Slobodan Zivic. Stargazing Through Barbed Wire. NSFW, Gothenburg 03.05 - 04.06.2025

We are among the very last to have witnessed the night sky with only real, glitching stars, before our orbit became diluted with technology. Unimaginable pollution of machines. Hidden satellites indefinable on the horizon, monitor us from above, concealed... as we pray for redemption... hidden machines, masked as stardust, lurking like cracks in the foundation, hiding in the walls of a lost highway motel room, embedded in families’ DNA, in the estate agent’s smirking face, and in the neighbor’s brief hello. It is hiding everywhere, in every detail. Hiding in every politician’s TV appearance, in algorithms, in every song written —hiding like sugar in a Sichuan takeout. Hiding in our ignorance and shame. Since it was us, ourselves, who scorched the sky. In our fear and guilt, we seek solace and forgiveness while stargazing through barbed wire.

In this presentation - Slobodan Zivic operates at the threshold of presence and past, engaging with materiality as both substance and memory. Drawing on his Slavic maternal ancestry and craft-works, his practice evokes a sense of emotional mercy for the artist. This exhibition dissolves the boundary between painting and sculpture; his interventions suggest the presence of progress, showing that even the most static surfaces hold traces of movement. Zivic’s practice is one in which materials are not merely manipulated but fundamentally altered, leaving behind an index of controlled distortion.
This particular direction reflects a search within dissonance itself.

Title. Machines Indefinable On The Horizon (2025)
800x1800mm
Material. Crochet work, velcro fabric, chrome & varnish spray silicon fix, linen canvas, rubber holders, safety gloves, soccerball, tree protector.

Title. Lost Highway Motel Room / Fear & Guilt (Diptyk) 2025
830x1016x30mm
Material. DTS print on fabric, crochet work, chrome & varnish spray, oak frame, reflex free glas

Left:
Title. Masked as stardust (2025)
330x410x20mm
Material. Crochet work, silicon fix, chrome & varnish spray, linen canvas.

Right:
Title. Last Crop (2025)
330x410x20mm
Material. Crochet work, chrome & varnish spray, plastic, linen canvas.

Title. Stargazing Through Barbed Wire (2025)
325x410mm
Screen printed digital work. Edition of 20.

STBW