8 Dec 2018 – 25 Jan 2019
exhibition of 8-channel sound installation

collaborators: Jan Turk, dr. Mirjan Švagelj

Sat 8 Dec 2018 at 12.00 (noon) – exhibition opening and guided tour
workshop for children (7+) The Journey of Plants by Gaja Mežnarič Osole and Andrej Koruza

Bioartists Saša Spačal tackles the pressing issue of influence of human progress and ecology. The work with eloquent title Plastic_ity focuses on problematics of microplastic particles in the soil. In collaboration with Jan Turk, responsible for sound and adviced by Mirjan Švagelj, PhD in biomedicine, the artist created a sound installation that speaks about the porosity of soil and its inhabitants.

“Ground layers are formed due to the diversity of uneven processes of metabolism in soil and are different due to numerous characteristics, such as humus content, colour, humidity, well developed root architecture, in the era of Anthropocene also by the level and different kinds of microplastics. Microscopic earth animals thus redistribute and process the contents of the soil together with various particles of microplastics that are produced by humankind.”

As she says, with the installation she “is trying to give voice to the micro-fauna of our ground to be able to tell us how human activity penetrates deep underground layers as well.”

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Saša Spačal [www.agapea.si] is a postmedia artist working at the intersection of living systems research, contemporary and sound art. Her work focuses primarily on the posthuman period, when human beings exist and act as one of many elements in the ecosystem and not as sovereigns. Therefore abandoning the Cartesian system of classification and accepting the fact that the field of technology has expanded not only from hardware to software but also to wetware resulting in hybrid phenomena inscribed in mechanical, digital and organic logic. She has exhibited and performed at venues and festivals such as Ars Electronica Festival, Prix Cube Exhibition, Transmediale Festival, Onassis Cultural Center Athens, Eyebeam, Cynetart Festival, National Art Museum of China, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova – MSUM+, Kapelica Gallery, Pixelache festival, Device_art, Art Laboratory Berlin, Kiblix Festival, Gallery of Contemporary Art Celje, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Lisboa Soa Festival. For her work she was awarded Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention 2015 and nominated for Prix Cube 2016.

Credits:
Artist: Saša Spačal
Sound design: Jan Turk
Counseling and construction: dr. Mirjan Švagelj
Introduction: Sebastjan Kovač
Workshop: Gaja Mežnarič Osole and Andrej Koruza, Trajna Collective
Curation, organisation: Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman
Production: Cona, Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing, 2018
Venue: Steklenik, Gallery for Sound, Bioacoustics and Art