Ivana Bašić / Metempsychosis: The Passion of Pneumatics

Metempsychosis: The Passion of Pneumatics

Spotlight about the Ivana Bašić’s new exhibition

From June 6th to September 1st, 2024, it will be possible to experience and take part in a vibrant and ever-changing universe within a space equally symbolic in its structure: the Schinkel Pavillon in Germany. Here, Ivana Bašić, with her exhibition and an unprecedented collection of works, brings to life a hybrid and fluid contemporary vision.

The exhibition “Metempsychosis: The Passion of Pneumatics”, located at the Schinkel building, is a journey of transformation and fluid metamorphosis, both of spaces and the very soul of the works themselves. This exhibition brings together an unprecedented collection of the artist’s work, comprising sculptures, drawings, videos, and infrastructures: there are around 20 new works, each connected to the others by a concept of bodily and material dissolution.

The creation of an artwork can be likened to a process of shaping and materialising lived experiences and inner worlds. In this case, the artistic endeavour is rooted in a landscape marked by destruction and human violence; the artist carries with her the emotional scars left by war. Ivana, currently based in New York, hails from Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, and with this project, she externalises the experience of having had to grow up quickly, of having to face a harsh reality that took away not only her childhood but also her homeland. Inner trauma and physical and mental collapse are not marked as the final stages of life, but quite the opposite: they are channelled and transformed into points of rebirth. Healing, laceration, resilience, immortality, life and death are indeed the cardinal points explored in “Metempsychosis: The Passion of Pneumatics”. This complex thematic core naturally evokes a sense of metamorphosis, and conjures up fluid, hybrid forms in the mind, far from rigid. The fusion of these seemingly contrasting worlds and the concept of transformation as a possibility of escape and salvation are meticulously represented, both from an exhibition and stylistic point of view.

The works are arranged in an octagonal space, where a near-dystopian atmosphere prevails; scientific colour schemes alternate with warmer, rosy hues typical of the organic and metamorphic realm. The space puts the observer in a state of heightened suggestiveness: the predominance of darkness is broken by lights focused on the works. The resulting effect, emphasised by the light tones of the materials, is an interruption and emergence from darkness, further highlighting the concept of rebirth.

A distinctive trait of the artist is her choice of entirely heterogeneous materials and her ability to unite them into a coherent material language. The visual impact is both soft and raw at the same time: the structures, of varying but consistently large scale, capture all those movements, pulses, and organic flows typical of human beings and organisms belonging to the subterranean world. One delves into a universe and ecosystem of hybrid beings, halfway between the human, the organic, the machine, and the insect.

Each sculpture carries with it an intimate and precise aura, derived from a clear inspiration; the interconnection of all these elements then constructs a thematic framework and a multifaceted perspective on the grand concept of rebirth. ‘I had seen the centuries, and the vast dry lands; I had reached the nothing and the nothing was living and moist (2018-2024)’ is a sculpture representing a hybrid form, part human, part machine, and part praying mantis (seen in Ancient Greek and Egyptian culture as a sacred symbol and guide in the afterlife).

The reference to the insect world thus not only alludes to the idea of the first form of life but also takes on a sacral and religious connotation, prompting reflection on the concept of post-mortem existence. Another sculpture, genderless, is immortalised in an act of creation and dissolution; the observer finds themselves in front of this not easily identifiable figure, which seems to be in a process of self-birth. This is ‘The Temptation of Being’.

The core element from which the title of the exhibition derives is, however, the large infrastructure and sculpture placed at the centre of a room. The reference and starting point is the Renaissance image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Here, the artist has interconnected milestones of religion with the contemporary and metamorphic essence of the exhibition. The structure consists of a central core and two large pneumatic hammers that rhythmically strike the central stone (a substitute for Mary’s heart). These two long rays recall the sunbeams present in the original depiction, and the pinnacle of the religious matrix, as well as the soul of the exhibition, is found in the essence of “Pneuma”, which in Greek means “spirit”, “breath”. The rhythm of the hammers is in fact paced by the artist’s breath, and drawing from the sacred matrix, it represents the purest and most profound symbol of life and birth.

The works described above are just an excerpt from the entire exhibition. As is evident, the artist has not limited herself to producing exhibition material, impressive for its chosen techniques, but has outlined a true path of reflection. The observer is enveloped by visual and conceptual stimuli that, consciously and unconsciously, trigger inner reasoning and stir existential questions. The exhibition leaves a mark, an imprint, from the very first glance: a lived experience is analysed, reworked, materialised, and relaunched in order to showcase the power of transformation. Ivana, with a contemporary and at times futuristic language, has moulded a form of resilience and vividly depicted what it means to face life and all that is connected to it.

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