Lars Sekulič Berce / Synesthesia: The Starting Points project

The Starting Points project is a long-term exhibition project of Galerija Fotografija gallery, which presents two selected young artists every year and grants them the opportunity to exhibit in the gallery's bookstore and introduce them to the art market.

Can a visual image be seen, tasted or heard? Could we smell the shapes, hear the colours or feel the letters? The state of mixing sensory perceptions, which is mostly innate, is called synesthesia. It is characterised by the activation of multiple senses by a single stimulus – where most people would only see a visual image, few people
can also smell, taste, feel or hear it. The synesthetic state in people who do not have a genetic predisposition to it can only be triggered by the ingestion of substances that have a hallucinogenic and neurological effect on the individual, so that they begin to experience stimuli with multiple senses at the same time – they merge into a single entity, and the boundaries between sensory perceptions gradually blur. The
synesthetic state does not interfere with everyday tasks, it is simply a different way of perceiving the everyday environment, often allowing a more profound experience of the surroundings. It is apparent that the processing of stimuli and the use of specific senses is not a universal experience, but depends on the individual's perceptual predispositions.
The state of synesthesia is addressed by Lars Sekulič Berce in his artistic project, who has attempted to represent it in a visual form in his photographic series of the same name. It was created in 2022 as an updated version of his final diploma project, realised in 2019 at the Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. Through a process of experimentation with different techniques, materials and media, the
images of abstract compositions were created, in which pieces of glass, water bubbles, dynamic acrylic paints, oils and other materials merge, evoking different sensory stimuli in the viewer with their diverse textures and associations. Eclectic combinations of materials and colours are combined with light and photographic processing to form compositions that at times mimic abstract painting motifs, which he 'translates' into their contemporary version with the help of new technologies. By
deconstructing the reflection of light itself, as the title of the work Synesthesia suggests, the images show the artist's own interpretation of this neurological state. Through the use of several elements, Sekulič Berce attempts to trigger a synesthetic state in which he activates more senses in the viewer than just the vision, typically associated with photography.