Ivana Pipal: What and how, and rarely why

"Gestalt therapy, developed in the 1940s by Fritz Perls and his wife Laura, is an existentialist and phenomenological approach based on the assumption that people should be understood in the context of their permanent relationship with the environment. The initial goal of therapy is to make the client aware of what he feels and does. The approach is phenomenological, because it is focused on the experience of a person's reality, and existentialist, because it is based on the idea of ... Read More

"Gestalt therapy, developed in the 1940s by Fritz Perls and his wife Laura, is an existentialist and phenomenological approach based on the assumption that people should be understood in the context of their permanent relationship with the environment. The initial goal of therapy is to make the client aware of what he feels and does. The approach is phenomenological, because it is focused on the experience of a person's reality, and existentialist, because it is based on the idea that people are constantly in the process of becoming, re-creating and rediscovering themselves. The approach is experiential in that clients grapple with what and how they think, feel and do. The emphasis is on the current event, not the content of what the person says. Perls argues that an individual's behavior in the present moment is much more important for understanding themselves than answering the question of why they act in a certain way. One of the therapist's roles is to design experiments and create an atmosphere in which the client tries new ways of being."

Gerald Corey
from the book: Theory and Practice of Psychological Counseling and Psychotherapy

Through the exhibition What and How, and Rarely Why, Ivana Pipal presents works created through the process of questioning human relationships, feelings and actions, trying to discover a visual formula that could facilitate and simplify the understanding of emotional processes that occur to different people in various situations.

In these works, Ivana combined her need to create art that encourages social change with her curiosity towards psychotherapy as one of the paths to a more authentic life. Exploring her emotions, states and relationships, she created a series of paintings that invite the observer to carefully, patiently and openly observe their own inner world, as well as the way in which it can encounter the inner world of the other. From a psychological perspective, her works are designed to provide a wide space for projection. They invite the observer to give them their own meaning and become aware of their emotional reactions; to find something that is familiar from their own experience, something that is interesting, stimulating, or intriguing, even when it is unpleasant or confusing at the same time. By encouraging awareness of everything that makes up our inner experience, Ivana's works create an opportunity for a new encounter with oneself and with others.

Dea Ajduković
psychologist

BIOGRAPHY

Ivana Pipal is a visual artist who works through various media, illustration, animation and comics, art book, installation and video. She graduated in Animated Film and New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb. She stood out by publishing her
the first book "The Story of Aunt Mandi" (publisher 2×2), which received recognition with the Rector's Award of the University of Zagreb, and was awarded by the City of Zagreb for the best achievements in the field of literary creativity in 2013. She has exhibited at several group exhibitions in Zagreb, London, Belgrade and Munich, and has presented herself with several solo exhibitions in Zagreb and Split. She has published comics and illustrations in several Croatian magazines, and presented her video works at festivals and television. She participates in the creation of the informal, artistic collective 'SF Lovers' that combine art and science. In 2015, she was presented as an illustrator at the exhibition Guest Country at the Children's Book Festival in Bologna.

Contact: ivana.pipal@gmail.com
Website: ivanapipal.blogspot.com