Opening the series is curator Marko Jenko, PhD, who has chosen sculptor Dušan Tršar’s light objects.

“In 2017, I staged a version of Dušan Tršar’s retrospective in collaboration with the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica na Krki. Moderna galerija has a number of his works from various stages in his artistic career in its collection. Undoubtedly the most fascinating are his light objects from the 1970s, made of Plexiglas, other plastic materials and neon tubes, which he later abandoned, along with reducing colors. I remember the stunning effect produced by the light objects – they really cannot be described as sculptures in the traditional sense of the term − when they were first all lit up in the darkened exhibition room. Pure magic. There is an interesting link between Tršar’s drawings that seem to be moving within themselves and his objects, which sometimes appear as 3D renderings of drawings. In the 1970s, Tršar’s objects were unquestionably highly novel in socialist Yugoslavia, yet they remain anchored in the basic tenets of sculpture and also painting: the base, the frame that at times transforms into a box containing the movement of light. Like a 3D painting. Which is typical – after all, the borders between media blurred in the 20th century. Perhaps our fascination here is even more primal: the object I put in the middle of the exhibition space looked like fire – like the mesmerizing flicker of flames. When I had occasion to present our local art to colleagues in a major foreign museum, I showed them this video. Their reaction was: ‘You had this… in Yugoslavia?’ We did. So much for preconceived notions.”