Polonca Lovšin develops her art production at the intersection of different ideas and practices so that her works encompass various media, are interdisciplinary and project-oriented. On the most general level, her work can be described as a transition between art and everyday life that aims to shake up established notions, beliefs and actions.

A brief overview of Polonca Lovšin’s work to date shows that her artistic output can be divided into periods of about five years. In the first (2000–2004), the artist focuses on exploring independent lifestyles and the mobility of the individual, which she later (2005–2009) extends to independent ways of generating energy from private to public space. In the third period (2010–2014), the artist combines all the components of her work into complex interdisciplinary and multimedia projects that involve in-depth research in collaboration with various institutions and experts, as well as the collaborative action of all those involved in the execution. In these projects, the artist combines her many years of research on how to make a (mobile) shelter, a dynamo, a water reservoir or food with simple means and basic knowledge into complex self-sufficiency systems that function independently of existing production systems and incorporate contemporary values such as high quality of life, sustainable development, environmental sustainability, etc. In this way, her work goes beyond the usual socio-critical scope of contemporary art, as she develops concrete practices that subversively impact the existing capitalist system without big words, manifestos or declarations. In the most recent period (2015–2021), the artist has expanded her social engagement into the realm of politics, as her works from this period often address the relationship between the public and the government, between different interest groups, communities and cultures, and the relationship between the West and the rest of the world. In this way, she adds a new dimension to her production by comprehensively presenting the various forms of interdependence, coexistence and cooperation in human society, in nature and between the two, as well as the need to strengthen these links in the face of climate change.

The exhibition in which the artist presents collages from the seriesSoil, Water, Garden, Freedom (2014), Everything’s Moving (2016), The Anthropocene (2016–2022), We Can’t See the Forest for the Trees (2019–2021) and Heat (2021) offers an insight into the most recent period of her work.

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Polonca Lovšin (1970) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture (1996) and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (2001), where she also completed her master’s degree (2005). In 2015, she completed her PhD in Fine Arts at the Bauhaus University Weimar. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, and has taken part in residencies in Europe, the UK and the USA. She is the recipient of the Golden Bird Award 2010 and the Rihard Jakopič Recognition Award 2018, she is co-founder of the artist association KUD Obrat, which organises spatially critical art interventions, research projects and public events. She lives and works in Ljubljana.
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