Irena Lagator Pejović

works

Nets, Nodes, Horizons

2020 –
process oriented, interactive installation

hand-made spools of 14m long multi-coloured threads, nodes, metal nets

a workshop at the dismantling of installation providing working hours for people in need
105x620 cm

Exhibitions/Venues/Courtesies:

- Night in Montenegro and Other Stories, Art gallery “Miodrag Dado Đurić“, 13. November salon, National Museum, Cetinje, Montenegro Curated by Petar Ćuković, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Photo of the installation: Lazar Pejović

- Art at Work. At the Crossroads Between Utopianism and (In)Dependence, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), Ljubljana, Slovenia. Curated by Zdenka Badovinac, Ana Mizerit, Bojana Piškur, Igor Španjol, 2022-23. Courtesy of the artist; Modern Gallery, Ljubljana, in cooperation with No Border Craft. A workshop at the dismantling of installation presented at the MG+MSUM web_museum. Photo of the installation: Irena Lagator Pejović, Dejan Habicht / Moderna Galerija Ljubljana

- Irena Lagator Pejović, Expanses of Love, Art Gallery „Nadežda Petrović”, Čačak, Serbia, curated by Patrycja Rylko and Julka Marinković, 2023. Courtesy of the artist; Modern Gallery, Ljubljana, in cooperation with No Border Craft; Art Gallery “Nadežda Petrović”. Photo of the installation: Ivan Petrović, Irena Lagator Pejović

The work Nets, Nodes, Horizons is an arrangement of a multitude of hand-made coloured yarn balls. One of their thread ends is attached to the nets hanging on the wall, while the other is free and intended for visitors’ interaction.

By extracting the individual coloured threads towards the depth of the exhibition space, the visitors participate in the process of unwinding the ball, establishing a direct-physical connection with the work and material, modifying it and making visible its background – the net. The participation of the audience in creating the visibility of the idea of coloristic and inclusive horizon activates the thought about both, about the broader and the narrower context in which the work is being created: today’s global environmental, social and political unrest, but also the social and cultural context of everyday life. What is exhibited here is our common labor. It becomes a lived-through experience and a document of testimony that our development and action on the planet depend on our collective and shared responsibility.

The work also initiates thinking about collaborative forms of creation, pointing to us the potential of recognizing the intricacies and complexities of the present moment, in the hope that precisely this act of making visible how things are can trigger the strategies of togetherness, collectivity and solidarity during ongoing health, economic, natural and political crises.

After the exhibition closes, in cooperation with the host institution, I hire hired workers to put the threads back into the ball and prepare the installations for the next exhibition together with me. With this act, I am developing a real model of an alternative economy for unemployed people, while proposing a dialogue about the urgent political relevance of art, which would have a critical and corrective role in the relationship between politics and society. I implemented the first such model of support for citizens after the exhibition Art at Work. At the Crossroads Between Utopianism and (In)Dependence, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), Ljubljana, and second workshop was held after the exhibition Expanses of Love. (Irena Lagator Pejović)