Materijalni elementi koje Vesna Pokas unosi u interijer galerije ili eksterijer grada, odnosno hortikulturalnog ambijenta, nisu umjetnički predmeti nego instrumenti katalizacije doživljaja konkretnog prostora. Pritom taj prostor autorica ponajprije sama sebi objašnjava, istodobno potvrđujući njegove značajke i transformirajući ga, kako bi potom upozorila na puninu njegovih potencijala. Često osporava svakodnevnu upotrebu prostora instaliranjem prepreka koje zahtijevaju njegovo alternativno korištenje. Primjerice, u Poreču je krajem devedesetih godina, kao sudionica tamošnjeg Annalea, u uskoj gradskoj ulici postavila metalne šipke koje su onemogućavale uobičajeni svakodnevni pješački promet te su prolaznici bili prisiljeni mijenjati svoj put do zamišljenog odredišta. Time se razbijala dnevna rutina, ali i naglašavao karakter mjesta. Sasvim drugačiji, ali jednako osvještavajući pristup, primjenila je nešto ranije na otoku Lokrumu, na stepeništu Maksimilijanovih vrtova gdje je postavila staklene ploče te time ostvarila više psihološku nego fizičku prepreku, omogućivši zauzvrat koncentrirani pogled posjetitelja na prekrasni prizor i refleks kultiviranog krajobraza iz točke osujećenog pokreta.

Najdrastičniji, gotovo prijeteći tip prepreke autorica kreira 2005. godine u zagrebačkoj Galeriji proširenih medija. Tom prilikom ona postavlja robusnu metalnu polugu sa šiljkom na vrhu, koja poput neke ‘aero-kosilice’ ravnomjerno pokretana bučnim elektromotorom, kruži kroz prostor, gotovo dotičući zid Meštrovićeve rotonde. U nastojanju da izbjegne nalet ‘polumjera’ željezne šipke, posjetitelj je bio prisiljen uzmicati pred njom ili je pažljivo slijediti te je tako njegovo kretanje uvjetovano na specifičan način, a percepcija prostora poprimila naročit, neočekivani rakurs.

Tretirajući prostor kao mjesto kontemplacije, umjetnica, osluškujući sugestije njegove posebnosti, u svakom pojedinačnom slučaju osmišljava drugačiji pristup koristeći različite materijale kojima, u privremenoj transformaciji, te posebnosti ističe.

Tako se ponaša i ovom prigodom u Galeriji Forum. Poduzimajući hrabru gestu blokiranja većeg dijela staklene stijene prema ulici ona izvodi transparentan geometrijski crtež egzaktnom linijom nepokrivenog dijela stakla. Sa staklom nastavlja i intervencije u interijeru. Točnije, postavlja niz tankih staklenih cijevi koje povezuju pod sa stropnom gredom tvoreći tako rahli zid i formirajući uski svjetlosni koridor kojim se mijenja uobičajeni smjer kretanja kroz Galeriju.

Osim što je ističe u naslovu, umjetnica u različitim dijelovima prostora i provodi apsolutnu geometriju lika kvadrata. No ne čini to u doslovnom prikazu nego fragmentarno, u in spe naznakama, kako u dvodimenzionalnim tako i u trodimenzionalnim intervencijama. Računa pritom s potencijalom perspektivnog vizualnog doživljaja, odnosno s mogućnošću virtualnog dovršavanja lika. Tako kose linije koje formira bijeli pijesak ‘utočen’ u staklene cijevi do precizno određenih visina naznačavaju prostorni lik koji odgovara onom na tlu, a nadovezuje se i na onaj formiran na izlogu galerije. Svojom materijalnom i oblikovnom interpretacijom ideja geometrije koju umjetnica provlači kroz cijelu prostornu instalaciju, istodobno i osporava i potvrđuje zatečeni ambijent. U konačnom rezultatu prostor je upravo svojom decentnom transformacijom potpuno ‘prizvan sebi’, animirana je njegova bit i duh, svaki njegov dio postaje legitiman. Ne samo da se apostrofira i potvrđuje globalni arhitektonski koncept sa svim elementima, poput stupova, stepenica, ograde te njenih sastavnih dijelova, materijala i boje, nego čak i oni infrastrukturni ‘uljezi’ poput utičnica, klima uređaja, radijatora… postaju nekonfliktni dio opće ustanovljene harmonije.

Sigurnost gotovog artefakta i relativno lagodnog korištenja galerijskog skrovišta Vesna Pokas zamjenjuje neizvjesnom avanturom suočavanja s ambijentom, ispitivanjem njegovog značaja i zračenja. Pristupa mu, koliko s prijateljskim razumijevanjem toliko i suprostavljajući se njegovu konvencionalnom korištenju. Stoga je njezina umjetnost vibrirajuća i živa, naizmjence uhvatljiva i izmičuća, a boravak u ‘korigiranom’ prostoru i njegov novi, odnosno pojačani doživljaj, ekvivalent je susretu s našom vlastitom duhovnosti, izvan i iznad materijalnih premisa koje je uokviruju.

Antun Maračić

* tekst iz kataloga za izložbu ” U kvadratu”, Galerija Forum, Zagreb,2017.

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The material elements that Vesna Pokas puts into a gallery interior or the exterior of a city, a garden setting, are not art objects rather instruments that catalyse the experience of a given space. The artist first of all explains the space to herself, confirming its characteristics and transforming it, in order to be able to draw attention to the fullness of its potentials. She often contests the everyday use of the space by installing barriers that require it to be used alternatively. For example, in Poreč, at the end of the nineties, taking part in the Poreč Annale, she put in a narrow city street some metal rods that stopped the usual pedestrian flows, the passers-by being forced to change their route to the destination they had in mind. The daily routine was thus broken up, and the character of the space emphasised. She had applied a very different but equally mind-opening approach a little earlier on Lokrum Island, on the staircase of the Maximilian Gardens, where she put in glass plates, achieving more of a psychological than a physical obstacle, enabling the visitor in return to have a concentrated view of the lovely scene and a reflection of the cultivated landscape from the point at which movement is frustrated.

The artist created the most drastic, a practically menacing, type of obstacle in 2005 in the Gallery of Extended Media in Zagreb. She set up a sturdy, pointed metal lever, which like some kind of airborne mowing machine, evenly driven by a noisy electrical motor, circulated around the space, practically touching the walls of the Meštrović rotunda.  In their endeavours to avoid any onslaught from ‘the radius’ of the iron bar, the visitors were forced to retreat before it, or else to follow it very carefully, so that their movements were determined in a most particular manner, and their perception of the space took on a distinctive and unexpected angle.

Treating space as a place of contemplation, the artist, heeding the suggestions of its distinctive features, in every single case thinks up a different approach, making use of different materials that in a temporary transformation bring out its specialness.

So she acts this time too, in the Forum Gallery. Undertaking the bold gesture of blocking up the major part of the storefront window onto the street, she has then done a transparent geometrical drawing with the exact line of the uncovered part of the glass. She carries on the interventions into the interior with glass. In detail, she puts in a series of slender glass tubes that link the floor with the ceiling beam, creating a loose wall and forming a narrow illuminated corridor that changes the usual direction of circulation through the Gallery.

As well as pointing it up in the title, the artist in various parts of the space implements the absolute geometry of the figure of the square. But not in a literal depiction, rather fragmentarily, in hopeful indications, in both two- and three-dimensional interventions. She counts on the potential of the perspective visual experience, that is, on the possibility of the virtual completion of the figure. Thus diagonal lines that are formed by the white sand captured in glass tubes to precisely determined heights indicate a spatial figure that corresponds to that on the floor, and carries on from that formed in the gallery’s window display. With its material and formal interpretation the idea of geometry that the artist runs through the whole of the spatial installation at once disputes and confirms the setting as found. In the final result, the space is precisely, with its dignified transformation, fully called to itself, its being and spirit are animated, each part of it becomes legitimate. Not only does the procedure address and confirm the global architectural concept, with all its elements, like he pillars, steps, rails their component parts, the materials and colours, but even those infrastructural interlopers like wall sockets, air conditioning units, radiators, become a non-conflicting part of the overall established harmony.

Vesna Pokas has replaced the surety of the finished artefact and the relatively easy use of the gallery nook by an uncertain adventure in which one has to face up to the environment, testing out its import and its aura. She approaches it with both amicable understanding and resistance to its conventional use. Hence her art is vibrant and living, alternately graspable and yet evasive, and a stay in the ‘corrected’ space and its new or reinforced experience is equivalent to an encounter with our own spiritual being, above and beyond the material premises that frame it.

Antun Maračić

* text from catalogue ” In a square “, Galerija Forum, Zagreb,2017.