Žiga Kariž is one of the “artists” who is professionally latched on to the state budget and who renamed himself to Janez Janša a few years ago in the name of protest, together with two of his far-left activist colleagues. This time, he once again wanted to break the boringness of his otherwise dull personality and art with the shock therapy of empty, perverse art.
Dušan Josip Smodej is more a rule than the exception on the Slovenian perverse art scene.
On Žiga Kariž’s home page on Wikipedia, which all the insignificant Slovenian people usually write by themselves, he wrote that he is more dedicated to ideology than to the expansion of the art branch – painting. Recently, he once again shocked the public with the image of Donald Duck, which has a vagina instead of its typical Disney beak – and not a drawn vagina, but a very real vagina with a prominent clitoris and labia held apart by a woman’s fingers.
Yes, this is Slovenian “radiator” art. Because it has nothing to show, because it has no depth, it just wants to provoke and bring a catharsis about with shock – but it always fails. All it is capable of is a shock for shock’s sake, like a teenager who pees during class and is then applauded by his or her classmates.
One Twitter user commented on this so-called art piece by writing: “Žiga Kariž is one of the three contemporary artists who changed their names to Janez Janša in 2007. His latest work of art is a photograph of female genitalia – the artist in question cannot produce more than that, and he probably would not survive without the state’s help. This is enough to make a person vomit and want to make all of these artists do some physical labour! Shameful!”
Namely, during the first government of Janez Janša, the director Emil Hrvatin, the visual artist Žiga Kariž, and the performer Davide Grassi all changed their names to Janez Janša, and of course, the Slovenian left avant-garde applauded them for the boring idea.
An artist who is obsessed with pornography
Kariž, who is obsessed with pornography (a few years ago, he exhibited pornographic artefacts under the title PornoPop), is also a friend of Nika Kovač, given that they appeared together in a photo, and this time, the infamous director of the non-governmental organisation the Institute of the 8th of March (Inštitut 8. marec) will probably not be able to claim that she does not know him at all. Kariž is – so say our sources – a regular participant in the “porno” parties of Dušan Smodej and the recently deceased Roman Uranjek.
The Slovenian left-wing and avant-garde scenes obviously have a lot of things in common. And the “radiator” affair will apparently resonate for at least as long and destroy as many political careers as the Baričevič affair.
Andrej Žitnik
