International Art event Dobre novice

Participating artists

William Sweetlove(BEL) Victor Kastelic(USA/ITA) Daniele Galliano(ITA) Pierluigi Pusole(ITA) Sergio Cascavilla(ITA) Bart Ramakers(BEL) Garrett Speirs(USA) Elke Warth(GER) Francesco Di Lernia(ITA) Mark Brest van Kempen(USA) Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen(USA) Nina Koželj(SVN) Paolo Cassara(ITA) Raja Khairallah(LBN/ITA) Tazio Kastelic(USA/ITA) Zjos Meyvis(BEL) Bodil Fox(USA) Larnie Fox(USA) Federico Caputo(ITA) Enrico T. De Paris(Italija) Ginny Speirs(USA) Philippe Badert(BEL) Bartolomeo Migliore(ITA) Paolo Cassarà(ITA) Ira Marušič(SVN) Tina Konec(SNV)

Project locations

ARBORETUM VOLČJI POTOK – a large exhibition of sculptures by William Sweetlove in the botanic gardens and an exhibition of works by various artists in the park exhibition venue.

KAMNIK INTERMUNICIPAL MUSEUM – contemporary art interventions in the historical museum collection

MIHA MALEŠ GALLERY, DIKA GALLERY AND PREČNA GALLERY KAMNIK – group exhibition of contemporary international and Slovenian artists

It is utopian to imagine a world where human beings, as in the past, live together with nature, care for it and in return receive all the goods it has to offer. It is utopian to think that human beings could return today to another, distant time, where the sky is an absolute blue, where water is everywhere, where all the seas are crystal clear, where the seasons follow an order that has been almost forgotten today. That our planet has become a dumping ground for everything that human beings both create and discard is clear to almost everyone. It may be true that this is not happening on our own doorstep or in our neighbourhood, it may be true that humanity has not yet seen the light, but the devastating repercussions are no longer unknown to anyone. Nature calls upon us and its call is ominous – the extremes of climate that have aroused too many people from their slumber in recent decades are demanding that society as a whole clean up the rubbish it has deposited in far-flung corners of the planet, in places that have been out of sight, out of mind. Our doorsteps were clean, our water was accessible, our soil fertile. Behind the technological development of the Western world, we are left with “burial grounds” where all these things are absent. And who cares? The world is turning into chaotic, fragmented stuff as if it is now about to plunge in on itself, as if everything is being ominously guided by an unstoppable current. And how could it be otherwise, when society is becoming more and more individualised and indifferent, when empathy is disappearing, and the game of life is only played with coins and banknotes?

Perhaps it is the art project Good News! that attempts to find and reverse the direction of this inexorable decline of society and to illuminate the meaning of its transformation, in which each individual would once again play their role and displace the social apathy that permeates every pore of the human being. The artists who have come together in this project come from different parts of the world, each with their own poetics within their own artistic testimony, but what they have in common is the theme of humanity, its mindless intrusion into nature, its exploitation, its concern for a better and more beautiful future and the realisation that after us will come new individuals who will need this world – not just today or for the next hundred years, but so that the planet will keep on spinning in the right direction long after we are gone. With Good News!, the artists, each with their own reflection, attempt to play out a dialogue with the viewer to draw attention to what is all too often overlooked. They playfully invite us to consider serious subject matters and numerous hidden meanings – they surprise us with their size, colour, composition and interventions in historical spaces, but also shock us, and above all, offer us an expanded field of vision of everything human beings do, while, last but not least, some of them also pose the question of the end. The mostly red-coloured sculptures by William Sweetlove – the giant animals that appear at all the sites of the Good News! project – pigs, dogs, bears and fishermen – are led by Jesus, who is generally understood to be the one who can overcome all obstacles (for himself and for each of us) – but who also sets off in search of a new place to live with a bottle of the most important drink of all – water. In this way, we can view the story in different exhibition spaces, from different angles and thus create our own interpretation of the viewer, which, in addition to the playfulness, the rebelliousness and the interplay of different artistic perspectives, carries a critical moment within it. Perhaps it is time to heed the wake-up call.

In the beginning, there was William Sweetlove and soon like-minded artists gathered around him. Under the name Good News, each of them adds a pebble to the mosaic of the contemporary story of art, with the thought of leaving the darkness of the world aside for a few moments and looking to the future with a light that is ready and able to lead humanity on the path of green…

“Green, how I want you green. Green wind, green branches.”

And thank you, Federico Garcia Lorca.

Saša Bučan

More about a project on web https://www.dobre-novice.art/