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<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">Aksioma
–
Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, kindly invite you to
the presentation of the video project: </font>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> </p>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Sašo Sedlaček</b></font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i><b>The Big Switch Off</b></i></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><a
href="http://www.aksioma.org/switch_off">www.aksioma.org/switch_off</a></font>
<font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><b>Aksioma
|
Project space</b></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">Komenskega
18,
Ljubljana, Slovenia</font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">July
25 – August 5, 2011</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman"
size="2"><b><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent;"><br>
Opening: Monday, July 25, 2011 at 8:00pm</span></b></font><font
face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Image: <font color="#000080"
face="Times New Roman"><span lang="zxx"><u><a
href="http://www.aksioma.org/press/switch_off.zip"><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span
style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
transparent;">http://www.aksioma.org/press/switch_off.zip</span></font></a></u></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.19in;
page-break-before: always;" lang="en-GB"> <font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Sašo
Sedlaček explores social phenomena that are part of our
everyday life. His attention is focused particularly on those
topics that we usually push aside, for they represent the
“impure” side of the otherwise bright reality. Poverty and
waste are certainly the key terms of his opus. These two
topics, according to Sedlaček, are of key significance for our
future. In a series of projects developed over the past ten
years, he has shown various innovative and alternative modes
of functioning (especially the practice of recycling) and he
has emphasised the responsibility that should accompany our
interfering with the environment and our making decisions
regarding social issues.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="sl-SI"> <font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font size="3"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><b>The video project </b></span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i><b>The
Big Switch Off</b></i></span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><b> is
part of this series; it will be publicly launched on
Monday, 25 July 2011, at the Aksioma Project Space in
Ljubljana, and in Autumn, as part of the retrospective
exhibition of Sašo Sedlaček’s work, at the Gallery of
Fine Arts Slovenj Gradec and at the Rotovž Exhibition
Salon at the Maribor Art Gallery.</b></span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.19in;" lang="sl-SI"> <font
color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font size="3"><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">The
project deals with the question of what is waste and what
is litter. What we consider safe waste, which we recycle,
will become litter proper in the Third World, where it
will probably end up. In the “Essay on Litter:
Wiki-Garbage Management” in </span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Dnevnik’s
Objektiv</i></span></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;"
size="2"><span lang="en-GB">, Luka Omladič says that litter
consists of those things that annoy us, the things that
should not be where they are. Like an alien, they stand
out from their surroundings and they make it disgustingly
clear that someone has tossed them away and that they will
remain there for a long time. Yet, not all litter is
waste, Omladič says, at least not in the sense that would
deeply annoy us. And cast-off television sets simply do
not annoy us. In fact, it is precisely the migration of
waste that constitutes major hidden pollution, and this
often happens far away from the developed countries that
produce waste. It is there, far away from the developed
countries, that waste becomes litter. There, their
characteristics become unpleasant again and stand out from
the surroundings.</span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.19in;" lang="sl-SI"> <font
color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font size="3"><font
color="#000000"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span
lang="en-GB"><b>Sedlaček makes visible the relation
between waste and litter.</b><br>
Using the old analogue technology, which has been
increasingly displaced by the new digital technology, he
produces litter here and now. Instead of “safely”
recycling televisual technology, which is becoming
obsolete due to the new technological paradigm, the
introduction of digital signal and, consequently, the
mass replacement of analogue television sets with LCDs
and plasma TVs, let’s rather publicly break it into
pieces. Let’s do what we are going to do anyway, one way
or another, sooner or later – let’s do it together and
publicly.</span></font></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="sl-SI"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font size="3"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">Due to the introduction
of digital signal in 2011, which has replaced the analogue
signal, the West has witnessed mass destruction of old
technology. Cathode television sets, TVs without digital
converters, VHS and DVD players are a thing of the past,
for they do not support new technology. Sooner or later,
we will all be forced to replace the old with the new.
Already now, the sellers of contemporary electronics keep
offering us replacements of this kind. </span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><b>Yet,
the story of old technology is not over when we replace
old devices with new ones. And it does not end at the
electronics dumping ground either. In fact, this is
where their journey only begins. Old electronics is
being exported into Third World countries, however, this
is already an entirely different story…</b></span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="en-GB"><font color="#000000"
face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b><br>
</b></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.19in;" lang="sl-SI"> <font
color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font size="3"><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><b>Sašo
Sedlaček </b></span></font><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">is, no doubt, one of the
key authors of contemporary art in Slovenia. He has
received several awards (</span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i>OHO</i></span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB">,</span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i>
Vida 11</i></span></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;"
size="2"><span lang="en-GB">,</span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i>
Spaport</i></span></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;"
size="2"><span lang="en-GB">,</span></font><font
style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><span lang="en-GB"><i>
Zogo Toy</i></span></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;"
size="2"><span lang="en-GB">, etc.); he has been artist in
residence three times (in Germany, Japan and the United
States); he has had exhibitions in Slovenia, Japan,
Taiwan, USA, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia,
Russia, Estonia, etc. – including established exhibition
venues such as the Secession in Vienna and the Lentos
Museum in Linz – and he has participated in large
international biennials (Taipei, Taiwan 2008 and Ogaki,
Japan 2006) and festivals.</span></font></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.19in;" lang="sl-SI"> <font
color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><font color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB">In
Slovenia, he has recently problematised the sell-out of
frequency space (</span></font><font color="#000000"><span
lang="en-GB"><i>Manifest</i></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB">, 2009, and </span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Infocalypse Now!</i></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB">, 2007) and he is
particularly recognisable for his interventions into
consumer Meccas. Using bricks made of printed propaganda
materials, he closed the entrances to department stores in
Ljubljana (</span></font><font color="#000000"><span
lang="en-GB"><i>Just
Do It!</i></span></font><font color="#000000"><span
lang="en-GB">, 2003) and built a pavilion for
eavesdropping and dwelling in BTC City (</span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Loop</i></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="en-GB">, 2004); in 2006, he took
Beggar – a robot for the materially deprived, which he
lent to the homeless people of Ljubljana the following
year – for a walk around Citypark and the streets of Tokyo
and Taipei; etc.<br>
<br>
</span></font></font></font></p>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><b>Author</b></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><span style="font-weight:
normal;">: Sašo Sedlaček</span></span></font></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><b>Camera</b></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><span style="font-weight:
normal;">: Mitja Ličen, Janez Janša, Sašo Sedlaček</span></span></font></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><b>Editing</b></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><span style="font-weight:
normal;">: Sašo Sedlaček</span></span></font></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><b>Technical support</b></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><span style="font-weight:
normal;">: LJUDMILA</span></span></font></font>, <font
color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2">Valter Udovičić</font></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><b>Assistant</b></span></font><font
color="#000000"><span lang="sl-SI"><span style="font-weight:
normal;">: Anže Grm</span></span></font></font> <br>
<br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><b>Production:
</b>Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011</font>
<br>
<font color="#000080" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="zxx"><u><a
href="http://www.aksioma.org/"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2">www.aksioma.org</font></a></u></span></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><b>Artistic director:</b> Janez Janša</font></font>
<br>
<font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2"><b>Executive producer:</b> Marcela Okretič</font></font><font
color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><br>
</b></font></font></font><font color="#000000" face="Times New
Roman"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Public
relations:</b></font></font> Mojca Zupanič<font face="Times
New Roman"><br>
</font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><span
lang="sl-SI"><i><b>Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana<br>
</b></i></span><span lang="sl-SI"><i><span style="font-weight:
normal;">Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o.</span></i></span></font>
<br>
<font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><b>Contact:</b></font>
<br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">Marcela
Okretič,
041 250 830, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:aksioma4@siol.net">aksioma4@siol.net</a></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><b>Aksioma
|
Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana</b></font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">Neubergerjeva
25,
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia</font> <br>
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" face="Times New Roman" size="2">tel.:
+ 386 – (0)590 - 54360</font> <br>
<font color="#000080" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="zxx"><u><a
href="http://www.aksioma.org/"><font style="font-size:
11pt;" size="2">www.aksioma.org</font></a></u></span></font>
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