BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

Bombs away! New year demands cluster bombing with best wishes. I hate FB cluster bombing when they tag your name to their picture (thank you, but no thank you). I also hate mass emails.

This December I barely survived. Too much work. I didn’t had time for anything and so I decided that I’ll not do a “Merry Christmas and happy new year” carpet bombing, but just send few Flower Power catalogs around the world. To whom did I send? Majority of catalogs I gave away at Vienna Portfolio Review Show. This catalogs are printed only in 60 pieces (print on demand), so I decided to send it to Galleries, editors, art directors,… Basically to refresh and revive social network that got idle for a while. I also send it to few new addresses. I was checking magazines and websites to see who out there might be interested in my work and on Rhubarb Rhubarb Festival site I saw an advertisement of Flowers Gallery. Of course I couldn’t resist to send them a catalog of Flower Power project. Who knows what, when and if will happen, but one thing is for sure. When sending promo material around it’s like buying a lottery ticket. That day of purchase you daydream what will you do with all that money and the same goes when sending your art around, he,he…

Pavle Ravnohrib, an actor of Anton Podbevšek Teater with colleagues from the theater show Paradigma Italo Calvino – smer: nevidna mesta. LINK to more creative portraits.

Pavle Ravnohrib, igralec s sodelavci v predstavi gledališča Anton Podbevšek teater. Povezava do ostalih mojih kreativenih portretov.

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Today is a premiere of a theater show Paradigma Italo Calvino – smer: Nevidna mesta by an avantgarde theater Anton Podbevšek Teater. The building of the theater is under renovation so they made this show in a storage hall of pharmaceutical company Krka d.d. Here is a glimpse of their art. It’s very inspiring to witness a work of creation by such a dedicated team of artists orchestrated by Matjaž Berger. More info on their SITE.

Krka d.d., Skladišče končnih izdelkov Gotna vas, Novo mesto, Slovenia
Premiere: 27 December 2010 at 20:00
Also: 28, 29, 30 December 2010 at 20:00

Danes je premiera gledališke predstave Paradigma Italo Calvino – smer: Nevidna mesta, gledališča Anton Podbevšek Teater. Ker prenavljajo stavbo Anton Podbevšek Teatra, so tokratno predstavo priredili v skladišču farmacevtske tovarne Krka d.d. Tu je utrinek iz njihovih vaj. Zelo navdihujoče je bili priča delu tako predanega tima umetnikov, pod taktirko režiserja Matjaža Bergerja. Več informacij na njihovi strani.

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In the end of November I visited Vienna Portfolio Review. For those who don’t know what is portfolio review about, it’s basically meetings with experts from photography and art world. That is editors, curators, gallery owners, agents, art directors, collectors… Artist pay a participation fee and then he meets a reviewer for 20 minutes. The participation fee varies from 99 EUR for 6 meetings to 260 EUR for 18 meetings. Of course I decided for 18 meetings in two days (plus few informal ones). On Monday I quit my job as photo-editor and on Thursday I went to Vienna with a new portfolio. No way back

Ob koncu novembra sem obiskal Vienna Portfolio Review in za tiste, ki ne poznate te dogodke, so to srečanja fotografov s strokovnjaki s področja fotografije in umetnosti, to je uredniki, kuratorji, galeristi, agenti, umetniške vodje festivalov,…. Umetnik plača udeležnino za dvajsetminutno srečanje s pregledovalcem. Udeležnina je tu znašala 99 eur za šest sestankov in 260 za 18 sestankov v dveh dneh. Seveda sem se odločil za vseh možnih 18 sestankov (in izpeljal še par neformalnih). V ponedeljek sem dal odpoved kot fotourednik tednika Mladina in v četrtek sem šel na Dunaj s svojo novo portfolio. Ni poti nazaj

I made a portfolio just out of my Flower Power project. I learned by on my mistake in Arles that 20 minutes is enough to present only one project. I decided to follow archival, museum standards and printed my art on acid free 100% cotton paper, pigment colors, with acid free mat and that I’ll fasten prints only with corners. On this kind of portfolio shows is very important what you leave behind. Beside a visit card I prepared a small print-on-demand catalog. I received great feedback on the Portfolio Review show, but we’ll see what compliments will be realized in the following year. What’s the most important is that I felt I’m presenting my art in the best possible way that I can. The awareness that it’s worth it, it fells good. Very good.

Naredil sem portfolio samo iz Flower Power serije. Naučil sem se iz napake v Arles, Franciji, da 20 minut, kolikor traje sestanek, je dovolj za predstavitev enega projekta. Odločil sem se, da sledim smernice muzejskih, arhivskih standardov. Printal sem na brezkislinski 100% bombažni papir, s pigmentnimi barvami, z brezkislinskim paspartujem in da bom pritrdil printe samo s kotniki. Pri takšnih portfolio šovih, je ključno kaj pustiš za sabo. Odločil sem se, da poleg vizitke, pripravim tudi majhen katalog. Katalog sem tiskal na način print-on-demand, se pravi digitalni tisk, le 60 kosov. Na Portfolio Review dogodku sem prejel res veliko dobrih odzivov, a prizemljen pričakujem prave rezultate šele naslednje leto. Kar je najbolj pomembno je občutek, da predstavljam svoje delo na najboljši možni način, kot znam. Občutek, da je vredno, res dobro dene. Zelo dobro.

Lately I feel obsessed by Art. When I watch an art piece of whoever in whatever field, I can feel the dedication, the creation, the passion, the story behind it. It’s similar to chess. On the surface just a pieces on board, but deep under it’s a battle of armies competing in speed, precision, tactic… The principles that I’ve learned in chess and Martial Arts are identical to principles of art. This thought is neutralizing the feeling of guilt that arrouse because I skipped many exhibition openings because of Muay Thai trainings and burn quite some midnight oil for chess games

Zadnje čase se počutim obsedenega z Umetnostjo. Ko opazujem umetniško delo kogarkoli v kateremkoli področju, čutim predanost, kreativnost, strast, zgodbo za delom,… Podobno je šahu. Ob površnem pogledu le figure na šahovnici, a poglobljen pogled vidi vojski, ki tekmujejo v hitrosti, natančnosti, taktiki,… Principi, ki sem se jih naučil pri šahu in borilnih veščinah, so dejansko enaki principom v umetnosti. Ta misel nevtralizira občutek krivde, ki sem ga dobil, ko sem izpustil mnoge otvoritve razstav zaradi treningov tajskega boksa in skuril mnogo prostega časa za polnočne igre šaha.

I’m meeting so many artists and they are fueling my passion to the art. This week I was blown away by Matjaž Berger, Pavle Ravnohrib and the rest of avantgarde theater Anton Podbevšek Teater. Then I spend an afternoon with Ive Tadar a body artist that does not make a compromises in his work. More about him in later post, but let me just mention his most infamous performance, when he drilled a hole in his knee (link).

Srečujem mnoge umetnike, ki me napajajo mojo strast do umetnosti. Ta teden so mi dih vzeli Matjaž Berger, Pavle Ravnohrib in ostali člani Anton Podbevšek Teatra (več v ponedeljek). Potem sem preživel popoldne z body-art umetnikom Ive Tadar, katerega najbolj zloglasni performans je, da si je v koleno zvrtal luknjo. On res ne pozna besedne povezave umetnost in kompromis.

As you could conclude, my next resolution is to steer my career back to the Art. In the beginning of December I even had a talk on a theme from Artist to a craftsman and back. Nikon Days is the largest photography event in Slovenia on which in a single afternoon more then thousand photographers gathered. I articulated my case in a clear way and that’s another indicator that I know what I’m doing.

Kot ste že sami prišli do sklepa, je moja (pred)novoletna obljuba, da usmerim svojo kariero nazaj v Umetnost. Na začetku decembra sem imel celo predavanje na temo Od Umetnika do obrtnika in nazaj. Nikonov dan fotografije je najbolj obiskan fotografski dogodek v Sloveniji, kjer se v enem samem popoldnevu zbere več kot tisoč fotografov. V predavanju sem jasno artikuliral mojo odločitev, kar je še en znak, da vem kaj počnem.

Photo / Foto : Matic Kos

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Oh man, I’m so happy that this year is finished. Actually it was an amazing year, just I hate this “Merry” December. So much stress, it can’t be true, but I’ve done few things that I’m really proud of and since I didn’t had time to blog, here is an overview for last two months. Where should I start? This year I didn’t had no holidays. We moved to our new house and three weeks of summer holidays were invested in moving our stuff. When I went back to job it felt like a holiday. I sort out my working suite with dedicated storage room. A great luxury. It’s magnificent! I call it a chapel of Art.

My first great resolution for 2011 is that I quit my job as a photo-editor of Mladina weekly. The main reason is the road NM – LJ – NM. I calculated that I’m spending 70 hours a month on a road. The second reason is that I was doing the work for four years and in this work I don’t see any progress and no challenges for the future. Mladina doesn’t publish reportages anymore. I want to make reportages and documentary projects again. Of course I’ll still work as a photographer for Mladina.

The End is near, Santa is coming!!!!
Enjoy it!!!!
B5

(Illustration by Tomo Lavrič)

PS: Don’t overlook the anagram.

Last week I’ve made a creative portrait of the Labirint umetnosti crew that made a labyrinth with trees. Link. Nada Žgank / Memento took few pictures while I was preparing the shoot THX!

I must draw attention to this fantastic picture. Mladina’s journalist Erik Valenčič is in Gaza and he brought with him Lojze Peterle’s T-shirt from presidential elections. Lojze Peterle is a very conservative Slovenian politician that was running for president. Erik’s blog is on Radio Študent site.
Photo: Palestinian security personal.

Erik Valenčič in Lojze Peterle v Gazi, na slavljenju obletnice Hamasa. Erikov blog si lahko preberete na strani Radia Študent. Foto: Palestinski varnostnik

This is a photo of the week in Mladina weekly. Minister of internal Affairs Katarina Kresal is giving a statement on an exhibition of World Press Photo competition 2010. Behind her is a winning picture of Walter Astrada, Argentina, Agence France-Presse. Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Ministrica za notranje zadeve Katarina kresal daje izjavo na razstavi reportažnih fotografij World Press Photo, za njo je zmagovalna fotografija avtorja Walter Astrada, Argentina, Agence France-Presse. Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana. Foto Borut Peterlin

Mladina weekly has a mirror site of Wikileaks so help yourselves with the documents. Thx to geek support from Monitor.si this system will be up and running for quite some time (read forever). They custom build a reseliant server that can be rebuilded from scratch in a 20 min if / when CIA visit it.