In her art practice, Neža Knez is concerned with crossing the boundaries between art and everyday life in a way that encourages the viewer to start thinking differently about the world. Her works, which emerge from this practice, attempt to break through the self-evident nature of ordinary life and show “something in between” and thus act as a kind of incision into daily life, opening up possibilities for a new and different view of the world.

In recent years, the artist has devoted herself to an extensive project, which she is presenting in the gallery spaces in segments. The starting point of the project are the creative workshops in which she reflects together with children on today’s world, on its advantages and disadvantages, and the solutions that could possibly change it for the better. She transforms the ideas born in the workshops into artworks (objects, installations or videos) and presents them in the gallery, where the viewers add to them with their imagination and thus co-create “other realities”, fictional worlds of sorts that try to represent reality as children perceive it through adult eyes. From the video material created during the project, the artist will create an experimental documentary feature film, which is expected to conclude the project in 2023.

The central theme of the project is the exploration of the different ways of perceiving and understanding the world that take place in the relationship between adults and children. In various ways, the artist confronts adults with children’s views of the world and follows how they react to them, deal with them, try to empathise with them, etc. Within this framework, she also addresses more general themes such as the relationship between different levels of reality, crossing the boundaries between reality, fiction and the imaginary, exploring interactions and communication in a particular space and time, etc. She approaches these themes through film language, experimenting with transitions between documented and acted elements, expression and articulation, amateur and professional subjects of performativity, etc., as well as exploring the possibilities of animation.

In the exhibition at Hiša kulture, the artist presents part of the project in the form of a multimedia installation dramaturgically adapted to the specifics of the gallery space. The gallery, which consists of three interconnected rooms, can be entered through two entrances, into the first or last room, and the exhibition is structured in such a way that it can be read differently from each direction. If the viewer enters through the first room, he is faced with the child’s view of the world; if he enters through the last room, he is confronted with the created worlds of the imagination. Both rooms are dramaturgically connected by the middle, where reality and fiction, inspiration and creation, potential and realisation meet …

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Neža Knez (1990) earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She regularly exhibits at home and abroad, and has received several awards for her work. Her accolades include the Prešeren Award from the University of Ljubljana (2015), the Golden Press Award for Innovative Approaches in Printmaking (2015), the Summa Cum Laude Award for her master’s thesis (2017) and the OHO Group Award (2018). She furthered her knowledge during artist residencies in New York and at the WHW Academy in Zagreb. She currently lives and works in Zagreb, where she is studying video art in the RESTART programme.