Špela Šivic, Pain au Chocolat: The Starting Points Project

Pain au chocolat, a French pastry delicacy that has steadily grown in popularity since its humble beginnings in Paris at the end of the 19th century, is now a staple in bakeries all over the world. It may bring to mind the iconic images of fin de siecle art, the fusion of old traditions with the promise of new-age innovation, or, perhaps more likely, it may make our mouths water and a feeling of warmth and familiarity come over us at the thought of a delicious snack. The photographer Špela Šivic brings all this together in her latest series Pain au Chocolat, in which she juxtaposes analogue photographs with drawings as a continuation of the series Brugnon. It is by playing with two different techniques that she demonstrates a specific duality, as the drawings mirror the scenes in the photographs while at the same time taking away or adding certain elements. The harmonious beauty of the male body and the atmospheric softness of the spaces inhabited by the sitter in the photographs are thus mirrored in the second technique, which records the body with minimalist strokes of black ink, while filling the spaces with abstract, flowing organic forms in warm earth colours. Šivic pays particular attention to composition, making it almost sculptural at times. She illustrates this with a drawing of a Parisian sprinkler, which, with its twisted stone lines, outstretched mollusc tentacles and a shell open in anticipation, she says can also be interpreted in a subtly erotic way.

Intimate black and white photographs explore not only the balanced lines of the sitter's body and their position in space, but also the relationship between the artist and the muse. Šivic is interested in how the latter is reflected in the artwork, in which she wants to imprint a lasting image of the form of the body and the feelings and thoughts that were present in her and in the sitter at the moment she pressed the camera shutter. The viewer is invited to get close to the image, thus being given a glimpse of a personal relationship, which the photographer in the darkroom then deliberately transfers onto a pre-prepared piece of photographic paper, selected and designed for a specific shot. In Šivic's work, one can also sense a certain distance, an invisible barrier that separates the artist from the muse – although the muse inspires the artist, she remains unreachable to him. To an attentive viewer with an ear for languages, the title is a forewarning – if we think of it in English, the phrase "pain au chocolat" does not only denote a chocolate pastry, but also announces pain. The artist transforms a soft, sweet and fluffy pastry that is pleasing to the senses into a profoundly human experience that already carries the promise of inevitable pain. In doing so, Šivic succeeds in completing the circle of love, intimacy and beauty, which are continuously transformed into loss, disappointment and pain, and offers comfort to the viewer. She believes that pain often gives birth to works of art, and the process of creating them is a bittersweet medicine for the human heart.

– Vida Jocif

The event is organised with the support of the Slovenian Book Agency.