︎
Nevena Aleksovski


Following a series of group exhibition projects focusing on different thematic areas, this exhibition is the first to focus on painting, but also on sculptural practices, in the medium of collage and assemblage. The collage or cut-and-paste technique – whose beginnings and developments date back to the modern era of European art, Cubism and later Dadaism, New Realism, Pop Art, Conceptualism and Postmodernism, through to contemporary multimedia art – has been further developed in physical and pictorial terms by artists in its more monumental form – assemblage – achieving a greater collage effect in the formal architecture of the pictorial field, greater prominence of contents and connections between used elements as well as the possibility of incorporating "outside stuff" in the form of waste material. In this sense, assemblage represents a more complex form of collage.

...

The exhibition Layering includes works by selected Slovenian artists of all generations who have employed these techniques, either as a primary or occasional working method from the late 1970s to the present. It invites reflection on the gap between clear definitions and artistic practice, as it becomes apparent that works that can be clearly categorised as belonging to one technique or another are the exception rather than the rule. Some artists hang their three-dimensional works on the wall instead of placing them in the space, while others position two-dimensional works in the space or even use collages and assemblages to create installations.


....................................................


Letters From the South (2024-ongoing)
Site specific installation

Artists Nevena Aleksovski and Maja Babič Košir have developed a distinctive artistic language through years of collaboration, building it through multimedia and site-specific spatial interventions. Their recent project, Letters from the South (2024-ongoing), exemplifies a visually rich narrative that intertwines two aesthetically related artistic practices into a unified wall installation, bringing together drawing, collage, painting, ready-made objects, and sculpture.

By combining diverse media, the artists approach the entire exhibition space as a blank canvas upon which they gradually assemble associations and layer fragments of stories through mutual dialogue, constructing increasingly complex narratives. Beneath the dynamic and seemingly effortless process of collage-making lie individual and collective memories, commentaries, and traces of the past and present, shared from the perspective of women, artists, precarious workers, and migrants. Both artists have been shaped by experiences of displacement and by the legacy of former Yugoslavia—a region that has undergone profound socio-political transformations over recent decades, including the decline of socialism, the rise of neoliberalism, economic and public health crises, widespread uncertainty, and the radical digitalization of everyday life.

Within the context of constantly shifting social conditions, unstable political landscapes, and evolving cultural dynamics, the artists explore questions of belonging and the feeling of home in both foreign and familiar environments, addressing issues of origin and identity. The subject matter of their work, as well as their understanding of their own roles, has been profoundly informed by histories of women’s struggles and by the position of women in both past and present societies. Their practice adopts a distinctly engaged stance, grounded in an awareness of the vulnerable positions that previous generations of women navigated and transformed for those who follow. The feminine and sensitive aesthetic characteristic of both artists ultimately reveals, beneath its apparent fragility, themes of emancipation and determination expressed through their gestures and artistic interventions.

Although the installation is based on a process of layering and an intense intertwining of two related visual languages, it allows each artist to retain a degree of fragmentation and individuality, resisting the complete fusion of their practices into an inseparable whole. Instead, they create space for the free coexistence of two visual expressions, the result of years of shared creative processes, mutual understanding, trust, and intimate engagement with personal archives and family histories shaped by specific socio-political realities. The sense of sisterhood and solidarity that has emerged through their collaboration permeates the work with an open optimism, inspiring hope, the search for alternatives, and freer visions of the future.

The artistic duo of Nevena Aleksovski and Maja Babič Košir is united by a shared visual language characterized by a refined and minimalist aesthetic. Their approach is deeply intuitive, and both in their individual and collaborative practices they draw upon personal biographies and lived experiences, which serve as the starting point for their collective research-based and artistic projects.


                                                                     

                                                                                                                           Pia Miklič