THE TWINS PARADOX
October 29, 2005 – December 3, 2005
Galerija Gregor Podnar/DUM Association is pleased to announce The Twins Paradox, an exhibition by Vadim Fiškin.
“Vadim Fiškin’s work is open to diverse interpretations. It tells of the relations between science and personal experience, desire and the imagination, metaphysics and pragmatism, the artificial and the real, uncovering subtle connections that provoke our curiosity yet leave us guessing as to their ultimate truth.” – Lívia Páldi
Choose Your Day, a new work by Vadim Fiškin, is a kind of science-fiction theatre depicting various atmospheric states. A number of devices, from a video projector to a lighting system, simulate different day and night scenes using sound, light and moving images. We perceive these scenes as real, even though one of them takes place on Mars. Also on display is Houses, a new work produced specifically for the exhibition. Showing windows seen through a window, an enlarged photograph in a light box (200 x100 cm) presents a cross-section of a large apartment complex.
In A Dictionary of Imaginary Spaces – Light Bulb Version (2002–2005), the name alludes to the “guidebook of the make-believe” by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi, which lists more than 1,200 imaginary places from literature — from Homer to the Harry Potter (the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). Two electric bulbs flash on and off in turn and ‘recite’ the names of nonexistent places and countries.
Count up_Count down… (1994–2005) consists of wooden rulers extending from the floor to the ceiling that are calibrated in indefinite units. Joined by clothespins, they measure arbitrary distances. The indefinable nature of distance and place is a leitmotiv of the exhibition The Twins Paradox.
Vadim Fiškin lives and works in Ljubljana. He participated in Manifesta 1 in Rotterdam (1996) and in the 1st International Biennial of Valencia (together with Bob Wilson) in 2001, as well as in other major international exhibitions. Over the last few years he has shown his work frequently in Slovenia, at the Mala galerija (Moderna galerija Ljubljana) in 1996, at Galerija Kapelica in 1998, and at Galerija Škuc (together with Guia Rigvava) in 2002. In 1999, he initiated the group exhibition…incommensurabilis… at Galerija Škuc, exhibiting alongside Olafur Eliasson, Marko Peljhan and Eulalia Valldosera. In 2005, Vadim Fiškin’s work Another Day, commissioned by Zdenka Badovinac, was presented in the Slovenian Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennial.
This exhibition has been made possible by support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana.