Supported by the Marignoli di Montecorona Foundation and curated by Michele Drascek, a previous resident in Spoleto with the Anna Mahler Association, the Slovenian Pavilion of the 56th Biennale di Venezia presented an offsite performance in Spoleto’s Piazza Mercato. The project title embraces the core of JAŠA’s aim to create an artwork as both a poetic stance and a dynamic, politicised presence. The work in Venice is conceived as a spatial installation and on-site durational performance that binds the artist, his collaborators and the public together for the duration of the Biennale.

As an extension of the project at the Venice Biennale, JAŠA conducted an off-site performance in Piazza Mercato in collaboration with the Spoleto based choir Canto Ergo Sum, conducted by Mauro Presazzi. It intertwined JAŠA’s performative interventions and the choirs repeated singing of “Togetherness”, a song composed and written for the project UTTER / the violent necessity for the embodied presence of hope by Bowrain and JAŠA.

JAŠA (Mrevlje-Pollak) was born in Ljubljana in 1978. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice and has since been a unique presence in Europe’s artistic landscape. He is one of Slovenia’s most prolific and influential contemporary artists, driven by his distinctive interpretations of situation, narrative, sculpture and performance; an artist who transforms spaces into experiences and propels them toward their poetic potential.

Michele Drascek is curator of the Slovenian Pavilion and a previous curator in residence with the Anna Mahler Association. He is also the Chief Curator of Projects at The Marignoli di Montecorona Foundation whose generous support made this event possible.