“Light and shadow are the truths of the world.” It seems that the words of the young Japanese director and writer Momoko Ando in a felicitous way summarize the content of the book conceived by the lighting artist Aleksandra Stratimirović and the visual communication designer Sandra Praun. Their comprehensive monography titled You Say Light, I Think Shadow (Art and Theory Publishing, 2014) represents a collection of 109 contributions by many different artists who have all tried to answer the same simple, yet not an easy question as Momoko Ando did: What is light?

 

Light at first glance seems something completely ordinary and obvious, which is why it’s so hard to avoid the feeling that the questioning of its role and meaning too often remains on the margins of common attention. Still, this impression is far from the truth – the rich iconography of light and the universal significance of its expression bear witness to the unmistakable role of light in different fields of artistic activity. The proof to this lies in this book that consists of statements made by people of various artistic profiles. Their reflections that range from theoretical treatises to extremely poetic statements and self-expressive deliberations enable an understanding of light as a nearly autonomous medium of expression that significantly co-determines both the form and content of a many an artistic creation, be it photography, theatre, poetry, design and dance … 

 

Contemplating light in the field of art and culture we mustn’t overlook its utilitarian uses as well, which brings us to the challenges with regard to light in the terms of sustainable development. It must be noted here that the General Assembly of the UN declared the year 2015 as the year of light and lighting technologies with the intent to strengthen the global awareness of its many development potentials in the fields of the energy sector, education, telecommunications, agriculture and medicine.

 

The exhibition in the MAO represents a unique transformation, maybe an upgrade as well, of the book that outgrew its reading format and occupied a bigger exhibition space. It is conceived as an eclectic B&W compilation of authors’ texts where its contents resonate with the minimalist design of individual pages. It boasts a plethora of typographic and design solutions, enriched by perforations and different textures of paper, that also inspired its exhibition installation, confronting the visitor with related dispositions of graphic and text elements. The exhibition is designed as a polysemantic ambient that offers many visual information to the visitor. The highlighted contrasting of the visual language of the installation thus reflects the content principles of the book, while introducing the visitor to the symbolic transitions between the world of light and the world of dark.

 

The inspiration for this project was found during the artist’s visits to the park in front of the castle Fužine: animals tend to leave their habitats on the nearby Golovec hill and inconspicuously sneak into the vicinity of human habitats. Katja Paternoster with her work thusly addresses the question of cohabitation between wild animals and urban environment. The light sculptures were made alive by means of skillful 3D modelling, while the symbolic introduction of the sculptures into the nature celebrates the true masters of this particular space. The visitors strolling through the castle park will encounter unusual creatures whose presence represents the cohabitation of humans and animals.