Utter / the violent necessity for the embodied presence of hope: this is the slightly portentous title of the Slovenian contribution at this year’s Biennale, conceived by Jasa, a Ljubljana-born artist based there and in New York. The work is a spatial installation and on-site performance involving the artist, his collaborators and the public in a constantly evolving event focusing on resistance, collaboration and hope in a call for collective sensibility. The artist’s underlying idea is the creation of infinite variations in the contact between artist and public in an “architecture of actions”, making use of literature, photography, sculpture, painting and other forms.
Jasa’s prevailing concern has always been communication—or a lack of it—and, in an era of much anxiety, he senses a pressing need to do something… and it is up to us to do it. Every visitor to the Slovenia pavilion is not there to interact with the art offered, but to adopt their own viewpoint and draw their own conclusions.
The underlying spirit is one of hope: the Arsenale’s transformation from a zone set aside for the military to one devoted to art suggests to the artist that the “human race has made some progress”. Being together, he states, should be more than a concept or collection of words: it should be a way to exist in the world.
