Jelena Lovrec: "Who's Cutting Your Hair

From the Inner to the External: Reflections of a Life as a Reflection of a Work Jelena Lovrec's latest exhibition project has once again placed her personal experience in its focus, which, interwoven with the private, once again speaks about the issues of artistic expression, the transformability of the media, but also the complexity of the connection between life and art. On the other hand, the project also included some strong features of her work and character, where ... Read More

From the Inner to the Outer: Reflections of a Life as a Reflection of a Work

Jelena Lovrec's latest exhibition project has once again placed her personal experience in its focus, which, intertwined with the private, once again speaks about the issues of artistic expression, the transformability of the medium, but also the complexity of the relationship between life and art. On the other hand, the project also included some strong features of her work and character, where creative versatility, a certain inconstancy, curiosity and a stubborn effort not to be tied to one medium, once again found their safe place in the whole process.
The space completely concentrated in the presentation of twelve small, at first glance surprising and even slightly frightening 'sculptures', testifies to a period in the artist's life. In her relationship at the time, she cut her partner's hair every few months, then stored the cut hair in bags. Each of them was given a corresponding date at that time, and the earliest one also marked the beginning of the same relationship, which began precisely – with the act of cutting. The idea was, as the author herself says, to follow the course of the relationship, its trajectories and changes, and the hair itself, due to its growth, she adds, is a suitable mechanism in understanding and becoming aware of the idea of time.
The action of shortening the hair and collecting it lasted from 2012 to 2016, becoming a feature and record of a cycle, a period of life, that is, a relationship. The formal shaping of the small balls was conditioned only by the treatment of the closure of an individual bag and the strength with which the excess air was squeezed out, leaving each of them intact, and again 'liberated' on the opening day of this exhibition. Each ball is of different size, shape and even color, and it has created its sculptural identity independently and in the process of independent living.
And it is precisely the fact of natural growth, development and constant change that is the common point that the twelve presented artifacts share with life itself, and thus with the intimate relationship between two people. These two components are obviously present to us as viewers and related to each other by their dates. At first glance, quite clearly, with a story that we understand and witness, but on the other hand – completely hidden, known only to two people. Their witnesses of existence, in twelve different manifestations, address us with this exhibition, offering us a new story, created through the artistic process.

Martina Bratić

BIOGRAPHY

Jelena Lovrec was born in 1989 in Zagreb. In 2008, she graduated from the School of Applied Arts and Design and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the same year. She graduated in 2014 in the class of Prof. Robert Šimrak at the Department of Graphic Arts, with honors cum Laude. She is the winner of the Academy Commendation for Achievement in 2008/2009, the ESSL Art Award (2013), the Vienna Insurance Group Award – Junge kunst aus CEE (2013) and the Special Commendation at the 33. Youth Salon (2016).
She has had four solo exhibitions: Still Life/Still Alive, SC Gallery, Zagreb (2016); In English, Please!, Vladimir Filakovac Gallery, Zagreb (2015); Buffet, Zlati Ajngel Gallery, Varaždin (2014); On Knowledge, Ignorance and Other Stubbornness, Inkubator Gallery, Zagreb (2013). In addition to her solo exhibitions, she has exhibited in group exhibitions, of which the following stand out: Youth Salon, HDLU, Zagreb (2016); T-HTnagrada@msu.hr, MSU, Zagreb (2015); International Exhibition of Graphics, Vetrinjski dvor, Maribor (2014); Erste Fragments X, HDLU, Zagreb (2014); VIG special invitation – Junge kunst aus CEE, Vienna (2014); ESSL ART AWARD CEE, Essl Museum, Vienna (2013); ESSL ART AWARD CEE, MSU, Zagreb (2013). Since 2015, she has been a member of the Croatian Association of Artists.

Contact: lovrecj@gmail.com