OHO

1966–1971, Yugoslavia, now Slovenia

 

Mt triglav, 1968

8 mm fim na video, 4' 26''

camera: Naško Križnar

 

The living sculpture Triglav was installed on 30 December 1968 in the center of Ljubljana. The park was the location of numerous OHO actions and happenings in 1968. David Nez, Milenko Matanović and Drago Dellabernardina performed this action as a New Year gift to the citizens of Ljubljana. Triglav is the highest mountain in Slovenia and Slovene national symbol (it is also presented in the coat of arms of Slovenia). The work is pun on the mountain's name that literally means the Three-Head.

 

AMBIENCE IX

OHO

Group schooling in Čezsoča, 1970

Solar sculpture in Nova Gorica, 1970

 

DAVID NEZ

Cosmology, 1969

Simultaneous-symmetrical realization on two locations, 1970

Concept: The Moon sculpture, Tribuna XVIII / 12 (2. 4.1969)

 

ANDRAŽ ŠALAMUN

Night, bow, burning arrows, 1970

 

MILENKO MATANOVIĆ

Intercontinental group project America–Europe, 1970

Concept: Milenko Matanović will exhibit planet Earth, Tribuna XVIII / 12 (2. 4.1969)

The last exhibition, 1969

The constellation of the candles in the field corresponds to the constellation of the stars in the sky, 1970

Relation Sun – the Zarica Valley – Venus, 1970

 

MARKO POGAČNIK 

Intercontinental group project America–Europe, 1970

Medial systems, 1970

Magic steps, 1970

Multiplying a sign, 1970

Summer projects, 1969

editing Naško Križnar

Moderna galerija, 1970

editing Naško Križnar

The Šempas Family (1971–79)

Cycle of wheat, bread and compost, 1978

Concept of the Šempas community, 1977

The Šempas Family, a community, 1978

Vision of the developing new civilization of peace, 2006

Produced for the exhibition Arteast 2000+23 Collection, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana

 

The OHO Group, active from 1966 to 1971, were among the most interesting and important representatives of the avant-garde art of the 1960s in central and eastern Europe. In the few years of the group’s existence, its members and associates developed very different artistic strategies and approaches, from the co-called Reism (a concept of a non-anthropocentric world of “things”) to particular forms of Arte Povera, Process Art, Performance and Body Art, Land Art and Concept Art. In the last period of their work, the OHO members created an original combination of Concept Art, ecological concerns and esoteric theories, using such means as telepathy to achieve a balance between the group members themselves and harmony between them, nature and the whole universe. It is especially important that they did not merely accept the already existing art forms but developed original strategies or changed the existing models to fit their philosophy and their circumstances. The group’s Land Art projects are an especially clear example of such an attitude. A comparison with the American Earthworks clearly shows how the OHO projects are determined both by the ecological attitude of the group and specifics of the landscape. The interventions are usually small-scale, non-aggressive, temporary, and not involving heavy machines or complicated technology. Milenko Matanović’s project The Wheat and the String consists simply of a rope strung over a field and slightly bending the wheat. Nevertheless, this minimal intervention creates an emotionally intense picture with rich connotations. Another example is that of David Nez’s mirror installations in landscape, which were contemporary with Smithson’s Mirror Displacements.

 

OHO projects I, II, III, 1970

Group OHO, Marko Pogačnik (1944), Slovenia

 

Programmed wood, 1969

Group OHO, Marko Pogačnik (1944), Slovenija

Pine forest with 365 trunks, Aluminium stripes, Numeric program, Meja pri Kranju, summer projects

 

Wheat and rope, 1969

Group OHO, Milenko Matanović (1947), Slovenija

 

Mirrors, Summer projects, 1969

Group OHO, David Nez (1949), ZDA / USA

 

Environment, Galerija Doma Omladine Beograd, 1969

Group OHO, Andraž Šalamun (1947), Slovenia