2015 » Slovenia » Student Section

Silent Storm

The composition of steel panels provokes the visitor to re-create the sound of a storm. The movement of the panels is reflected in the mirrors, forming an infinite chain of reactions and questioning our ability to manage our own actions and reactions.

English painter J. M. W. Turner painted many pictures exploring the effects of an elemental vortex. In his painting Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth from 1842, there is a steam-boat at the heart of the vortex. In this context the vessel can be interpreted as a symbol of mankind’s futile efforts to combat the forces of nature. Painting arouses tension, expectation, anxiety and agitation and poses a question whether a man can combat something as powerful as weather? Can man combat something as powerful as politics?

We live in a world where changes happen at light speed and we react to every change according to a predetermined pattern that always dictates to us the same passive reaction without thought of the final result. This is the easiest way to feel safe without thinking about tomorrow. Our tolerance to negative situations is numbed, at the same time making us even more helpless when dealing with hopeless situations. What was unacceptable yesterday is acceptable today, because something worse awaits us tomorrow. We feel that we can’t change the current situation, but on the other hand, we don’t realize the power we have as individuals and as a society. Fear of change is leading us to a vicious circle of dissatisfaction. Only desperation is what leads a person to the limit and makes them react.

We want to provoke tension, anxiety and a need to react in visitors. Within the introverted wooden box, static steel panels hang from the ceiling in a still composition. As the visitor approaches they see a projection, making them anxious about its content. The video creates tension in the still composition, leaving one with no choice but to react by pounding the panels, which create a sound, a noise, an echo, the sound of a storm, music of chaos, a symphony of protest. Weather as well as politics creates tension, anxiety and change with its variability. By creating the sound of a storm, questions arise about affecting changes. Can I change the system? Are we able to change our society? Actions are reflected in the mirrors on the walls, creating a chain of reactions. It is the illusion of the changes that surround us, giving one the awareness that one is not alone, that one has the power to change, while at the same time including one in the space and time of the action and identifying the relationship between action and reaction.

The spatial installation was developed during the student workshop held in October 2014 at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana and organized in collaboration with the Slovenian Theatre Institute and Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. 33 students in 12 groups participated, each group with their own proposal questioning the perception, variability, illusion, tensions, intimacy, changes… associated with their interpretation of the weather, politics and music. Guest critics included renowned Slovenian theatre artists Meta Hočevar, Barbara Novakovič Kolenc, Žanina Mirčevska and Jasna Vastl. The intense process of the exchange of ideas was concluded with the selection of the final proposal.