Iva Tratnik and Marko Jakše, Battle dance on the bombarded moon

We are all bombarded moons.
Battle dance is no fight, it is the ritual of soothing
Your timid deer and my frightened rabbit.
And skeletons are our companions anyway,
If not friends...

Iva Tratnik and Marko Jakše have based their work on the 17th century graphic work “L'influence de la Lune sur la teste des femmes”, portraying men holding only lamps and observing the “mad” women that have gathered for the full moon. The women are holding a gathering of a kind, or a battle dance, while the men stay behind cautious, as if wondering what the women are up to. The title is metaphorical in the sense of their duality, duet, duel, a battle dance, within which they almost literally danced alongside their paintings. “Sometimes it's good to have someone beside you to hold a mirror up to you. In today's society no one can hold the mirror up any longer, at least not to me. But I really feel that Iva has.”

On display will be large format paintings that were painted by Marko Jakše and Iva Tratnik simultaneously and together. Some giant paintings extend on as much as five metres, making an excellent impression in life-size. The painters “took the plunge and swam” into the naked canvas together. Iva likes planes, open surfaces that breathe, whereas Marko prefers sculpture in painting, therefore he forms, produces an illusion, his own 3D. “Maybe Iva finds this a bit irritating and she makes me know when it gets too much; then an attack on the painting might follow. I am working on a detail, modelling it, making it all round and plastic, and then she simply overpaints it...”

The unusual exhibition will be on view until 5 February inclusive. The paintings will then be transferred back to the hiding place. Don't miss the opportunity to see thousands of painted details.

28 January 2011 – 5 February 2011
Opening: 28 January 2011 at 8 pm
KiBela / KIBLA Maribor
Exhibition at the occasion of KiBela, space for art 12th anniversary

KiBela is open every day 9.00 am to 10.00 pm, Saturdays 4.00 pm to 10.00 pm, and closed Sundays.
MMC KIBLA wishes to thank the following for their support: EU-EACEA, Culture Programme, Brussels, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Maribor and Office of Youth. KiBela programme is part of the European X-OP project.