The sculptures of Mirsad Begić Ljubljana focused, after he finished his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts [in Ljubljana], on exploring solitude, on immersimg himself into the artwork, and the intensification of sensual synthesis and identity. The underlying theme of Begić’s work in sculpture from the past 20 years is related to the spatial installation entitled Preserving Dreams in the former church of the Cistercian monastery in Konstanjevica na Krki, for which he received the country’s highest award, the Prešern Prize. With it, he established his characteristic ‘archaeological’ ambience, in which objects of human civilization are imprinted like sediments of time suspended between this life and the afterlife. Begić’s works were first combined and shown together with Tisnikar’s by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška for the extensive exhibition in the Zittadella Spandau Gallery in Berlin in 2001. The dialogue between the emphatically existential creativity of the sculptor and the already deceased painter was so powerful and exhilarating that it prompted the idea for the permanent collection Homage to Tisnikar. Since then, the collection has been enriched with works by other Slovenian and foreign artists of similar artistic sensibilities. Later, Begić also created the bronze memorial, stands in memory of Tisnikar in the main square of Slovenj Gradec, in the old town centre in front of the Museum. While designing the memorial, Begić also created a series of small clay drafts, the so-called bozzetti, which illustrate his study process.

Text: Marko Košan