Tuning with #1: Simsalabim

We invite you to the introductory event of Tuning With, a conversation series co-created by the Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana and the Šum platform. Designed as a hybrid format—merging lecture, roundtable, and open discussion—the series seeks to explore, reflect on, and reframe selected phenomena in contemporary art. Invited speakers will offer diverse perspectives and present interpretive proposals informed by the creative and theoretical frameworks that shape their work.

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Simsalabim as architecture, as stage direction, and as visual art: Dorian Šilec Petek, Gaia Radić, and Luka Savić will each tune into the work of Ištvan Išt Huzjan from three different perspectives.

Simsalabim (2010); object, performance. One hundred plaster casts of Icelandic magmatic rock (dimensions: 12 × 11 × 10 cm, weight: 250 g) were deposited by Ištvan Išt Huzjan in the vault of a bank majority-owned by the Republic of Slovenia between 11 and 14 June 2010. This performative gesture of inserting the work into the context of the financial system raised questions of value, accessibility, and institutional trust. It was followed by an advertisement in the newspaper Delo, in which the artist disclosed the vault’s contents and the intended use of the exhibition budget. The project concluded with an exhibition at the Mala galerija, which at the time operated under the auspices of Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana.

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Luka Savić is an artist and philosopher, born in 1990 in Ljubljana. He studied visual art at AVA and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. In 2022, he earned a master’s degree from the TransArts department at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He has exhibited across Europe (including at Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Arte Fiera Polis, the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts, ŠKUC and DLUL galleries in Ljubljana, Vienna Contemporary, Light Night Leeds, Kunsthalle Wien, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris...). He has lectured at several European institutions, focusing primarily on the intersection of art and philosophy. He has published numerous articles and interviews, most recently with Mladen Dolar, Aleksandra Vajd, Vid Simoniti, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Tom Lovelace, and others. He is currently researching the OHO group as an independent researcher for the Kontakt Collection and teaches at AVA in Ljubljana.

In 2023, Gaia Radić completed her undergraduate studies in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rijeka. She is currently a graduate student in Video, Animation, and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, and also studying architecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana. So far, she has exhibited in ten solo and more than thirty group exhibitions in Croatia and Slovenia — including at the Karas Gallery in Zagreb, the 63rd Poreč Annale, and the Kortil Gallery in Rijeka. She collaborates regularly with the curatorial collective KUĆĆA from Zagreb and has also worked with the Institute for Contemporary Art Aksioma in Ljubljana, the UR Institute in Dubrovnik, and the Metamedij Association in Pula. She is the recipient of the second Erste Prize at the 36th Youth Salon and was a finalist for the Golden Watermelon 6.0 award for young artists. She is the youngest member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists.

Dorian Šilec Petek is a theatre-maker working as a director and set designer. His projects explore the structures of power and the shaping of the present. In his upcoming productions, he focuses on understanding the world beyond the human subject. Dorian has directed performances at various Slovenian theatres, including the Slovenian National Theatre Drama Ljubljana, the Ljubljana City Theatre, and the Prešeren Theatre Kranj. As a set designer, he has worked internationally at venues such as ASU Gammage in Arizona, Z-Space in San Francisco, the Basel Opera House, and the Watermill Center in New York. His work has been presented at Triennale di Milano (IT), FLARE - Festival of Radical Theatre (UK), Istropolitana Theatre Festival (SK), the Borštnik Theatre Festival (SI), BITEF (SRB), Operadagen Rotterdam (NL), Music Theatre Now, and the Watermill Center, New York (USA). He has collaborated with artists including Árpád Schilling, Silviu Purcărete, Paola Prestini, Robert Wilson, and others.

With the support of the Ministry of Culture and the City of Ljubljana.

Production: Moderna galerija and ŠUM (Association Gallery Boks)