START POINT PRIZE – Prize for emerging artists

It is often quite pleasant to encounter art like Matea Bakula’s. Straightforward, with no false ambitions and visually attractive as well. In her thesis exhibition, Bakula presents herself as a sculptor with an unpretentious, yet expansive approach. Her sculptures reflect the fact that she knows what she wants from her materials – by examining their qualities, which are often quite mundane, she makes choices in combining them together, which, as a thought process, could be classified as a sculpture itself, together with the resulting object. She is charmed by various materials, while still being aware of their inferiority and mediocrity which hide their inherent qualities. Sometimes the materials seem to be something else – the resin is caramel, a grey plastic tube is actually perspex glass. The rigorously measured surface of the objects stems from the modernist tradition with references to abstraction, minimalism and arte povera. Only a second look reveals what is going on in the work and how it was made. It comes across like a good magic trick. (rv)