We are proud to launch our 2024 summer exhibition featuring Ljubljana-based artist Sara Bezovšek. The exhibition is a public art project presented in poster format and will be displayed on 31 public billboards around Gothenburg, Sweden. The exhibition is set to run from July 10th to August 7th, 2024, or until we run out of posters!
The artwork is inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants, the main character of the American animated television series of the same name, which was released by Nickelodeon in July 1999. The show's massive popularity has resulted in a significant online presence, leading to a wide range of memes and derivative works based on the main character. As fragments of the show are screenshotted, cropped, altered with text, and visually manipulated, they take on a life of their own, transforming the character from a pop culture phenomenon into a meme culture icon. The ‘SpongeBob SquarePants (character) no.1’ is part of a series of posters created by the artist that center around characters from the most memeable famous movies and TV shows.
*If you'd like a free copy of the poster, please contact us at: info@svilova.org. | Our exhibition space will be closed in July, but you can arrange an appointment to pick up a copy and visit our “Spongebong Dungeon” at the same time!
SpongeBob SquarePants (character) no.1” (2024), 50 x 70 cm, 135 gsm, edition of 300 prints.
Sara Bezovšek (b. 1993) is a visual artist working in the fields of internet art, experimental film and graphic design. Her artistic practice is characterized by reappropriation of online and pop cultural materials. Using a dense visual language of references, she taps into the collective imaginarium and constructs engaging narratives that are both a critique and a celebration of the highly saturated online media landscapes we navigate daily.
The artist has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including those at Aksioma, Kino Šiška, Ravnikar Gallery Space, Osmo/za, MFRU, Kiblix, IZIS, Kresija, sloART, DobraVaga, P74, and SCCA-Ljubljana in Slovenia; at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland; at Metronom in Italy; and online at Feral File and The Wrong Biennale. Her projects have also been showcased on the online platform Do Not Research and in ETC magazine.
Bezovšek holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana. She received the Prešeren Award for Students in 2018 and was nominated for the OHO Young Artist Award in 2022. She also received the Grand Prix award at the Ljubljana Short Film Festival (FeKK) in 2021 and the Vesna award for the best Slovenian experimental film at the Slovenian Film Festival in 2022. Since 2023, she has been working on a project for the research platform [permanent beta] of the gallery Fotomuseum Winterthur and is developing a sequel to the film
with the support of the Slovenian Film Centre. www.s-n-d.si