Marko Lipus by Barbara Kuznik

Marko Lipus, an Austrian-Slovenian artist came to Brussels with his exhibition "Toys" on 1 March 2016. An exhibition that will make you feel like you are on the other side. That you have been stopped and are not allowed to continue. Confrontation with soldiers - or just with people with no real heart.

Ironically the artist uses real play figures as models, and continues with the exploration of the portraits while maintaining his distinctive formal approach with so-called scratching. In this particular case of "Toys," the spectator is confronted with images of soldiers. The fact that images are based on realistically shaped dolls, models, toys we can buy on the internet, makes the message of this art even stronger. Soldiers as depersonalised members of an imperial state. Perfect form, visible force, but not from flesh and blood. The artist damages also the material by scratching the negative of the photos which gives an authentic glimpse of the perfect plastic figures. He manipulates to that point that the spectator asks himself whether they are real. And at one point the figures are confronting them, making them feel like the others - those on the other side of the wire-fence border.
"It is always the context that gives a political message to the exhibition", said Lipus, "not the photos themselves."
He would love to see people finding the reflexion of the reality in this series, but is convinced, that today art has no such impact on the elites and the politics. Maybe it should!
Lipus, an artist of a Slovenian minority in Austria, representes both sides of the Austrian border. Not only the one with Slovenia, but also all other borders and walls that are rising again along with the refugee crisis are being questioned by this images.
This short interview has been made at the opening at the European Parliament in Slovenian language, that is common to both of us. Even though we come from different sides of the border.