Vlatka Horvat. In Suspension

Opening Wednesday, March 16th, 2016, 7—9 pm

How to bring together things that don’t fit? How can a room give clues towards human behaviour? What is life if not a balancing act? Vlatka Horvat's work revolves around these questions – with simple materials, often found on site, which once combined turn into metaphors for everyday contradictions, persistent attempts and delicate tight-rope. When Horvat makes use of the physical space, whether with her performances, photo collages or sculptures, there is always a psychological and social component inherent.

Support and balance are also the subjects of her exhibition In Suspension at CAPRI, for which Horvat has created two installations. Both refer to a central architectural element in the space: a pillar.

Its presence in the centre of the room defines it as an indispensable support structure. As petite as it may seem, it still holds up the ceiling and lends an impression of solidity to the entire architecture.

Horvat has now secured various objects to this pillar, so that it needs to bear even more weight than usually. A poetic intervention that emphasizes its function, rendering it absurd at the same time: The pillar is transformed into a mythological Atlas figure, carrying the weight of the world on its shoulders. At the same time the objects lose their value as commodities. lifted from the ground, they form new zones that radiate protection and intimacy. It seems as if parasites or strange apparatuses had docked on in order to compromise the pillar’s stability. In a playful, humorous way they refer to man's quest for stability and to the loss of ground underfoot. The pillar itself also carries an anthropomorphic quality – a classic theme in art history from the Caryatids of antiquity to the Minimal Art of Robert Morris

The second work is installed on the window sill and approaches the notion of support and balance in a more discrete way: Both ends of parallel placed wooden boards carry small objects and figurines. The one end is located closer to the window, thus bordering with the street. The other end reaches deep into the room’s centre. Reminiscent of a shop window, a scientific experimental model or a seesaw from the playground, the work seems in a precarious position, threatening to collapse at any time.

Stability and fragility, holding and leaning, striving upwards in vain and hovering in the air: With In Suspension Vlatka Horvat describes the human condition in a playful, light-hearted way as a tight-rope dance defined by the uncertainties and contradictions of life.

Vlatka Horvat (*1974, Čakovec, Croatia) lives and works in London. In recent years, she’s had solo exhibitions at Zak | Branicka Galerie, Berlin and Disjecta, Portland, amongst others. She participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Disturbing the Peace at Museum Marta Herford in 2013 and Minimal Forms of Reality at Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow in 2015.
Text by Gesine Borcherdt.
Gesine Borcherdt, Curator of CAPRI.