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ZDENKO ŠLIBAR:
Sculptures as a Metaphor
for the Unspeakable
Zdenko Šlibar’s sculpture always refers to a human being or one of its states. At first glance,
the abstract shapes, roughly cut blocks and unprocessed surfaces, which point out the nature
of the material and contribute to some inner dynamics of the sculpture, slightly reveal the human
shape, attitude, even emotion that’s frozen in the material
Written by: Nataša Bodrožiæ
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Artist Zdenko Šlibar from Zagreb is a professional sculptor,
and his artistic expression also encompasses
working with ceramics. His recognizable sculptures,
slightly rough and raw, but at the same time strong
in their author’s expression and dominating “cold” materials
like bronze and wire say plenty about today’s coldness,
detachment and lack of emotions. On the other hand, they
often also reveal a dose of humour, but also the poetics that
comes out of rough, massive forms and ends up in some gentle
interplay between fragile wire shapes.
The end of the twentieth century has filled the thoughts of
contemporary aestheticians, artists and art historians with stories
about the end of modernism and the new beginning of
art as a total project on the other side of traditional categories
of modern-era aesthetics. While some have been talking
for quite some time about the death of paintings, the art of
painting and traditional mediums of overall art expressions
in the wake of the new mediums’ invasion, we can still find
plenty of life and vitality in the works of certain artists who
focus precisely on traditional artistic forms.
Zdenko Šlibar’s sculpture always refers to a human being or
one of its states. At first glance, the abstract shapes, roughly
cut blocks and unprocessed surfaces, which point out the
nature of the material and contribute to some inner dynamics
of the sculpture, slightly reveal the human shape, attitude,
even emotion that’s frozen in the material. Very often these
abstract shapes of anthromorphic connotations slightly function
as a metaphor for the unspeakable, yet very tangible
state of this era, in which people increasingly resemble each
other while having very little interaction with each other.
Šlibar’s works have been displayed at about fifteen solo exhibits
and just as many group ones. One of the conceptually
more interesting exhibits that featured his work “has dealt
with the concept of the erotic (sensuous, passionate, lustful,
sexual) in modern society; the erotic that carries an image
that’s been very much changed lately by losing the fullness
of the original meaning and the possession of intimacy, while
gaining plenty of emptiness, superficiality and coldness”. The
artists who participated in this project were asked to “react
in an involved and provocative manner to the fact of losing
personal intimacy’s honesty in the overall globalisation process.
To react critically, ironically, even satirically to erotica as
“a consumer item” and profitable “goods” in the mass media,
as well as its use as a cliché and something banal. And fi-