NSFW/Svilova
NSFW/Svilova
ProjectStargazing Through Barbed Wire
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"We are among the very last to have witnessed the night sky with only real, glitching stars, before our orbit became diluted with technology. Unimaginable pollution of machines. Hidden satellites, indefinable on the horizon, monitor us from above, concealed... as we pray for redemption... hidden machines, masked as stardust, lurking like cracks in the foundation, hiding in the walls of a lost highway motel room, embedded in families’ DNA, in the estate agent’s smirking face, and in the neighbor’s brief hello. It is hiding everywhere, in every detail. Hiding in every politician’s TV appearance, in algorithms, in every song written —hiding like sugar in a Sichuan takeout. Hiding in our ignorance and shame. Since it was us, ourselves, who scorched the sky. In our fear and guilt, we seek solace and forgiveness while smoking a cigarette, stargazing through barbed wire."

In this presentation, Slobodan Živić operates at the threshold of presence and past, engaging with materiality as both substance and memory. Drawing on his Slavic maternal ancestry and craft-works, his practice evokes a sense of emotional mercy for the artist. This exhibition dissolves the boundary between painting and sculpture; his interventions suggest the presence of progress, showing that even the most static surfaces hold traces of movement. Slobodan’s practice is one in which materials are not merely manipulated but fundamentally altered, leaving behind an index of controlled distortion. This particular direction reflects a search within dissonance itself.

  • Opening: Wed–Fri 13–17, Saturday 12–15 hrs or by appointment.
  • Location: Vasa Kyrkogata 5, Gothenburg.
  • Slobodan Živić (b. 1976) was born and raised in Norrköping and currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. His practice revolves around unorthodox experimentation and cross-disciplinary methods. Živić frequently revisits ready-made techniques, blending various media as he pushes the boundaries of materiality. His artistic approach explores and suggests a relationship between the perceived qualities of transformation and destruction. The often irregularly pierced, double-layered aesthetic of his object-like works evokes the presence of concealed messages. He focuses on the complexity of social structures, perception, and technology—deciphering his personal experience through a dual heritage,viewing identity and cultural hybridity from the perspective of being both Swedish and Serbian.