PregradArt

Newly created concept of group exhibition of artists PregradArt unites two components that are essential for the development of a community’s cultural activity: preserving cultural heritage and encouraging artistic and creative creation;. Speciality of the group exhibition PregradArt It is based on the support of free expression of artists and creatives, and results in the creation of a platform for preserving, transferring and rediscovering the values that make us unique.

The exhibition consists of 22 works of different artistic disciplines and painting techniques whose common denominator is to show where we belong, what we feel and how important it is for us to be together and respectful of the tradition of Pregrada and Zagorje. Paintings, handicrafts, photographs together make up the visual identity of everyday life.

The exhibition is conceived as a combination of visual and ethnographic, and it calls for creative interpretation and reflection on its own role in preserving the cultural heritage of this region.

This is hommage Partitions and surrounding areas – the landscape of childhood, the life of our ancestors and the silence of tradition, our everyday life, but also a more peaceful future.

The most common motif is certainly the motif of nature and natural beauties of the Pregrada region. In the exhibited works, green horizons expand, the smells of the golden field are felt, the silence of the village is listened to. They are also a call to responsibility towards the preservation of nature, the world around us and of which we are a part. We recognise a touch of nature in pressed flowers and flower collages that act as a tactile link with the space outside the gallery – gardens, meadows, promenades. Fragments of nature are also illustrated in traditional techniques of decorating utility items, as well as in the presentation of the most famous partition autumn event: Brass picking. And the motif of the knit from the wire by which the vines are knit is an expression of belonging to the end, but also a call to care and coexistence with it. Another clear reference to the view of the city of Pregrada are the towers of the parish church, Zagorje cathedral, which clearly rise above the landscape. They invite us to stop, to look up and to become aware of where we belong.

The feeling of belonging is intense in works that are not only a visual experience, but encourage reflection by observing the intimacy of everyday life – the grandmother waiting for us on the threshold, the serenity of the first snow, the old wooden barn, Well-known street.

Each cadre encourages dialogue and awakens in us memories of our end. This is hommage Partitions and surrounding areas – the landscape of childhood, the life of our ancestors and the silence of tradition, our everyday life, but also a more peaceful future. In every detail, there is a need to preserve: preserving the stories that shaped the identity of our region, the language that carries our emotions, the customs that remind us who we are.

Foreword author:
Maja Laginja, univ. bacc. philol. angl. et hist. art.

Graphic design and fracture of the deplorable:
Dora Kolar, mag. art.