KIBLIX 2025 | Nika Oblak & Primož Novak: And Now for Something Completely Different 18

Nika Oblak & Primož Novak: And Now for Something Completely Different 18
12 December 2025–17 January 2026
MMC KIBLA/KiBela

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition And Now for Something Completely Different 18 by the artist duo Nika Oblak & Primož Novak, which will take place on Friday, 12 December 2025, at 7 p.m. in the KiBela, space for art.

INVITATION (PDF)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

Nika Oblak & Primož Novak are a rare and distinctive artistic duo who have been active since 2003, creating a highly original body of work that stands out on the global stage. Their work draws on a wide range of cultural references, including the legacy of Monty Python, from which the title of this long-running series is borrowed, now presented in its eighteenth iteration. They maintain the continuity of the “genre,” satirizing the trendiness of new and contemporary media as well as conceptual art, which often replaces the emptied artistic quality with endless chatter about what a work is supposedly meant to “say,” instead of allowing art to speak for itself. Clever verbiage seems unavoidable, as little or nothing would remain of the “work” – meant entirely conceptually – after all the highbrow posturing, which is often for the better.

Their video installations are silent: they do not speak but instead show, exhibit, and perform as testers of their own inventions, thus advertising them as well, although I doubt their actions persuade anyone to buy. Still, we laugh and wonder how they approached a particular piece and how they realized it. Without a look behind the scenes, it is hard to imagine how many plans had to be prepared and what physical constructions had to be assembled and set up for the chosen idea to be realized. Our eyes see only the materialized action, driven by banal everyday situations or traditional wisdom from which they draw their creative impulses, twisting these through literal citation into their opposite. Once laid bare before us, these actions are stripped of their historical connotations and left without meaning. They become meaningless.

By distorting reality, Nika and Primož also take on pedagogical and parental roles. On one hand, they teach the audience that clinging to canonized imperatives and singular truths leads to a cyclical routine that traps us, first confining us to cages within our own minds until it becomes a habit and a voluntary prison, of which many remain unaware. As they hold up a mirror to adults, they simultaneously educate children by exposing the absurdities that shape human lives and warning them not to repeat these patterns. It is as if they wanted to emphasize in a trailer before the actual film: “Warning! Do not try this at home!” Or anywhere else. If old habits die hard, then self-evidence is foolish, and literalness can be funny when the artists approach it with their distinct artistic code, which, over decades of work, has become their hallmark. Confronted with what they present, we are both amazed and entertained.

The simple setup of the works draws us in with its purity of form, enchants us with the minimal color palette, and mesmerizes us with its content. Although we cannot predict what their next masterpiece will be, we know we will again receive a story, and we can be certain that we will first be astonished and then entertained until we reach a catharsis and “look truth in the eye.” We may then discover that we recognize when a thought loses its meaning. When that happens, we are ready for the next installment in their series, for the continuation of the lesson in the pedagogical process of knowing life by knowing ourselves on the way to the next healing. When insight is added, we can set out on a journey to grasp memory and search for the primordial memory that nourishes our ego with smugly confident certainty in something that, apart from the media, perhaps does not exist at all.

While Nika Oblak and Primož Novak greet us with a “welcome to our film”, we must recognize that the film also belongs to the observer. In truth, it is not just a film but Life itself, which they present through simple, sensitively aestheticized, and superbly rendered croquis that exist within all of us. What transforms these into a story is their work as an artist duo, tirelessly reminding us that we too compose our own stories. What those stories become depends above all on us, for they cannot be provided by the state, parties, faith, or democracy – we can write them only ourselves. In promoting art, they speak on behalf of life, which is the core of their oeuvre, metaphorically enacted by the media as imitators of the living – programmed manipulators and thus replicants.

It is true, however, that one must first look within and reflect deeply on the reality in which one lives. Is it a media-driven, virtual, digital, manipulated, and manipulative reality, or a real, genuine, analog, intellectual, and heartfelt one? What you discover may be surprising. Yet the work will not be complete. You will have to continue the rest of the journey on your own. This is exactly what this artistic duo has done for decades, with their first solo premiere at KIBLA in 2007, another in 2017 on the 15th anniversary of their practice, and a third installment to be shown this year, eight years later. In the meantime, they have participated in numerous group exhibitions at KIBLA and in international guest appearances we have co-organized, and this will surely continue in the future.

Comrades and comradesses Slovenians, march on!

Biography

Nika Oblak & Primož Novak have worked as a tandem in the field of contemporary art since 2003. Their artistic practice explores modern society under the influence of media and capitalism, presenting its visual and linguistic structures in detail. Their work has been exhibited at major contemporary art venues worldwide, including the Sharjah Biennial (UAE), Japan Media Arts Festival (JP), Istanbul Biennial (TR), Biennale Cuvee in Linz (AT), Transmediale in Berlin (DE), and FILE in São Paulo (BR). They have received numerous scholarships and awards, including the CYNETART Award from the Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau in Dresden (DE).

https://www.oblak-novak.org/

< Nika Oblak & Primož Novak: Balance

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.