Gaia Radić
Chora
Curated by
Maja Burja
Exhibition
2–24 October 2024
Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana
Opening
WED, 2 October at 7 PM
Part of U30+ production programme for supporting young artists
With her immersive video installation Chora, artist Gaia Radić introduces a new chapter in the body of virtual worlds that perform as perceptual narratives and transform the spaces they inhabit into autopoietic worlding systems.
In Chora, the space waits in stillness for a visitor. Upon their arrival, a split point of view emerges within the expansive virtuality. Through two opposing apertures, a geological terrain, seemingly unbound by any specific site, begins to unfold. The world, comprised of interconnected lagoons, appears to overflow with an ethereal primordial liquid, keeping the space in constant flux.
This steady stream guides the visitor’s eye along the creased topology that is, in turn, slowly winding its way through the viewer as well. In this encounter, the viewer’s perceptual organs become channels through which the space reflects upon itself. Chora both shapes and is shaped by its material host and realises its generative potential when the physical and virtual realms meet through the viewer’s perception.
The heterotopic space functions as a sieve where one world is reflected and refracted into another, producing a self-referential reality that continually reforms itself. For as soon as self-formulation begins, dissipation follows. When the viewer leaves, the landscape settles, and Chora returns to its dormant state until the arrival of a new body.
THE AUTHOR
Gaia Radić is a new media artist working with computer graphics and spatial installation. She holds a BA in Sculpture from the Academy in Rijeka. Currently, she is pursuing her master’s studies in Video, Animation and New Media as well as studying architecture at the University of Ljubljana. She has exhibited in many solo exhibitions and over thirty group shows across Croatia and Slovenia and was the recipient of the ERSTE Award at the 36th Youth Salon in Zagreb.
THE CURATOR
Maja Burja is a curator and producer of new media art. Her work is characterised by a critical engagement with emerging and obsolete technology and an interest in cybernetics, metafiction and emergent gameplay. She has curated and produced several art exhibitions and projects, artist residencies, lectures, workshops, meetups and festivals. She has been collaborating regularly with Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory since 2018 and Aksioma since 2022.
CREDITS
Author: Gaia Radić
Curator and author of the text: Maja Burja
Music and sound: Gašper Torkar
Technical assistance: Oskar Kandare
Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2024
Part of the U30+ production programme for supporting young artists
Financial support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana and The Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Thanks: Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory, Projekt Atol Institute, Andrej Škufca
The final projection was rendered in cooperation with the Czech National Supercomputing Center IT4Innovations, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava.
Končna projekcija je bila upodobljena v sodelovanju s Češkim nacionalnim superračunalniškim centrom IT4Innovations, VSB – Tehniška univerza v Ostravi.