Arjan Pregl: 120 days of Arjan Pregl

Fimo modeling mass, 2011/12

Dimensions: diameter of approx. 8 cm (120 pieces), 240 sheets (29.7 x 21 cm)

Arjan Pregl’s art project attempts to deal with the quandaries of measuring and recording upon which the contemporary consumer society is based. In his project he recorded his daily activities over a period of four months and then used these records to create visual materials – colour paintings that are similar to round rainbows. Numerous corporations started hiring advisors for people in management positions. These advisors try to help the management personnel organise their working hours. This efficiency measuring appears to be benevolent help, but in reality it represents an effective form of control over an individual.  Pregl's art project reveals the dilemmas behind today's belief in the measurability and rational time management. 

Renata Salecl

240 sheets of paper – half of them represent the records as to how the days have passed, the rest are calculations and graphs – represent a reality series somewhere between a record and a sketch. These were used as a base when creating small paintings from Fimo, pieces that instantly remind one of a token and thus an object that is a part of the exchange system. Similar to the great modernists, he also brings the paintings-tokens into his most intimate life experiences and changes them into colours and shapes. The records and graphs 'scientifically prove' that life has actually been transformed into painting.  At times the colours and shapes of the paintings-tokens emerge spontaneously and are defined by the artist's subjectivity, while every now and then Pregl leans upon tradition and creates a parallel to George de La Tour, the red series by Metka Krašovec, the layering of Andrej Jemec or the colour combinations of Neo Geo.

Petja Grafenauer

English translation: Sunčan Stone

______________________________

Arjan Pregl was born on 5 July 1973, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 1998 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana under professors Metka Krašovec and Bojan Gorenec. Following his graduation he enrolled in the Painting post-graduate course at the same Academy, this time studying under Professor Bojan Gorenec. He spent his final semester at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA and obtained an MA in painting in 2001. Following his first MA he enrolled into the Printmaking postgraduate course at the same Academy, where he received his second MA in 2004, this time under Professor Lojze Logar. He currently lives and works in Brussels, where he is active as a painter, printmaker, illustrator, designer and writer.

The work of Arjan Pregl combines three key elements: relation to art history, humour and political engagement. In his work these three elements most commonly meet and find their expression in the field of painting.