27/07/2017
MATIJA DEBELJUH
THE STUDY FOR SCAFFOLD
28/07/2017 - 15/09/2017
“Study for Scaffold” is a new exhibition by Matija Debeljuh created as a visual note for Scaffold – a work-in-progress. At the moment in the process of production, Scaffold is an short experimental narrative film by Matija Debeljuh, based on the eponymous novel by Mirko Kovač. Kovač’s magical realism finds its space in Matija Debeljuh work. By exploring the time dimension, the identity of the subject, the journey and memory, the narrative of the film is formed as a meeting point of composite layers of fiction, as a space of emphasized temporality, and the film, like an aleph, seems to concentrate in one point and reflect the projections of time – past, present and future. The idea of the film develops by exploring the relationships between man, time and the spatial environment, place and memory, engaging the relations of the past and present. It is not the usual adaptation of the literary template but a form of visual translation. In that way the contemplation of the idea of time, memory and the past – functions as a narrative construction subject to individual negotiations.
Unfolding the referential spaces of film and video as working methods, during the research process on the creation of a new audiovisual piece, is Matija Debeljuh’s usual practice used in previous works as well as in “The study for Scaffold”. The result is most often a fragmentarily structured work in which the artist presents and reveals the intention and atmosphere of the future work, using a public presentation to open an insight into the research path and various phases of the work process during the realization of the work of art or film as a work-in-progress.
The central part of the exhibition is structured around the scaffolding pipes and tubes delineating the gallery space and serving as a physical and symbolic construction that gives support to the video installation including different viewing devices (monitor, projection).They present film/video excerpts hinting at the atmosphere of the work and are directed to the representation of the space constructing the poetic architecture of the work, before all the interiors and the landscape. In that way short videos are structured as digressions, sketches of short non-narrative forms, demonstrating the states and atmosphere within the given space of film fiction, thus devoid of a dramaturgic function but impregnated with subjective potential. Following up are objects collected in a glass cabinet – a notebook, drawings, sketches or props that Matija exposes as his little wunderkammer.
curated by Branka Benčić
Matija Debeljuh was born on 14th April, 1980 in Pula. He graduated in Visual Communications Design – Video Formatting at the Art Academy in Split.
In 2003 he represented Croatia at the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean. So far he has exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions.
He took part in numerous workshops in Croatia and abroad, among which the Sarajevo Talent Campus, the project Sarajevo Grad Filma and the Berlinale Talent Campus stand out. Matija Debeljuh’s experimental films and video works have been shown on international festivals where they won significant awards. Filmography/videography: K51, La cantina di ferro, Opsesija (Obsession), Contrada, Grad od čelika (Steel city), Gubilište (Scaffold) (in production).
translated by Iva Štekar
back to exhibitions