TEMPO, TEMPO
The exhibition Tempo, Tempo at the Bažato Gallery in Ljubljana represents an overview of Marko Šajn's works created between 2021 and 2026. A selection of paintings, risograph prints, drawings, and sculptures reveals how his artistic practice gradually developed into a recognizable visual language based on the principles of repetition, the variation of motifs, and consistent reduction of form. The exhibition offers detailed insight into the work of an emerging artist, whose central thematic starting point is interpersonal relationships.
The author's motifs are based solely on the human figure. The latter is stylized, without facial features, universal in its recognizability and devoid of particular characteristics. The figure as a sign. The figure as a common denominator. The figure as a matrix. Such typification establishes a legible system of pictograms, with which the artist establishes different situations, tensions, and proximities between bodies. In this respect, Marko Šajn approaches the relational understanding of society. An individual is not an isolated unit, but a node in the network of relationships that shape and at the same time constrain them. A community is not something that simply exists, but something that is established only through connections, through closeness, support, pressure, and distance. When these connections change, so does the community. When they are interrupted, it shows how conditional that which we take for granted is.
In Marko Šajn's paintings and prints, the manner of building composition is crucial. The scenes are set in a simple, indefinite space in which figures and planes of colour are organized centrally and often in a circular fashion, as if the elements were gathering in the centre of the pictorial field and gravitating around it. Rhythm arises from the repetition of similar shapes, from their movement on the surface and from precisely measured ratios between the coloured surfaces. The primary palette acts as a visual accent, giving clarity and tension to the composition, without the need for additional narrative cues.
There is also a smaller number of drawings at the exhibition. Their function is not independent. They function as a material with which the artist determines the composition, proportions, and visual weight of individual surfaces. This shows the mental and production background that leads to the final product and shows the methodical nature of the author and his affinity for a systematic way of constructing images.
The presented sculptural ensemble transfers the artist's typical iconography from surface into space. The sculptures are made of construction materials (Styrofoam, polyurethane foam, etc.) and steel, either in the form of plates or round rods. Roughly speaking, they can be divided into three sets: cubic volumes of building materials, where stylized limbs and outlines of bodies are extracted from a compact core; flat cut-outs of steel plates, assembled into spatial compositions; and linear constructions made of round steel rods that function as drawings in space. In addition to the spatial dimension, the sculptures also introduce a haptic experience of the material. Where his painting insists on surface and clarity, his sculpture emphasizes the texture and weight of the material and the joints, as well as the construction itself.
The layout of this survey exhibition does not offer unambiguous interpretations, but rather situations and different choreographies, in which meaning is formed in the relationship between the work and the viewer. The ambiguity of figurative gestures is key here. The same posture can be read as proximity or pressure, as assistance or attack, depending on the context and the experience of the observer. The titular tempo also hints at accelerated social changes that dictate the rhythm of the ordinary man and shift the boundaries between stability and uncertainty. In this context, the artistic practice of Marko Šajn acts as an invitation to slow down and reflect – what it means to stand by someone, to persevere together, and to be supportive.