Lumetri scope, 7.00 min -
Ren Gregorčič, Parks Way, 2022
Single channel video, digital asset and sound expression, 3.45 min -
RenGregorcic, Northofasolidground
Fixed In Place Of The Sun
Exhibition opening: 15. 7. 2022, 7 pm, Gallery Vetrinjski, Vetrinjska ulica 30, MariborJoin us on Friday, 15 May 2022, at Vetrinjski dvor for the presentation of Ren Gregorčič's project "Fixed In Place Of The Sun".
Programme:
17.30 discussion between Ren Gregorčič and Maja Pan, courtyard of the Vetrinjski dvor
19.00 Opening of the exhibition and guided tour, Vetrinjski Gallery
Fixed In Place Of The Sun is an exhibition by Australian-Slovenian artist Ren Gregorčič (Melbourne, Australia) examining two structures that mark the boundaries of passageways: a series of shelterbelt tree lines located in Australia’s capital city Canberra (a planned city designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin in the 1950s), and two of the four dragon statues of the concrete arch bridge Zmajski most, Ljubljana. Featuring video, photogrammetry, and sound, and presented in response to the architecture of Vetrinjski Dvor, the exhibition engages with the codification of transition and ways of negotiating fixed structural systems.
Ren Gregorčič and feminist philosopher and cultural critic Maja Pan will discuss Gregorčič's first exhibition in Slovenia. They will talk about the ideas and processes behind Gregorčič's recent but also the latest work and research produced during his American Slovenian Education Foundation (ASEF) fellowship and GuestRoomMaribor residency. Gregorčič’s work bears universal but also particular interest to Slovene cultural and urban space. Be it for the critical and engaged environmental and other politically relevant issues that his art and thought deals with, be it for his rich and complex positionality, the inspiration and spark that the two discussants create in the encounter of their interests, experiences and disciplines will result in a critical and dynamic exchange you should not miss.
17.30 discussion between Ren Gregorčič and Maja Pan, courtyard of the Vetrinjski dvor
19.00 Opening of the exhibition and guided tour, Vetrinjski Gallery
Fixed In Place Of The Sun is an exhibition by Australian-Slovenian artist Ren Gregorčič (Melbourne, Australia) examining two structures that mark the boundaries of passageways: a series of shelterbelt tree lines located in Australia’s capital city Canberra (a planned city designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin in the 1950s), and two of the four dragon statues of the concrete arch bridge Zmajski most, Ljubljana. Featuring video, photogrammetry, and sound, and presented in response to the architecture of Vetrinjski Dvor, the exhibition engages with the codification of transition and ways of negotiating fixed structural systems.
Ren Gregorčič and feminist philosopher and cultural critic Maja Pan will discuss Gregorčič's first exhibition in Slovenia. They will talk about the ideas and processes behind Gregorčič's recent but also the latest work and research produced during his American Slovenian Education Foundation (ASEF) fellowship and GuestRoomMaribor residency. Gregorčič’s work bears universal but also particular interest to Slovene cultural and urban space. Be it for the critical and engaged environmental and other politically relevant issues that his art and thought deals with, be it for his rich and complex positionality, the inspiration and spark that the two discussants create in the encounter of their interests, experiences and disciplines will result in a critical and dynamic exchange you should not miss.
GuestRoomMaribor 15. 7. 2022
Ren Gregorčič
I lived for a short time in a small country town set in the arid landscape of rural New South Wales, Australia. An hour drive at 160km per hour on partially sealed roads from the closest major town, the whole of the universe seemed to open at night: a vast network of stars filling the entirety of the sky with incredible clarity. The scene was captivating but not because of its beauty nor for a sense of awe, but for the feeling of disorientation that it seemed to produce. Up until that time I had lived in the suburbs of the city of Melbourne and had known the night as a view within which stars were few and far between, mostly always confused for satellites, and when they were true stars, appeared as dim points amongst a greater emptiness. Yet from my view at this position in this country town far away from the urban, the night sky wasn’t a passive system, but one animated with rhythm and order amplified by its vastness. However, the striking quality of this system and my relationship to it was not the source of my feeling of disorientation.
What came to the surface after many weeks of looking at the stars sitting on the red earth, was a gradual sense that I had been blindfolded, and not only that I had been blindfolded but had also never fully realised the extent of my blindness. The view of the night sky that I had always known, as one of nearly total blanket emptiness, was just that, a blanket; a constructed effect of light and atmospheric pollution that had become my known reality replacing the stars. This change in awareness was daunting: despite my change in perception, I knew that I would eventually return to the city and to starless nights. Not only would the nights once again become starless, but I also knew that other such structural-spatial systems must exist but that I was mostly unaware of.
Ren Gregorčič
FIXED IN PLACE OF THE SUN
15. 7. – 19. 8. 2022, Gallery VetrinjskiI lived for a short time in a small country town set in the arid landscape of rural New South Wales, Australia. An hour drive at 160km per hour on partially sealed roads from the closest major town, the whole of the universe seemed to open at night: a vast network of stars filling the entirety of the sky with incredible clarity. The scene was captivating but not because of its beauty nor for a sense of awe, but for the feeling of disorientation that it seemed to produce. Up until that time I had lived in the suburbs of the city of Melbourne and had known the night as a view within which stars were few and far between, mostly always confused for satellites, and when they were true stars, appeared as dim points amongst a greater emptiness. Yet from my view at this position in this country town far away from the urban, the night sky wasn’t a passive system, but one animated with rhythm and order amplified by its vastness. However, the striking quality of this system and my relationship to it was not the source of my feeling of disorientation.
What came to the surface after many weeks of looking at the stars sitting on the red earth, was a gradual sense that I had been blindfolded, and not only that I had been blindfolded but had also never fully realised the extent of my blindness. The view of the night sky that I had always known, as one of nearly total blanket emptiness, was just that, a blanket; a constructed effect of light and atmospheric pollution that had become my known reality replacing the stars. This change in awareness was daunting: despite my change in perception, I knew that I would eventually return to the city and to starless nights. Not only would the nights once again become starless, but I also knew that other such structural-spatial systems must exist but that I was mostly unaware of.
Before arriving in that small country town, art practice had already begun to explore what it is to be an end user of structural-spatial systems over which it is difficult to affect change. One key work was a series of undocumented performances where I polished metal elements in dark, dirty alley ways in Melbourne to give them a bright lustre. Over time, the lustre would fade, and the elements would again become a part of the surrounding system. And now as a practice-led PhD candidate (Australian National Universality) exploring the dominance of concrete as an environmental mediator and ordering system, my research asks: How does one make sense of being an end user of not only concrete systems but its impacts? What is it to be amongst the material standardisation that concrete perpetuates? How can art be used as a critical tool for engaging with the everyday reality of living in a concrete-defined world system? Fixed In Place Of The Sun is an extension of these research questions.
The exhibition presents two structures that mark the boundaries of passageways: a series of shelterbelt tree lines located in Australia’s capital city Canberra (a planned city designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin in the 1950s), and two of the four dragon statues of the concrete arch bridge Zmajski most, Ljubljana. Featuring video, photogrammetry, and sound, and presented in response to the architecture of Vetrinjski Dvor Fixed In Place Of The Sun examines how both the trees and dragon sculptures operate as location markers and systems for defining the boundaries of transitional spaces. The exhibition considers how fixed structural systems can be negotiated and advocates for the agency of the individual to act on these systems: any system made by the human hand can be as easily undone.
