MARKO A. KOVAČIČ Two Stories
NADJA ZGONIK Laterna magica
BOGDAN LEŠNIK Ambi(val)ents of Marko Kovačič
BOGDAN LEŠNIK Visions of Ordinary Life
JURIJ V. KRPAN The Lost Horizon
MARKO A. KOVAČIČ Star?
RASTKO MOČNIK The Loving Sights

MARKO A. KOVAČIČ Star?

Until the death of His Majesty I had understood the star more or less in the relation to the regime I had lived in. Somehow, as similar to the pop icon of the Eastern Bloc with Mother Russia - the bearer of the experience of revolution - in front. When I began to understand this symbol in connection to microcosm and the principles of life, I got interested in it. Pentagram and the number five began to intertwine with my artistic practice (five rooms, five TV sets, five radial roads, five-year periods…) and my collection of pop icons has become much bigger. By intensively transforming a star - a sign that provoked much hatred at a time - I brought to an end an almost century-long obsession with the idea, materialised by the October Revolution to be later terminated in our vicinity by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I have visually modulated the five-point star - a symbol of our not so far past history - as a pop icon, a badge. On the one side, it brings forward a lot of associations and on the other it arouses a nostalgic awakening. By taking away or adding some elements to the image of a star, I have tried to surpass its initial message and function. If the history has betrayed us, precisely such a resistance can help us survive.

I devote this exhibition to all the Jacobins, socialists, anarchists, and artists that have taken part in the social changes.

(Marko A. Kovačič, Star?, exhibition in the Alkatraz Gallery, Metelkova City, Ljubljana, 1998)