DK: The Thorn

Ivan Grohar Gallery
27 January–20 March 2022

Exhibition curators: Katerina Mirović, Boštjan Soklič

The Ivan Grohar Gallery presents DK, a prominent Slovenian fine art photographer and a selection of his works from the iconic series of colour photographs titled The Thorn. In addition to the photographs, DK's original concept consists of a series of spatial artefacts (table football, preserved rubbish, cigarette butts, discarded cans, etc.) “borrowed” from the transitional years at the turn of the 21st century and transferred from the “cult” spaces in Ljubljana's AKC Metelkova (Metelkova Art Centre) area to the present-day exhibition venue. The Thorn series, produced by Strip Core/Forum Ljubljana in collaboration with the City Art Gallery Ljubljana as early in 2002, is on view in Škofja Loka for the first time. The artist’s conceptual story is based on documentary work spanning several years, i.e. his subjective historical documentation of the happenings at AKC Metelkova.

The Thorn, a figural cycle consisting of twenty large-format photographs, reveals the artist's lucid view of the events and protagonists of AKC Metelkova's very specific “underground” scene. Both the first and the second gallery rooms feature photographs of weary and intoxicated consumers of the nightlife in AKC Metelkova's clubs. The photographs are exhibited in wide frames, which symbolically illustrate the door to “a world of different perceptions”. As one-of-a-kind mental screens, they provide further insights into the obscure rituals of ordinary people on the fringes of society in their unusual psychophysical states – personified (yet also depersonalised) protagonists of the underground scene, self-alienation and emptiness (in a broader sociological context) without equal opportunities and dignity.