[spectre] Robertina Šebjanič "Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia)"

[Annick2]

Dear Spectrites,

It is my great pleasure to announce that I am curating the 
presentation of the new work of Robertina Šebjanič 
"Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia)".
It will be exhibited in Ljubljana on August 31st. This is 
going to be a nice way to end the Summer. Come and join us !
You will find below the press release. Feel free to forward.

Best
Annick
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*Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), Robertina Šebjanič, 2018*

On August 31st, Robertina Šebjanič premieres her new 
installation, Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), curated 
by Annick Bureaud, at the gallery of OSMO/ZA in Ljubljana.

Lygophilia weaves together mythologies and sciences, history 
and future, fears and desires, continents, cultures, humans 
and non-humans. Lygophilia folds and unfolds the stories 
carried by those fascinating creatures that are the Mexican 
Axolotl and the Slovene Proteus.

 From immortality to regenerative medicine— both animals 
are, as adults, in a state of “eternal youth” (neoteny) 
showing extraordinary longevity and regenerative abilities 
that put them at the center of ancient myths as well as 
current cutting-edge scientific researches.
Ironically, Axolotls and Proteus are endangered species in 
their natural environment. Both have found habitats in very 
specific and located places, in the swamps of the lakes 
around the City of Mexico for one and in Europe in Dinaric 
karst caves for the other, showing an example of parallel 
evolution, endemicity and adaptation to narrow and extreme 
niches.
Hiding from the sun and daylight both are in love with 
darkness, lygophilia (from the Greek lúgē and philéō)

With cabinets that evoke the old natural history museums 
displays as well as the scientific labs glove boxes or the 
maternity incubators, through objects, texts, videos and 
paraphernalia, playing with a crossed mirrored approach 
where each element, each story, each animal is echoing, 
reflecting but also diffracting and counteracting the other, 
Šebjanič invites us to a journey into our cultural gaze and 
its evolution. Lygophilia offers the visitors to gain a more 
profound view of interspecies cohabitation in the 
contemporary world for a common future.


Neotenous dark dwellers (Lygophilia), Robertina Šebjanič, 2018
31. August - 2. September 2018
OSMO/ZA (Slovenska 54, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Friday August 31st
4 pm Panel discussion
7 pm Exhibition opening

Curator: Annick Bureaud (FR)
Production: Projekt Atol (Uroš Veber), Slovenia & 
Arte+Ciencia (UNAM), Mexico, 2017, Sektor, Slovenia
Production support: Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and the 
Municipality of Ljubljana

Lygophilia is a series of research-based artworks initiated 
in 2017 by Robertina Šebjanič in Mexico and pursued in 
Slovenia to explore the love (Gr.: philéō) of darkness (Gr.: 
lúgē) and the unknown dwellers in places inhospitable for 
humans.


Panel Discussion
Speakers: Carlos Pascual (writer), Gregor Aljančič and 
Magdalena Năpăruș-Aljančič (Tular Cave Laboratory), 
Robertina Šebjanič (artist), Annick Bureaud (curator and art 
critic, director Leonardo/Olats).

The panel discussion will present some of the topics and 
issues shared by those two remarkable creatures, living two 
continents apart: the Mexican Axolotl and the Slovene 
Proteus. Their ecology (both are endangered species in their 
natural environment), their biological singularity (both are 
neotenous dwellers of the dark) and their cultural 
appropriation (both are cultural phenomena) will be addressed.