After five years, the Prague Gallery of Jaroslav Fragner will once again exhibit Slovenian architecture. This time, it will present the young progressive studio bevk perović arhitekti, which has been collecting awards both domestically and abroad since its founding in 1997.
The exhibition is under the patronage of the Ambassador of Slovenia to the Czech Republic, Smiljana Knez, who will also inaugurate the exhibition. The vernissage will be preceded by a guided tour with the authors - leaders of the studio Matija Bevk and Vasa J. Perović.
The exhibition Blow up - some projects by bevk perović architects references its title (blow up - enlargement) to the concept of an unconventional approach to exhibiting architecture in galleries. "This exhibition is our commentary on the idea of exhibition," explain architects Matija Bevk and Vasa J. Perović. The authors point to the paradoxical complexity of presenting an architectural work in a different - in this case, exhibition - space. "We perceive the exhibition as a kind of representation of this paradox: buildings "become" just one image, an enlargement of their own photograph, fragmented and disconnected, mute, indescribable."
For this reason, the architects chose an unusual form of presentation for individual realizations. The buildings are not presented by "classic" photography in a rectangular format showing the entire structure, but only by an enlargement - a circular cut-out, which may resemble "the lens of a camera capturing or examining some object. Therefore, the exhibition itself is what one sees on the walls, a series of intentionally reduced "fragments" of information, a kind of puzzle made up of real pieces of architecture."
Enlarged details will be accompanied by video projections and models, allowing visitors to form a overall idea of the individual realizations. The studio will present twenty-two projects, from smaller family homes to residential buildings and dormitories, to larger ones such as the Faculty of Mathematics, a center for Islam and Muslim culture, an art museum, or the national university library.
The studio bevk perović arhitekti was founded by architects Matija Bevk (*1972) and Vasa J. Perović (*1965) in 1997. Matija Bevk graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana, while Vasa J. Perović studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, then continued his studies in the Netherlands at the Berlage Institute of Architecture and has been a professor at the University of Ljubljana since 2010. The successful studio has received numerous awards both at home and abroad in recent years, including the Plečnik Award for Architecture six times (the most prestigious national award), the Piranesi International Prize twice, the Mies van der Rohe Award, and the Kunstpreis Berlin, among others. The architects also frequently lecture and exhibit. The studio currently employs 10 to 12 young architects. In 2012, Matija Bevk and Vasa J. Perović were featured in a monographic issue of the international magazine El Croquis.