Vanitas

Petja Grafenauer, Vanitas

Tehnologije so v zadnjem stoletju omogočile videti nepredstavljivo. Vidno smo se naučili zaustaviti, zamrzniti, spraviti v tek, videli smo podobe, ki si jih nekdaj ni bilo moč niti zamislili. Z različnimi instrumenti vidimo tisto, česar oči ne zaznajo, gledamo pod in za površine, pod kožo, v telo in izven njega, vizualiziramo številne procese, za katere smo zgolj slutili, da se odvijajo v bivajočem. Razširjeno polje vizualnega, kakršno omogoča sofisticirana tehnologija, je še vedno predvsem orodje in domena znanosti. Toda možnosti in moč podob, ki nastajajo z razprtjem polja tistega, kar je moč videti, so izjemne. Tudi v umetnosti.

Umetniki, ki se ukvarjajo z vizualnim, so tisti, ki lahko, neutesnjeni z institucionalnimi okviri in neobremenjeni z znanstvenimi postopki, nove podobe pospremijo v neutilitarno življenje nezainteresiranega interesa, užitka, igre, učlovečenja podobe. Umetniki so od nekdaj eksperimentirali z novimi tehnologijami, jih uporabljali, izrabljali, in iz njih potegnili poetično, tuje, napačno, novo, lepo, kruto, skrivnostno in mnoge druge elemente, ki jim v znanosti ni mesta, zato pa močno usmerjajo naša življenja.

Že od svojih ustvarjalnih začetkov Uršula Berlot združuje zanimanje za likovno in ontološko prosojnost z raziskovanjem meja med organskim in anorganskim, vidnim in zakritim, ujetostjo in svobodo podobe, znanstvenim postopkom in razlitjem življenja. Že več kot pol desetletja tematizira človeško telo, njegov skriti del, ki so ga vizualizirale sodobne tehnologije.

Postavitev razstave Vanitas v galeriji Equrna leta 2012 je izčiščena in zračna. V približku bele kocke domujejo štirje ločeni projekti, ki jih poveže prepoznavna poetika prosojnosti, monokromnosti, estetiziranosti, tehnološkosti in prepuščanja in poigravanja s simetrijo, ki je značilna za umetničin opus. Estetiko vidnega poudarja odlični Scannerjev zvočni vložek v video Vanitas 2012. Zvok dihanja zareže v podobo umetničinega avtoportreta in z obraza potuje vedno globlje in globlje prek režnjev njene lobanje. Meditativni video izniči strah pred znotraj lastnega telesa in izenači lepi obraz, ki ga Uršula Berlot ponuja svetu, s krvjo, opnami, mesom, kostmi in tekočinami, ki se skrivajo za njim.

Med štirimi projekti videu parira enako močna serija fotografij v tehniki ‘camera oralis’, cameri obscuri, ki nastane v umetničini ustni votlini in se zabeleži na fotografskem papirju nekje za zobmi. Tudi najbolj enostavne tehnologije v umetnosti dobijo posebno moč, če jih umetnik uporabi na drugačen način. Pogledi tega, kako je telo videti iz telesa, kako usta vidijo dojke, noge, roke in trup, so hkrati tudi risbe tega istega telesa, ki se je odtisnilo na fotografiji kot prstni odtis, slina, dlaka, ali katera od neštetih drugih sledi, ki jih puščamo za sabo.

Estetsko dovršeni Fraktal, je prosojna jedkanica možgan na steklu, ki vodi vse do prvih umetničinih projektov iz začetka tisočletja, ko so podobne slike nastajale s pomočjo pleksi stekla in sintetične smole. Najmonumentalnejše na razstavi so Anatomske transfiguracije, veliki simetrični kolaži nastali iz delov zavrženih rentgenskih posnetkov, ki fragmentirani in znova sestavljeni, ustvarjajo polprosojne kalejdoskopske podobe sestavljene iz belin, ki jih na papirju za sabo pusti rentgenska naprava.

Opus Uršule Berlot je konsistenten in gotovo je čas, posvečen razvoju tehnik in raziskovane tematike odločilen del perfekcionizma, ki se kaže na vsaki umetničini razstavi. Perfekcija v izvedbi in postavitvi, v povezavi z odločitvijo za monokromnost in simetrijo učinkujejo hladno in monumentalno. Vanitas je razstava, s katero umetnica tistim, ki želijo gledati, ponuja skopofiličen vizualni presežek.

(Besedilo je prirejeno po kritiki, ki je bila objavljena v časopisu Delo julija 2012.)

Uršula Berlot

The project Vanitas is a multimedia installation exploring the relationships between identity, perception and body in connection with the classical art theme of vanitas. Here Vanitas addresses challenges involved in defining the borders between the mental, the bodily, and the technological today, with a bias that looks to contemporary scientific theories concerning the neurological functioning of the body and anatomy. The project explores new forms of possible connections between art and science, raising the question of the role of (new) media in the development of both areas. It is based on a number of experiments using radiological techniques of body-scanning (magnetic resonance, computer tomography), carried out with the help of the Radiology Institute at the University Medical Center of Ljubljana.

The work Anatomical Transfiguration explores the effects of medical visualizations and mediation of the internal body upon the altered perception and valuation of the body today. In a broader perspective it questions the dichotomy between physical and mental, eternal and transitory, thus exploring and expanding the traditional theme of vanitas. The transfiguration of anatomical fragments as recorded by conventional x-ray techniques into new visual representations effects a re-contextualization of scientific medical imagery into the field of art. In technical terms, the project employs radiographs recorded with traditional x-ray technology. Contemporary medical practices are abandoning analogue radiological techniques in favor of digital visualizations, and as such, the work confronts the issue of the increasingly frequent obsolescence of conventional technologies.

Video Vanitas – Self-portrait presents a hypnotic image of the continuous dissolution of the author’s face, skull and brain. The repetitive liquefying interplay between the exterior and the technologically-visualized exterior posits the question of visible and invisible, physical and mental. However, the image of the skull is not only a metaphor for the transience of life and the inevitability of death; in relation to the sound of rhythmic respiration it evokes death as a faithful companion of life and its faithful shadow, and in turn illuminates the meaning and value of life, heightening the consciousness of human existence. (Collaborators: Scanner–Robin Rimbaud, sound; Sunčana Kuljiš, special effects).

The series of photographs entitled Self-portrait – Camera Oralis is a low-tech investigation of the body. Unlike other works in the exhibition these images were not created using sophisticated medical technology; rather, they were produced using a particular form of camera obscura formed or created by the artist’s mouth. Technically the images are produced using a small piece of photosensitive paper positioned in the (author’s) mouth with her lips forming the (so-called lens) aperture. Projected light ‘draws’ an outline of the body observed and the exterior body is displaced in its own interior. However, the shape of the body, the result of such an analogous process as an imprint of light, is not the only element determining the image; it is the result of a diverse mixture of other types of imprints produced by the body itself – fingers, saliva, tongue, teeth, etc. The resulting ‘visceral’ self-portrait is permeated by a certain corporeality and does not singularly ‘represent’ the bodily. (Collaboration: Uroš Abram)

The light work Fractal is one part in a series of works dealing with the idea of the ‘transparent body’. Formally the work is based on a radiological image of the brain, the use of light sensitive materials and the integration of non-material phenomena such as light projections and reflections. The diffracted image shows the branching of blood vessels and also, because of the vertical orientation of the installation, resembles the structure of the pulmonary bronchi. The fractal structure of the corporal organ maps the invisible geometry of the body, while the light dematerializing the image suggests the impermanent and fragile essence of the ‘physical’, whether organic or artificial.

The exhibition Vanitas employs diverse technologies that enable the visualization of the interior or exterior of the body and, in a broader sense, examines the ‘ideal of transparency’ characteristic of modern society. However, the search for a transparent body (in both medicine and the arts) is actually phantasmagorical: there is always something we do not see, something that escapes the technologically induced – something that can only be felt and experienced.