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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nInstallation view inside of the gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside the gallery you still can see the previous exhibition, Times of Reflection<\/em>. What you experience here is Robert Kananaj\u2019s \u201call-one project\u201d. Times of Reflection<\/em> is Kananaj\u2019s biggest forthcoming body of artwork, filling the entire gallery. Talking about the project, Kananaj said: \u201cWhen the gallery had to shut down for months, because of the pandemic, I decided to step in and create unusual big installations, so letting coexistence in unusual company of unknown to us.\u201d He created sculptures both in figurative and abstracted styles. Some of them are large busts of heads on the floor or full-figure depictions hanging from the ceiling or placed on spikes.<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view Times of Reflection<\/em>, 2023 by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n\n\n Memory is Blind, Memory is Deaf, sculpture, resin, 2023, by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n\n\n Sculpture, installation view, 2023, by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also large installations like the numerous cooking pots creating a hill in the middle of the gallery (Cooking pot society<\/em>). Another one, Tribute to the Ukrainian Flag<\/em>, covers the entire left wall<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view with Cooking pot society, 2022 by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n\n\n Installation view with Tribute to Ukrainian Flag, 2022-23, (on the wall) and globes and cello by Robert Kananaj<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Times of Reflection <\/a><\/em>is always within change, studio experience and gallery experience merge in to an unconventional one. The one of the visitors\u2019 take.\u201d \u2013 points out Kananaj, and adds that the visitor\u2019s exclusivity is very important for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roberta Laking Kananaj, co-director of RKG, explains that when the pandemic happened it was hard to have exhibitions as no one wanted to come inside the gallery. So, Robert Kananaj, the director of the gallery thought that they needed to figure out something else. The gallery had always collected random things from unknown artists so the idea of organizing an installation around them was born. They started to put together an Installation outside the gallery as a continuation of the inside show and called it Salon des Refuses<\/em>, later Renaissans des Refus\u00e9s.<\/em> While the pieces in Times of Reflection <\/em>are original and unique artwork created by Robert Kananaj, Renaissance des Refus\u00e9s<\/em> addresses anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n More than a century ago, the original Salon des Refus\u00e9s was created in protest against the Paris Salon of the Academy of Fine Arts that had held themselves out as the judges of the epitome of status. After the liberation of the Academy, those refus\u00e9s<\/em> became the new benchmark of status. \u201cIn contrast, and long overdue, RKG’s Salon des Refus\u00e9s says Enough \u2014 Status is overrated!\u201d – wrote Kananaj. Then he continued: \u201cSalon\/Renaissance des Refus\u00e9s is about refusal. Models are by the very nature exclusive. Not everyone can fit in a model. Models are failing, historically, to vast majority of people, all walks of life. That\u2019s why it started as a Social Commentary Project, installation with unknown makers and artworks, not for sale. So, creating status out of status-less. We are conditioned all to serve the status, and the status can\u2019t accommodate us all. Models are destined to fail, but no one individual can afford to overlook one self\u2019s status. Status is in out, individual, and not out in. Rejected (art and individuals) are individually recognized rather than by a model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gallery gives in for the unknown visitor. The gallery is to be what the visitor makes of it, in the presence of maximal information by unpredictable known disorderly presentation we have individual minimal take. The order comes from the individual context, artwork or individual person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why I say status is overrated, referring to the models\u2019 limitations to accommodate us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the status is individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s more about what is going on at RKG situation, besides disturbing or comforting. It is readymade not for any status, other than letting the visitor, for the first time in our 12 years serving as a gallery, to be where they are always: living proof of our individual unique life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Roberta Laking Kananaj added: \u201cThe installation inside and outside the gallery contains pieces that someone abandoned, but it doesn\u2019t mean that they are worthless. Somebody might be interested in them and want to buy them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the introduction of the show states: \u201cRKG’s Salon des Refus\u00e9s is about the visitor and art. Pieces with little chance to become part of institutions of the status-building kind, have taken over the gallery space. We may look down on this invasion, or be tempted by it. A successful individual in whatever walk of life doesn’t seek status, as excelling and becoming are unique for everyone. Here the refused are given status by the status-less, and so the Salon des Refus\u00e9s of status-seeking has come full circle. Receiving is giving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n