Special Editions

Janez Janša: Life II [in Progress]

Conceptual artist Janez Janša started developing the Life [in Progress] project in 2008. It consists of written, photographic and graphic instructions that encourage the audience to actively participate and interact with the artwork.

Some instructions are translations and transfers of famous artworks from the 20th century into brief instructions for performances that can happen in everyday life. Even though they seem ironic, playful and even humorous, in their actual implementation, they potentially also raise discomfort, shame and vulnerability or are even in conflict with the law. According to the artist, the project turns around the traditional logic of representation: it is not art that represents life, it is rather life that follows the artistic scenario. Past performances of the project had an emphasis on performativity and audience participation, whereas this presentation at MGLC has been adapted to the exhibition format. The main focus of the show is the extensive photographic project spanning over a five-year period, which follows a group of women (artists) through their pregnancies into motherhood.

It is a series of staged monumental photographs, produced following the instructions of the infamous performance Imponderabilia by Marina Abramović and Ulay in 1977, in which visitors to the gallery had to squeeze between the two artists’ naked bodies. In Janša’s treatment, Imponderabilia is handled as a quotation from which a different work develops that establishes certain key differences of meaning and message in its implementation and implication. In contrast to the seriousness of the original, the full-figure colour images of pregnant women, nursing mothers and children arouse pleasant feelings and empathy.