P L A T E AU R E S I D U E (plateau residue) is the imagined identity of an artist duo made up of Aljaž Celarc and Eva Pavlič Seifert. Their practice is concerned with landscape ecology and explores alternative ways of raising public awareness of environmental issues. Video installation is the artists' primary means of expression, through which they give voice to all participants and collaborators, as well as to natural forms such as rocks, air, organisms and other clusters of matter, reorganising them into new and unusual forms and systems.

In the exhibition at hand, they present a new work created in collaboration with a number of people and institutions. The piece consists of an object – a musical instrument – and video documentation on its production and use. This is an Aeolian harp, a 13-string instrument played by the wind. Named after Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of wind, the traditional Aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box with a soundboard and strings stretched lengthwise across two bridges. The instrument needs to be placed outdoors or near an open window, where the wind passes over the strings and produces sound. The harp shown in the exhibition is quite extraordinary. Its story begins in February 2023, when brothers Gorazd and Jani Kutin discovered sunken fir logs during the renovations of an old pond in Laze in Čadrg. The wood turned out to be approximately 6,500 years old, yet remarkably well preserved and suitable for production. In order to give the wood a new lease of life and ensure its long-term preservation, the Kutin brothers decided to use it to make various musical instruments (guitar, violin, lyre, flute, drum, etc.) and, in collaboration with P L A T E AU R E S I D U E, also an Aeolian harp. The ancient wood was used for the soundboard and for an inlay on the aerodynamic cover, which depicts a stylised landscape featuring a boat, forest, wind turbine and satellite.

The artist group, comprising the P L A T E AU R E S I D U E duo together with musicians Enja Grabjan and Samo Kutin, placed the instrument in the natural environment and recorded its sound, which can also be heard in the exhibition. This allowed the wind to become an active participant in shaping the soundscape of the Anima spirare project, through which the group responds to the construction of wind power plants in unspoilt locations in southern Slovenia.

Video: P L A T E AU R E S I D U E
Music: Enja Grabjan and Samo Kutin
Technical assistance and sound processing: Mauricio Valdes San Emeterio

Acknowledgements: PiNA, Enja Grabrijan, Samo Kutin, Jani Kutin, Gorazd Kutin, MSU Zagreb, Maurizio Valdes San Emeterio

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P L A T E AU R E S I D U E is an artist duo made up of Aljaž Celarc (born 1989; BA in Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana; MA in Photography, AKV St. Joost, the Netherlands) and Eva Pavlič Seifert (born 1989; BA in Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana; MA in Visual Culture, Aalto University, Finland). They have presented their work in numerous solo exhibitions, including at +MSUM Ljubljana (2018), the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMSU) in Rijeka (2021), the Museum of Contemporary Art Novi Sad (2021), Maribor Regional Museum (2022) and Mala galerija of Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana (2023), as well as in many group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. The duo live and work in the village of Novi Kot, nestled in the forested hinterland of Goteniška Gora and Snežnik. This is also where they are developing their ongoing life project, Hiša Mandrova.
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