Umetnostna galerija Maribor, 26. october – 26. november 2006
Galerija Barbara pod Mestnim trgom, Idrija, 14. june – 31. july 2007

At the crossroads of the Alpine foothills and the Karst lies Idrija, jammed into a basin that is surrounded by steep and densely wooded slopes. Here life was once determined by mining and wood gathering that came within the men's purview and the refined lacery created by skilled women's hands. The history of gaining mercury in Idrija goes back into the late fifteen century; the manufacture of lace masterpieces is two centuries younger. Lace bobbin-work, brought to this side of the world by the wives of German and Czech guest mining experts, was not only an occupation enabling additional income but due to the fact that the work was often performed in groups it also provided a unique form of socialising that remained alive until recently. The incredible speed with which the women wound the bobbins competed with the seething words revealing daily news, as well as small and big secrets of the town population without any difficulty.

Metka Kavčič got to know Idrija and its rich cultural heritage last year when she was invited to the Idrija Lace Festival, which has returned this famous local peculiarity its former value and reputation. She was so enthusiastic about the fine artworks that she gave them the central role in her latest ambience art project, where the lace acts as the core and the formal linkage of the whole happening. The sculptor joined the selection of natural materials and expressive media, which offer a diverse sensuous experience, into an original interpretation of the eternal theme about the difference and codependence of female and male psychophysical characteristics. Despite the common belief about the necessary equivalent supplementing of their specifics the artist, using a well-considered iconography, dedicated the central part to woman as the carrier of life. The female imagination, spiced with slyness and wiliness, is the one that often creates invisible but densely intertwined traces necessary for the preservation of the family harmony.

A tablecloth, the symbol of homeliness, joint living and primary connection between a man and a woman and at the same time the environment where the lace is being created, initiates us into the story. The similarity between the manufacture of lace and our path of life is obvious. Both are created by competent and skillful tensioning strokes and threads, it is their winding, interweaving and combining which brings us to the final result of more or less quality. The freely floating tablecloth adorned with a wide and densely perforated border is made from a rolled sheet. But its material identity is denied through softly appearing shapes as well as the seemingly weightless floating in air that suggests lightness and nobleness of the festive fabric. The sculptor proceeds with the metaphorical revelation of female peculiarities and abilities that are mediated by a lace of enormous dimensions deriving from the classic Idrija pattern though manufactured out of metal wire and rolled sheet. Again we follow the effective affirmation of an inferior material that enables the artist to enforce the elegance of the whole and the handling of each detail. The skilled plaiting, tying and winding of the wire into tiny patterns running into bigger thoughtfully formed matches hardly give insight to the longstanding physical effort that the artist put into producing the lace object. Due to this, its role is doubled. It is a firsthand proof of the sculptor's personal vitality and homage to the impetuous mischievousness of life owned by the female character.
The third part shows the symbiosis of male and female differences. The heavy pieces of wood coloured with a red shade of mercury ore associate with the mine and thus with men's work. The lace patterns, described in a graphic print or directly welded into thin sheet that cover several square meters of ceiling and walls, once again represent the domination of womanliness and its activity. A solid, geometrically determined order of immense wooden elements and the playful resilience of vegetable patterns create a conventionally agitated and aesthetically concluded formation. The dynamic of the happening is raised with a play of lights reflecting and redoubling the lace pattern on walls and floor with the illusion of reflections from the surface of water. The use of contextual and material elements that are ,, typical for Idrija's local surroundings is accompanied by another authentic particularity - the rhythmical sound of bobbins striking against each other during work.

Metka Kavčič expressed her deep sense for narration by connecting visual and sonic means of sensual perception pertaining to the atmospheric theatrical scenes or, better, to the intermediate stage between visual and performing art. The unconventional expressive approaches (setting the tablecloth, lace dimensions, affirmation of rolled sheet etc.) are no artificial marks of what is considered contemporary but a sound with accents of humorous parody adding ironic meanings to the basic message. The artist used a mental and emotional journey into the past combined with the awakening of traditional values for the simultaneous articulation of her critical relation to the present time and its current problems.

Milojka Kline