Damijan Kracina: Controlled Self-Ignition

Damijan Kracina: Controlled Self-Ignition
19 June–19 July 2025
MMC KIBLA/KiBela

You are cordially invited to the opening of the first solo exhibition of the sculptor Damijan Kracina in Maribor entitled Controlled Self-Ignition, which will take place on Thursday, 19 June 2025, at 8 p.m. at KiBela, space for art.

INVITATION (PDF)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

Damijan Kracina’s works have been shown in several KIBLA group exhibitions, in particular in the thematic multimedia installation Galapagos in 2005, in which he collaborated with Vladimir Leben. The interweaving of different media such as paintings, drawings, video, sculptures, scenography and light also characterizes this exhibition with images of truly original zoomorphic forms that protrude from the space both allegorically and realistically. Perhaps also rhetorically, given the world we live in, or even historically and futuristically at the same time, as if memory and vision were holding hands.

Kracina combines all the elements into a complex installation that transports us into an imaginary world of images. Using various materials and techniques, he creates an original futuristic landscape of either genetically manipulated or evolutionarily mutated animals that gently seduce us with their beauty as we contemplate the aesthetic perfection of the works. However, their manifest artistic “fragility” is not an expression of the helplessness of these creatures, for it is only apparent, subtly admonishing us through beauty and making us question the catastrophic scenario of the “state of affairs” in which we find ourselves. Nonetheless, the exhibition can also be viewed through the lens of humor, which is immanent to art but rarely found today, and as an artistic play on the viewer’s perception and ability to convey an original message, which is constantly present in Kracina’s work. This somehow softens the weight of the extraordinary thoughtfulness regarding the integrity of the presentation, which can make us laugh but also evokes a sense of unease when we contemplate “creatures” that could also come to life, inviting us to build a relationship with them by reflecting on where we come from and where we are going.

Damijan Kracina is a Slovenian sculptor who takes nature, the living and the dead as his starting point. But even when he closes the circle, his works of art are biohistorical and apocalyptic. They represent a state trapped in time, physical and metaphysical, and lead us through various forms to the essential. His sculptures radiate the life that was, is or could be in certain time zones and spatial dimensions. The letter is his additional element, for it transforms each exhibition into a scenography that opens the door to the unknown. When we walk through it, we are confronted with his world. And with ourselves in it. Welcome …

Biography

Damijan Kracina, born 1970 in Kobarid, artist, BFA, MFA. He works in the fields of sculpture and multimedia art. In 1999 he concluded his study of sculpture and video art at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design. After 1998 he enhanced his knowledge in Graz, New York, at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and at the Santa Fe Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. In 1992 he was co-founder the art group Provokart. From 1997 to 2000 he was the artistic director of the art center Artilerie Kluže. In 2005 he was co-founder of the artists' group Domestic Research Society. He is a member of the AKC Metelkova group. He has been a professor with the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana since 2010. He lives and works in Ljubljana.

www.kracina.com

< Damijan Kracina: Sculpture – Untitled, epoxy, 2023, 70 x 90 x 230 cm; photo: Marko Turk

MMC KIBLA/KiBela, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.