ZEK (2012)
An exhibition of objects marking ZEK’s 11,8 year jubilee — Abandoned bomb shelter, Ljubljana / 2012
Wanna Seat? (2012)
holes in chair
Heads or Tails? (2012)
mixed media
Stag Party (2012)
horn, metal, cork and a bit of wine
What Right? (2012)
sheet metal
Space Jesus (2012)
mixed media with lobster
KEZ (2012)
mirror
Cream Cakes (2012)
granite
The Dark Reverend (2012)
wood, acrylic paint, polyester mini
Intergalactic, Planetary, Planetary, Intergalactic (2012)
Rotring 0.5mm on dark paper
Allen (2011)
polymer clay, acrylic paint / property of Sproščeni četrtek collection
Let Them Be (2012)
button
Scribble (2007)
scribble / with Martin Šoštarič
God Balls? (2012)
God’s balls on ceiling
CX (2012)
stainless steel, Sugino bolts
Multiply (2012)
print on foils / photo Vladimir & vladimir
The Matter of Space is Only a Matter of Time (2012)
iron zero point
Ψ (2011)
mixed media / with Martin Šoštarič & Andraž Tarman
Bricks (2012)
graphic series
Perfect Balance (2012)
acrylic paint on ferroconcrete
ZEK (2004)
mixed media
YOLO (2012)
tattoo
Was (2012)
stump, ghost / with Marko Marovt
19,69×19,69×19,69 (2012)
spray on canvas
Book Of Impressions (2012)
book, impressions
Bad (2012)
stamp, chain
Photos of the artworks by Tilen Sepič
Enfant terrible of the Slovenian design scene, the ZEK Crew, burrowing through the interspaces of contemporary art, street art and design, set up an exhibition in May 2012, a sort of a retrospect , marking their 11.8th jubilee. The works, displayed in a bunker, were crafted in a do-it-yourself fashion of artistic avant-gardes of the previous century.
Although the auratisaton of the group is just a euphemism for branding, this process cannot be repudiated, but, evidently, public visibility does not exclude quality of expression. So what do the conceptual jokers have in store this time around? The dramaturgy, linking the chambers of the bunker, which abounds with a new, uomo universale-like approach and a focus on three-dimensionality, once again reflects their elusiveness and perfectionism. Defined by clarity of surprisingly palpable ideas, bound into their own pop-internet era, they are poetic in tangibility and incorrigibly inclined to absurdity, the banal, vulgarity, cynicism, satire, irony, and verbal-visual witticisms. Whether a mark of superiority, a hedonistic experience, an outlet for the unconscious or a tool of sexual selection, humour sheds a personal light on the object, rendering it unequivocally familiar, cathartic, and often better than cautious argumentation. A socially specific phenomenon, it helps forge and enhance ties, but can equally be a source of tension in a communicative relationship. The incongruity between the expected and the real demands the immediate abandonment of typical roles and the conventional ways of thinking. The ZEK Crew insists on this humorously unhindered, but potentially subversive, Weltanschauung. Baldessari summarizes it best: They will not make any more boring art.
— Lara Plavčak
