Spark · Art Fair Vienna
Extended: Rony Plesl
Duration: 15.03.2024 – 17.03.2024
Mihael Milunovic
In his latest series of paintings, which dwell between dystopian visions and twisted realities, Mihael Milunović continues to utilize his impressive visual vocabulary, transforming the ambiance of the paintings into a multilayered symbolic field. The rich narrative within these paintings is further enhanced by the artist‘s constant manipulation of our capacity for recognition and our acquired knowledge, challenging our expectations and leading our perception through an inviting and colorful maze. Through the recent solo exhibition „CROSSOVER: Territory and Self“ at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Mihael demonstrated his mastery in merging various disciplines such as painting, sculpture, installation, video art, and performance, guiding observers and visitors on a profound emotional and intellectual journey with his narrative. Adopting an almost monumental form, the buildings and objects of socialist-realist or modernist architectural settlements depicted in Milunović‘s paintings often emerge as symbols laden with socio-political, cultural, and ideological significance and contexts. These elements are transformed by the artist into backdrops for contemporary urban scenes, where protagonists are portrayed within dreamlike or surreal scenarios and relationships infused with a sense of playfulness.
The juxtaposition of ruins and vibrant lush vegetation, destruction and rebirth, and the portrayal of strange human-like characters depicting the spectrum of human nature from its best to its worst – these elements weave an additional compelling narrative within Mihael‘s body of work, exploring the depths of empathy and resilience.
Through the blending of past and present, reality and fiction, Milunović evokes a certain tension within his images, allowing for a multitude of associations, diverse semantic connections, and intertwining narratives. This engagement prompts viewers to intellectually engage within the cognitive processes of observation, aiming to raise awareness, broaden perspectives, and confront audiences with new realities.
Marijana Kolarić · Director · Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade
Rony Plesl
Rony Plesl’s projects in the field of contemporary sculpture emerge from personal encounters, deep knowledge of art history, and a mastery of the craft of glassmaking, taking their final form as objects and images that have accrued shifting layers of meaning in the world.
The amorphous nature of glass, which is neither liquid nor solid, existing between these two states, is an ideal medium for Plesl’s exploration of topics such as time and structure as well as meaning, identity, and perception.
The installation features three crystal axes nestled in polished hexagons alongside a substantial uranium trunk covered with bark. According to Plato, the hexahedron symbolizes the earth element and the primordial principle of matter. The axes, resembling figures, encircle the trunk representing the world‘s collective memory and contemplating its future. Each cut into this symbolic representation of nature seeks to balance human essential needs, greed, the desire to conquer, regeneration, and the irreversible destruction of nature.
Rony is known for his exhibition at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione during the 59th International Venice Biennale in 2022 as part of the collateral event, and with a career spanning almost four decades, he has become established as an internationally renowned artist for his mastery of working with this singular material. Additionally, in his recent solo exhibition at Kampa Museum Prague in 2023 – named „Trees grow from the Sky“, we witnessed the monumentality and delicacy of his work, heightened by his invention of a unique glass casting technology (Vitrum Vivum), which empowers him to manifest practically any imaginable form.