The exhibition of the poster series Self-Fulfilling Prophecies uses slogans and mottos from our recent past to depict, in a relaxed autobiographical fashion, the prophecies that have marked our lives. Self-fulfilling prophecies are humorous statements, mottos and slogans that we’ve heard in the media, from the state, from our parents, in popular culture, music, in various systems, religions, literature, etc., and that have imprinted themselves into our conscious and unconscious memory. In the making since 2012, the posters are made of digital scraps that have been piling up over the years in artist Tanja Radež’s archives.

Phrases like I have to do everything myself, stop being a philosopher, daddy come back home safely, what is the need of this, everything in the best disorder, turn off the light, once upon a time there lived Mujo and Haso, don’t lean out of the window, no offence, Yugoslavia, amen pod kamen, put that thing where it belongs, etc. are illustrated with fully autobiographical shapes, colors and images. For example, her parents were often telling her and her sister stop being a philosopher – and the sister ended up studying philosophy. She had a way of solving her adolescent problems by resorting to Pippi Longstocking and her slogan amen pod kamen (bother all this), which helped her through the endless minutes she had to spend in church because of her parents. She still uses the slogan everything in the best disorder to alleviate her eternal conflict with order. The posters are a collection of associations related to the theme of female-male roles, political relationships to the world, intimate fears, life expectations and wishes; they are notes that may also be more general and that leave their traces in and throughout our lives. Every one of us has a set of his or her own self-fulfilling prophecies, many of them prophecies from or related to the time and systems in which we have lived. Using a distinct intermingling of words and images, the exhibition is a humorous little personal psychological study that reaches out to everyone.

Tanja Radež chose design as her profession when she was fifteen years old. She graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts and Design Ljubljana, Visual Communication program. Tanja and two of her fellow students founded the TANDAR studio in 1989, which is where her creative work was taking place for the next twelve years. She permanently supplemented the two dimensions of visual communication with a third one, arising on the basis of contents and concepts. They were particularly involved in design and space formation. These days, her creative studio work focuses on culture, art, education and science and, furthermore, strives to co-create contemporary spaces and events. She has been the author of authentic notebook planners for 22 successive years now. Her everyday life is embedded with a unique sort of creative exploration that was eventually given the name OSTALGIAS, which in Tanja’s language embraces authorial research and refurbishment of whatever it is that we leave behind. In May 2012 in the Multimedia Centre Kibla Maribor she prepared solo exhibition titled Collection of Collections, her visual story about more than twenty years of creativity in design. In 2015, she became a member of the artist collective Caucasus Balkan Express.

The exhibition is part of the “Project space” programme. The programme is composed of smaller, shorter-run exhibitions chosen on an annual open call basis and which take place in the west wing of the Fužine castle. The exhibitions are co-produced together with partners and must follow the criteria for uniformity of heritage in the fields of architecture, design and photography.

Location

MAO, Project space

Info

infobio(at)mao.si
+386 1 54842 80/74
We reserve the right to change the programme.

Organization

Tanja Radež
MAO