30th International Symposium of Sculptors Forma viva

In July 2025, as part of the International Symposium of Sculptors Forma Viva, Galerija Božidar Jakac is hosting two sculptors who are making new sculptures for the sculpture park in Kostanjevica na Krki: Nina Tovornik (Ljubljana) and Lucija Jelić (Zadar).

This year’s symposium also includes the renovation and partial reconstruction of one of the iconic sculptures Untitled by artist Dušan Tršar from 1972, in collaboration with the artist and under the supervision and direction of restaurateur Aleš Vene.

The sculpture in progress by sculptor Lucija Jelić is entitled Victory. It refers to the history of human race, to the constant demolition and construction, to the destructiveness of the human kind and the manipulativeness of political and public discourses. The composite sculpture ironically highlights the idea and form of the triumphal arch, which is one of the indicators of modern human characteristics such as competitiveness and violence. The sculpture takes the form of a partially collapsed and decayed triumphal arch, alluding to the ruins and remains of a civilisation that has nothing to look forward to in the current situation of immense social and environmental disparities.

Lucija Jelić (1996) graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2022. She spent a year studying at the Facultad de Bellas Artes of the Complutense University in Madrid as part of the Erasmus programme. Since 2017, she has been regularly working in the field of visual arts, participating in exhibitions, sculpture workshops, colonies, festivals and educational programmes, and has received several awards and prizes for her work. She lives and works in Zadar.

The sculpture in progress by artist Nina Tovornik with the working title Eat, My Brother’s Horses, is made from one solid piece of oak wood and represents a kind of modern totem, referring to the overwhelming greed of a human. In the highly expressive manner of chainsaw-modelled sculpture, the monumental piece represents a mythological monster that embodies the collective desire and hunger of the human kind for the accumulation of both the material goods and the symbolic statuses. In doing so, the artist critically analyses the global neoliberal turn of modern societies and makes a monument to unrestrained consumerism.

Nina Tovornik (1995) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Sculpture, and is currently completing her Master’s degree at the Department of Sculpture. Since 2019 she has been exhibiting regularly and participating in number of sculpture competitions, workshops and residencies. In 2022, she completed two public sculptures in Črna na Koroškem and Vrhnika (Slovenia), for which she received the Prešeren Student Award. In 2024 she held her first solo exhibition at the Ravne Gallery (KGLU). She lives and works in Ljubljana.

The International Symposium of Sculptors Forma viva is one of the most important ongoing manifestations in the field of visual arts in Slovenia. Forma viva was conceived from the very beginning as a unified brand of national significance, which began operating in 1961 at two work sites, in Kostanjevica na Krki and in Seča in Portorož, and later expanded for a short period of time to work sites in Ravne na Koroškem and Maribor.