19. 2. – 28. 3. 2025

For many years, Photon Gallery has organised an exhibition format within the framework of the so-called “Artist’ Dialogue”, in which two artists are brought together, each presenting an independent project in their own exhibition space at Photon Gallery. In selecting the artists, we focus on their intertwining approaches to photographic creation, which may be linked by conceptual or technical aspects. The dialogue aims to explore and highlight the diversity of the photographic medium through the perspective of two artists whose practises either complement each other or reveal contrasting approaches. The programme is primarily aimed at Slovenian artists of the younger and middle generation, but occasionally we also present emerging photographers from Central and Eastern Europe.

Two young Slovenian photographic artists, Aljaž Lavrič and Olja Simčič Jerele, will meet at this year’s Artist Dialogue. Both are currently completing their MA studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In their artistic practise, they have mastered analogue photography in all its processes and integrate it into spatial art installations that they adapt to specific exhibition spaces. Each of them explores the dimension of the object-oriented nature of photography, which is intertwined with fine art, but the starting points and foundations of their projects are closely linked to analogue photography. Both treat it as a dynamic process – as a conceptual starting point of their projects and by examining the physical properties of the medium itself. This time, the thoughtful dialogue between the two artists underscores an approach that explores the limits of art photography through its expressive power and technical potential. At the same time, their projects reflect unique perspectives on the world and personal or general histories.

Olja Simčič Jerele is the winner of Photon’s Different Worlds 2024 competition, while Aljaž Lavrič made his gallery debut in the curated international group exhibition We Love to See You Fail in 2024.

Aljaž Lavrič: A-F Scheme, 2023-24

In the A-F Scheme project, the author takes his inspiration from the copperplate engraving by John Vajkard Valvasor, which is presented in his work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. The artist focuses on the copperplate engraving 446, which depicts the intermittent Lake Cerknica. The engraving marks the entrances and exits of the caves and the underground channels that were supposed to fill and empty the lake. The author reads the engraving as a map and on the basis of Valvasor’s description to try to reconstruct where the entrances, canals and caves could have been located in real space.

The engraving is not perfect, as its graphic notation does not always correspond to the geography of Lake Cerknica. Instead of accurately translating the map exactly to the real space, the author uses the errors and ambiguities of Valvasor’s work as a starting point for his interpretation. What cannot be documented in the natural environment of Lake Cerknica, he reconstructs and recreates in his studio.

The central element of the exhibition will be a water installation that follows the basic structure of a copperplate engraving. While it was initially used as a map when the photographs were conceived, it will become a road map in the installation element of the exhibition. The photographic enlargements are integrated into the installation during development, so that the image on the photographic paper can only develop in the flow of chemistry. The installation thus dictates to the photograph which parts are visible and which remain hidden. The development process is not yet complete – the photographs are still being washed and the emulsion is gradually washed off the support by the constant flow of water.

Olja Simčič Jerele: Bear in mind what you’re reading here is the tombstone, 2025

In her ongoing MA project, the artist uses photographic material as a tool for measuring time. At the moment of photographing, the world in front of the lens is torn from the present and transformed into a photographic image. Photographs, like any physical medium, are not frozen in the time of their creation, but age and decay. In the exhibited works, the artist deliberately triggers the silver mirroring effect that is characteristic of the decomposition of black and white photographs. Silver particles migrate to the surface of the material and create a silvery shimmer. This effect, which photographers and conservators normally try to prevent or remove, is deliberately triggered by the artist.

The aesthetics of decay thus become part of the image, alienating the viewer from the moment of its creation and presenting it as the past – a past that never really existed in the way it is captured in the photographic image. This fact is also addressed in the artist’s choice of technique for making the images. The decision to imitate the natural traces of years of decay through an artificially created silver mirroring effect is in itself a departure from the original. The reproduction of the past thus leads to the creation of something new, something inaccessible.

The series thus alludes to feelings of longing and nostalgia, as the ‘reality’ captured in the images is no longer accessible to either the author or the viewer. In this sense, the images take on the role of a “tombstone” of the moment depicted. The series shows simple motifs taken from the artist’s personal archive, which are transformed in the darkroom into large-format positives on expired graphic film complete with an artificially triggered silver mirroring effect.

Catalogue

RTV Slovenia

MMC article

Gorenjski glas

Kulturna panorama

Svet kulture