Ljubljana
MGML
The World According to Roger Ballen
© Matevž Paternoster/MGML

Jakopič Gallery

Slovenska cesta 9
1000 Ljubljana

T +386 1 42 54 096
T +386 1 24 12 500
E galerija.jakopic@mgml.si

Tuesday–Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Monday: Closed

1 January, 1 November, 25 December: Closed
24 and 31 December: 10. a.m.-2 p.m.

Adults: 5 €
Students, people over the age of 60, unemployed, people with disabilities: 3 €
Family ticket: 12 €
ICOM, PRESS, SMD, students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, VIST – Higher School of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering – OTGO, Faculty of Design: Admission free


Guided tours of the exhibition: every Saturday at 4.30 p.m. (included in the admission fee)


Join the Friends of the Jakopič Gallery. The € 12 annual membership fee includes numerous benefits and exclusive events. Click here for more information.

The World According to Roger Ballen

1. 7. 2021–26. 9. 2021

It was his 2009 exhibition Retrospective 1982-2004, that set the Jakopič Gallery on its path towards photography. At the same time, his Boarding House series was exhibited at the Galerija Fotografija, which represents him in Slovenia. Over the past decade, the "Ballenesque" aesthetic has taken a dramatic shift from black-and-white to colour photography, as well as incorporating installations, paintings, drawings and videos into his imagery in an increasingly recognisable manner. The World According to Roger Ballen, his biggest exhibition to date, was first presented at the Halle Saint Pierre gallery in Paris last year. For the exhibition at the Jakopič Gallery, the artist has cooperated with curator Marija Skočir to create a powerful and unique adaptation to this gallery space. The exhibition not only presents several of his iconic photographs, but also some of his most recent photographic imagery, juxtaposed with installations, which incorporate a number of objects the artist recently found in Ljubljana.

Throughout his career, Ballen has always pursued a single artistic goal: to give expression to the human psyche – to visually explore the hidden forces that shape the human condition. Born in New York, and holding a Ph.D. in Geology and an honorary doctorate in Art and Design, he has been living and working in Johannesburg, South Africa for nearly forty years. His photographs, drawings and spatial artistic creations, together with their juxtapositions, create scenes, which are, in Ballen’s words, “not necessarily societal, political or material documents but rather, by their nature, psychological revelations. The images pierce day-to-day consciousness and lodge themselves into the deeper zones of the human mind. For many, this is pretty scary.” The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive monograph co-authored by Colin Rhodes and published by Thames & Hudson. In addition, the Jakopič Gallery has produced a publication with several site-specific installation shots. Both publications and the exhibition itself provide a unique overview of Ballen’s complex, provocative and often disturbing visualisations of the interconnections between the dramatic, dreamlike and painfully realistic appearances of the subconscious worlds that are part of each of us.


You are warmly invited to attend the opening of the The World According to Roger Ballen exhibition at 8 p.m. on Thursday, 2 July 2021. The exhibition will be opened by Janez Pergar, Honorary Consul of the Consulate of the Republic of South Africa in Slovenia, and Mateja Demšič, MA, Head of Culture Department, City of Ljubljana.

The World According to Roger Ballen

The exhibition “The World According to Roger Ballen” is accompanied by a guide featuring some of Ballen’s most famous photographs and a number of images of his photographic installations as ...

Roger Ballen in an interview with curator Marija Skočir

Colophon

Production: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana
Artist, photographer: Roger Ballen
Curator: Marija Skočir
Curatorial assistance: Julija Hoda
Graphic and exhibition design: Bojan Lazarevič (Agora Proars)
Exhibition production: Technical Service MGML, O.K.vir
This project is supported by: Consulate of the Republic of South Africa in Slovenia
This project was made possible by: City of Ljubljana, Ministry of Culture
Special thanks for their assistance and support: Sarie Pretorius, Marguerite Rossouw  

Jakopič Gallery

Slovenska cesta 9
1000 Ljubljana

T +386 1 42 54 096
T +386 1 24 12 500
E galerija.jakopic@mgml.si

Tuesday–Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Monday: Closed

1 January, 1 November, 25 December: Closed
24 and 31 December: 10. a.m.-2 p.m.

Adults: 5 €
Students, people over the age of 60, unemployed, people with disabilities: 3 €
Family ticket: 12 €
ICOM, PRESS, SMD, students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, VIST – Higher School of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering – OTGO, Faculty of Design: Admission free


Guided tours of the exhibition: every Saturday at 4.30 p.m. (included in the admission fee)


Join the Friends of the Jakopič Gallery. The € 12 annual membership fee includes numerous benefits and exclusive events. Click here for more information.

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