Signature / Podpis

Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša collectively tackle the issue of the politics of painting for the first time. The Signature project consists of twenty-seven paintings commissioned by the Janšas and painted by artist Viktor Bernik. Each of them depicts the signature “Janez Janša” painted in thick acrylic paint; each artist’s signature has been turned into an image, and then signed, in the bottom right corner, by the artists in different ways, testifying to their different statuses as artists and individuals: signing as single artists, and as a trio; using their current signature name, and the old ones. In the twenty-seven paintings, we encounter four different combinations of words, that is, four variations of the names and the surnames Davide Grassi, Emil Hrvatin, Janez Janša and Žiga Kariž.

The paintings, assembled in nine triptychs, differ from each other visibly only due to the manual manufacture of each signature’s image. But if you pay attention to the signatures in the bottom right corner, it is as if each triptych has been conceived by different authors. But what’s an author, anyhow? What’s the personal, legal and artistic value of a signature, when you legally change your name?

Press

Printed Matters

WORDING

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