Close your eyes. Photographic works by Nika Špan and Richard Whitlock
The opening of the exhibition CLOSE YOUR EYES at Equrna Gallery in Ljubljana will take place on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, at 7 PM in the presence of the artists. The exhibition closes on the 26th of September 2024.
Photography seems to verify that the way we see the world is the right way. But when we close our eyes things continue to exist quite happily on their own, in a space undefined by human eyes and camera lenses. The works of Nika Špan and Richard Whitlock throw doubt on the way we visualise the world, and the way we photograph it, Whitlock by abandoning the single viewpoint of the lens, Špan by photographing the photographic moment itself. They place us in the zone of innocence before the click of the camera made us self-conscious – before objectivity, before science, before utility.
This year Nika Špan is also representing Slovenia at the 60th Venice Biennale.
CV
Richard Whitlock (b. Liverpool 1952) has exhibited in Moscow, Beijing, New York, London, Athens, Helsinki and elsewhere. In Ljubljana he exhibited at Equrna gallery in 1997 and that year made a drawing in a (former) prison cell at the Autonomous Cultural Center of Metelkova – Mesto. His work has been showcased in Afterimage, Photomediations Machine, the French design review FauxQ, and in the Slovenian journals Likovne Besede and Membrana.
Nika Špan (b. 1967 in Ljubljana) works as a freelance artist in various media such as installation, video, performance, spatial and sound interventions. In Ljubljana she exhibited at Manifesta 3, at the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, at the 1st, 2nd and 6th Triennial of Contemporary Art – U3, at overview exhibitions Slovene Art 1985-1995 and 1995-2005 at Moderna galerija, at +MSUM, Mala galerija, Cukrarna Gallery, Škuc Gallery, Jakopič Gallery, DUM Project Space and Gregor Podnar Gallery.