ISIDORA TODORIĆ: WE DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

>> The exhibition will open on Thursday 6 April 2023 at 6 p.m. 

>> Curators: Lana Praprotnik in Jernej Kožar

Isidora Todorić’s first solo exhibition, We Dogs Go to Heaven, is conceptualised as a spatial installation. Bringing together some of the artist’s older works, which now interact in a new way, the installation is adjusted for the space of Gallery Ravne. The carefully selected set of material signifiers is united in the rejection of anything digital, transporting us to a mysterious world we can only enter with the help of the artist’s ability to convey imagination and her own intuition. We Dogs Go to Heaven addresses themes ranging from zoology and botany, through history and linguistics, to the superficial banality of our culture. The viewer can experience the exhibition as a medium, or perceive it as an entrance to a canine paradise.

Islands of salt on the floor are scattered throughout the space like outposts, inviting the visitor to move and observe, both up close and from afar. The various 3-D paintings can be read as surreal fantasies with hints of nostalgia, or just as a purely visual experience of materials and textures. To the latter we are led through the artist’s use of mostly natural materials and found objects; salt, earth, water, branches, sprouting potatoes and dead butterflies. Everything, with the exception of the vintage closet and the frog sculpture, which was made as a cast of an iconic kindergarten rubbish bin, was created without the involvement of human hands.

In the installation, Isidora Todorić describes the mysterious forces of nature; the processes of decay and change, drawing attention to the inexhaustible source of life in our natural and man-made environment. At the centre of her interest are natural processes that unfold independently of man. The continuous formation of salt crystals and the spontaneous emergence of life in the aquarium are a testament to this. The setting of the aquarium in an antique closet acts as a key to understanding the whole and presents itself as the central object of the exhibition. Illuminated by LED lights and accompanied by music of the artist’s personal choice, the closet functions as a portal to another world, where in the process of decay, new life is being born.

The title of the installation, We Dogs Go to Heaven, is a word-play and refers to the 1989 cartoon of the same title, All Dogs Go to Heaven. A Hollywood musical fantasy with elements of crime fiction, it tells the story of a dog named Charlie, who descends to Earth from Heaven to avenge his own death.

The cartoon takes us on a journey to a world beyond our presence, questioning our own conceptions of life, death and existence in between. Similarly, the landscape created by Isidora Todorić presents an ambiguous space; an indefinite and indeterminate vestibule world, where souls wander for all eternity. With a touch of humour, the artist replies that after entering the interspace of our existence, there is no reason to be afraid, because we are all dogs and we all go to heaven.

Isidora Todorić (1995) graduated in 2020 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, majoring in Video and New media. She is currently continuing her studies at the postgraduate course in Sculpture and Contemporary Art Practices at the same institution. Her works display a subtle attitude towards different materials and an in-depth study of various sculptural techniques.

With Isidora Todorić’s exhibition at the Ravne Gallery, we continue a series of exhibitions we started in 2020, in which emerging young artists present their works for the first time. In 2022, for the fourth time in a row, the Ravne Gallery, in cooperation with the Club of Koroška Students (KKŠ) and the Koroška Youth Cultural Centre Complex (KMKC Kompleks), organised the visual art competition “Koroška, who are you?” The prize is awarded for high-quality and innovative artworks created in the last two years. The main prize is a solo exhibition at the Ravne Gallery.

In 2019, Monika Plemen was selected as the winner of the competition. She presented her works the following year in a solo exhibition entitled MON. In 2020, Anastazija Pirnat presented her paintings under the exhibition title I can’t say anything just like that. The winner of the competition in 2021 was Daša Vinšek, who together with Karin Vrbek presented her exhibition THE TRANSIENT, The Soul Mirror and Void Gatherer Chronicle in the Ravne Gallery.