Kindly invited to visit "Cozy Mesh"exhibition by Carlo Galli, on Monday, 13th July from 6:30 pm till 9:30 pm, at the Alkatraz Gallery, ACC Metelkova.

By hosting an Italian artist, Carlo Galli, KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association begins a new programme series called Art Challenge. Artistic residences in Studio Asylum shall foster the contact between the hosted artists and the ACC Metelkova Mesto throb, whereas the idea of connecting with Metelkova's artistic scene gives meaning to the challenge; the emphasis is on the transference of skills, knowledge, ideas, and contemplations of the participants. During the stay in Ljubljana, the artists shall conceptualise exhibitions, which will be additionally realised in the Alkatraz Gallery and Night Window Display Gallery Pešaki. The art challenge will include a contribution to the project Wholesome Art Piece Metelkova, which has been focusing on artistic interventions into the public space of ACC Metelkova Mesto and its close surroundings already since 2004.

With the choice of the artistic material – a lively orange safety net – the artist, in a unique way, asks how long people’s right to free movement will continue to be encroached. Moreover, the materials the artist uses in his practice often put the questions of contact and border into the foreground; in fact, their wider bordering and limiting consumable use plays the biggest role. Thus, in the Alkatraz Gallery, the artist used PVC warning tape, which is ordinarily employed for protection or security of an area or property by dividing the space; in one area, the movement is limited and confined to the framework of a specific regime, whilst the other area is positioned outside of the first, in the space where general rules of social life are established. Yet, the space is not the only thing that the tape divides – it also prevents contacts among people who are on different sides of the divide. By means of its function and visual image, meanwhile, the tape brings distinctive emotional charge, transmitting the message ‘Danger! Attention! Stop!’ and demanding a careful and focused posture. The feelings of anxiety and the state of jeopardy, actualised by the presence of the warning tape, are the artist’s starting point for the process of transforming obstacles into the point of contact, which happens with the help of the exhibiting process. What Galli does is design a kind of trampoline, intended for play and relaxation, out of the object evoking negative emotions. In his artwork, latent restraint order changes into an invitation for contact and carefree fun, enabled precisely by the material that only a while ago defined strict rules and limitations.