Matka Kavčič: Fragile World

The sculptural works of Metka Kavčič are characterized by the integration of traditional design values and modern sculptural approaches. The site-specific installation entitled Fragile World connects the diverse spaces of the Lapidarij exhibition space and deeply expressive works of art, which are characterized by a play of contrasts, a clear narrative and a reinterpretation of placed, often discarded, objects into a new context. With well-thought-out interventions into space and at times completely theatrical placements, the sculptor also emphasizes the consonance of the entire concept of the layout, which forms a narrative arc.

The artist begins by inviting the visitor into a kind of a fairy garden, where she reveals the beauty of the intriguing vegetative patterns that her skilful hand has coaxed out of two pieces of ordinary rolled sheet metal. The inferior metal, seemingly floating in the space before our eyes, comes to life through shadowy reflections which makes the metal elegantly poetic, dynamic and fragile. Sheet metal, iron and bronze, and, for the first time in her oeuvre, also plastic, imitate the light feeling of wrinkled and crumpled fabric or the even more delicate ornamental patterns of threads interwoven into delicate lace. Testing to what point you can bring a certain material to extract the most from it and seemingly elicit from its properties that are not its own and are not associated with it, is one of the fundamental building blocks of Kavčič‘s artistic language. The artist is fascinated by the haptic nature of reflections and the special atmosphere created by mirroring and duplicating contours on walls, ceilings and floors. In the background of the play with the properties and roles of materials, Kavčič also questions the traditional female / male roles and psychophysical properties. At the same time, the artist’s works, which gradually evoke a growing sense of discomfort and threat in the viewer while walking around the exhibition grounds, speak of the current social climate, in which the cruelty of mutual human pummelling in conflicts and wars that we are witnessing, leave behind the disintegration of moral and ethical values as well as physical and emotional ruins – a crumpled mass of environmental and mental devastation.

Metka Kavčič (1960) completed her studies of art education at the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor in 1981 and in the same year she enrolled at the sculptural department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana where she graduated in 1987 under the mentorship of Slavko Tihec. Three years later she completed MA in conservation and restoration. She underwent professional training at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the department for classical modelling with mentors Bernard Perrin and Jean-François Duffau. In the period 1989-2000 she worked as conservator and restaurateur at Ptuj-Ormož Regional Museum, and since 2000 she has been working as independent artists and restaurateur. She lives and works in Maribor.

Curator: Kristina T. Simončič

Photo: Jaka Babnik (set-up) & Kaja Selko (opening)