Maja Bajevic: Layers

Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zahnradstrasse, Zurich

The series Layers (2011) attest to the interest with which Maja Bajevic has followed the protests and tumults in Europe and the USA during the last months. The photographic images, pinned on canvas and embroidered, are exhibited hanging on a clothing line. The pictures were taken by journalists, who were present at the demonstrations. Maja Bajevic purchased the photos and left the titles as they had been, such as “M06D0501 – Mai2069”. The added embroideries of birds and flowers stand in contrast to the images and refer to values of tradition, continuance and a middle class resemblance of “normality”; a balance which has been destabilized through the protests. The artwork confirms that no system is unfailing, no ideal timeless and no truth untouchable.

 

“Is change the only constant in history?”, Maja Bajevic seems to ask. The installation To be continuedis made up of a machine with the visual appearance of an old-fashioned steam engine. The machine continually emits steam on which political and economic slogans are projected. The slogans become visible only for a short time on the visionary “steam curtain” before dissolving again. Maja Bajevic went through extensive research for this work, looking for principles that shaped the last century and remain unquestioned even today. To be continued makes all ideals equal by decontextualizing them and having them vaporize before our eyes, only to be succeeded by new concepts. The work points to the last utopias of the last century and the uncertainty their failures have made room for. On the one hand politics and economy still make use of the same slogans as before, but as ever more failures and crises become public even the last certainties seem to crumble. The motor behind the creation of ideas will not be stopped and so Maja Bajevicʼs machine goes on producing steam, and new slogans keep being projected – the future horizon is not empty, but shows ever more visions.

 

Maja Bajevicʼs solo show To be continued in the Crystal Palace of the Parque del Retiro, Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid was a grand success. The following single exhibitions are also worth mentioning: Karaoke (2011) in the art space Moen 44 in Askeby, Denmark, and Import Export (2009) in Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland. The publication Maja Bajevic, complete with texts by Angela Vettese and Lynne Cooke and published by Charta in Milano, is also available through the gallery.