An artistic approach often finds variety and diversity, deep expressiveness and compelling narration both in the re-living of the seen and in its interpretation, whether expressed through space, material, installation or imagination. In contemporary sculpture there is both a prevailing awareness that everything is uncertain and relative, and a recognition of the need for interpretation that is socially engaged, or at least more than merely introspective and self-focused, an interpretation aligned with a personal conviction that follows visions of the depictable and the presented. Many sculptors search with passion and dedication, in the belief that they are awakening something new, something different, which may be shocking and dramatic but can also be very soothing and restrained in expression, form, space, volume, surface, colour and also light and shade. And in this creative momentum they shape their attitude, which gives them worth, importance, a touch of originality and significance. They create with the breadth of choice and the power of the unusual. They identify with what they create and become one with the message they express. Over the course of two decades of dedicated exploration in the visual arts, with an emphasis on sculpture within its modern paradigm, Rok Bogataj, a graduate of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venezia, has left traces that have marked time and space in numerous exhibition venues and public spaces both in Slovenia and abroad. He has created content and imbued it with significant communicative and expressive connotations, securing a place in our memory as an original, thoughtful and sincere interpreter of his own visions. Among his notable projects are those whose titles already define their thematic and expressive essence: Twilight of the Gods, Dancing Venus, Venus au Cube, Nest, Prototype Archetype, Castelrosso, Venera Project, Mountain, and so on.

The exhibition that he has entitled Tension is coming into being in a slow and deliberate rhythm and is the intense focus of the thoughts, wishes, beliefs, knowledge and creative yearnings that drive him to devote his time and attention to it. His creative restlessness is exploring different combinations of materials, shapes, compositions and colours that will interact with the sacred space, which in turn will support the artist’s message: the current state of the world forces us to reflect. It forces us to act. Will the sculptor offer a form and a re-experiencing of space designed to encourage a feeling of strength in us? Perhaps even to spur us to action? To thoughtful acts? For his thematic and formal starting point, he has chosen the concept of tension, which can have different meanings depending on the context: it can be defined as a state of excitement and emotional agitation; as a property and the state of being stretched tight; and as the quantity that determines the current between two points connected by a conductor. Which of these will the sculptor incorporate into his work? What will his message be? Rok Bogataj has written the following of his work: “My work is expressed through various media such as sculpture, site-specific installations, land art, photography, video and drawing. I process diverse themes that include elements of reality and fantasy, questions of the human body, reproduction, space, process, archaeology, traces and gender. I am literally assembling an archaeology of everyday life that connects the mundane and the mythical through processes of appropriation and associative reflection. By using primarily the materials that surround us – stone, wood, construction materials, metal, plaster, concrete, and so on – I give these elements a new aesthetic dimension. I assemble and rework them into various compositions and constructions, depending on the space and the time. At the moment I am exploring the question of ‘traces’, more or less as a way of exploring evidence of recent origins that we must remember.”

Rok Bogataj enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice in 1996 and graduated in 2002. Since 2004 he has been registered as a self-employed cultural worker. Beginning in 1997, he has presented his works at numerous solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. Some notable recent exhibitions include: Selected Works Presented in a Virtual Gallery, OVR Art Gallery, online (2021); Metulj 0.1, AR Project, CO.SO! – L’arte per il sociale durante l’anno del Covid-19, Piazza Grande, Palmanova, Italy (2021); Rite of Passage, Altrememorie – Park of Contemporary Art, Prati di Oitzinger, Val Saisera, Italy (2018); Quartiere delle valli, site-specific installation, performance, Tolmezzo, Italy (2018); Pin, Šabac, Serbia 2017; Pin, Arterija International Festival, Lapidarium, Novigrad-Cittanova, Croatia (2016).

Nelida Nemec