Solo exhibition Ordinary Spaces – Extraordinary Views, first comprehensive curated presentation of Matija Brumen’s continuous body of work, is based on intersection of various photographic series from past few years’ period. Selected photographs expose certain motifs recognized by artist as relevant for in-depth deliberation on particularity of cultural identities through examining common, usually artificial, men-made objects.
Local identity is nowadays often represented by visual means. Brumen’s images present peculiar visual narrative of certain time and space and primarily demonstrate utter connection between individual and industrialised everyday life reflected in its artificial urban spaces, entirely denoted by human presence. In his art works he often documents quintessential representations of various cultural milieus in order to examine their – conscious or unconscious – specific visual manifestations. Photography enables him to accomplish the artistic research on certain cultural conventions reflected in selected everyday objects and phenomenology of public and private space. Results of such anthropological features are comparatively imposed to certain relations always in search for conceptual connections between universal and particular. Aware of different globalisation processes, present in various segments of globalised social and cultural conventions, Brumen incisively questions enforced archetypes and features of quickly changing societies.

Matija Brumen (1975) is one of the most prominent young Slovenian artists whose visual messages are expressed through conceptually premeditated photographic practice that represents ultimate tool to examine characteristics of various cultural milieus and geographical areas through common functional objects. He took his master’s degree in Japanese studies and philosophy at Academy of Arts in Ljubljana while at the moment he is finishing MA in photography at Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In past few years he has been working as independent artist in the field of contemporary art and photography and has created consistent body of work. He lives and works in Ljubljana.