PPAC: Prekmurje 1. – Robert Jurak

When Marsha asked me recently what my next public art series would be, I still had no idea. And yet today starts a new series from Prekmurje, the region in the NE Slovenia that is a part of the vast Pannonian plain. First comes Robert Jurak, a welder artist.

Prekmurje means “the land over the Mura river”. It lies in north-easternmost part of the country with Hungary to the right, Croatia below and Austria on top, or in the chicken head if Slovenia is in the shape of a chicken and many claim it is.

In the summer of 2019 amore and I visited my friend from this region and she kindly showed us around. This whole series will be from that one day, July 30th. This time it will be mostly about architecture, but let’s start with some sculptures.

Lendava is a town with about 3000 inhabitants. We visited the castle above for the indoor exhibition of two painters, which doesn’t make art public enough for this challenge, or does it? I’m afraid I will have to infiltrate some of that in my series too. One of the two featured artists was Friedensreich Hundertwasser, one of my favourites.

But before we entered the castle, I was blown away by the metallic cows and fish on display around it. They were part of another exhibition called “Welded World” by an artist from the region called Robert Jurak. When we were done with the indoor exhibits, I had a peek behind the castle and sure enough found more Robert’s sculptures on display there. The birds were especially eye-catching. He made them after the drawings by one of his painter friends.

This is just one bit of info that I learned recently from a documentary about him on TV Slovenia. He said that his masterpiece was still to come. Take your time, Robert. We are waiting.

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  The first thing I saw. What the…?

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  Pharaoh’s Dreams. Seven Lean Cows, 2012.

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  They are certainly lean…

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  His exhibition poster with some artefacts behind.

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  Amore is marvelling at one fish.

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  The rest of the fish with two more behind.

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  I forget the story behind this one.

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  He built this throne for Slovenian boxing champion Dejan Zavec.

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  I saw this path leading behind the castle and followed it.

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  I remember these from the documentary. It’s the Silent Orchestra!

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  Many more artefacts are in hiding here.

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  A TV set/painting combo (my observation).

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  Here come the one-leg birds. Must be the storks. This is their territory. Robert says he loves them.

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  With the rest of the verticals.

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  A bird closeup. Scary or smiling?

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  Robert certainly prefers metal to stone. In the film he wonders why some artists take big beautiful slabs of stone and then smash them into little pieces.

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  No, he didn’t have anything to do with this spire, but it’s a fitting addition.

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  They look like skyscrapers.

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  One more look at the Silent Orchestra.

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  I like these and will let them close my post. Next time we shall have a peek indoors.

For Photographing Public Art Challenge (PPAC) hosted by Marsha at Always Write

This day in my blogging history

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  2016: One Trastevere Thursday Door

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  2016: I come and click and sometimes feel proud

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  2017: Nomen est omen with a surprising name found in “Slovenian Tuscany”

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  2019: Set your worries down. 2019 started with a series of glorious sunsets