FEM i NEM

FEM i NEM is an exhibition by artist Irena Kovač that explores the role of art in the post-digital era. Kovač uses collage as her primary form of expression, bringing together elements from different realities to create new valuations. Her work includes photomontage and photorealism, and she juxtaposes drawings with oil paintings to create striking compositions. The exhibition features themes such as womanhood, family, body, play, humor, dream, freedom, and color, all woven together in a narrative that is both playful and emancipated. Kovač’s work invites viewers to consider the freedom of choice and the influence they have on their lives. The exhibition offers a gushing narrative that emits a charming atmosphere of the good old times, with interconnected details hinting at a whole that is dependent on the observer’s perspective. Life is a movie we direct, and art is a game of chance, and FEM i NEM is an invitation to play.

All the books have been written, all the symphonies have been composed, all the paintings done and all the plays performed. Our thousands years old world is a landfill of culture and information. It is a delusion to believe that art today can still influence the conscious mind like it was able to do in the pre-digital era. Every thought, every image, every word we use most likely already has a certain number of views on Google.
Under such circumstances, what do we expect from art? Esthetic perception is an integral part of man’s experience of reality. If a work of art has amore or less strong influence on the observer, despite of everything previously seen, lived and known, it will surelybenefit their spiritual development, enhance communication and contribute to world peace.
Irena Kovač is a member of the generation of artists of the post-digital era. She is familiar with all the terms at her disposal – the accessibility, technological maturity, economic bipolarity and social polyphony of the age in which she is living and working. She’s chosen collage as her supreme form of expression, which is important for reviewing her work not just in terms of technique but also conceptually. In this process, elements not belonging to the same reality are placed into a joint context with the aim of establishing new valuational relations. The author uses the art medium in the same way, juxtaposing the impeccable line of the drawings with the perfectly polished surface of the oil paintings. Photomontage andphotorealism areonly a question of her choice, for she employs both skillsfantastically. Words can be ideas or sounds, depending on the artist’s will. This brings us to the very essence of her work, which refers to the freedom of choice and to understanding life and, finally, to the influence we are realizing in it.
In the terms of our age, the keywords (hashtags) in Irena Kovač’s compositions are: woman, family, body, play, humor, dream, freedom, color. The author mixes them all in an exquisite montage,which turns into a gushing narrativewhose irresistibly attractive atmosphere emits an emancipated flavor of the good old times.
There is no conclusion, thoughts follow one another, interconnected like honey combs, details hinting at the whole which is dependent on the perspective of the observer. Life is a movie we direct, art is a game of chance, the exhibition is open.

KsenijaMarinković