IRWIN

IRWIN is a collective of Slovenian artists that is part of Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK). They describe their own work as “retro-principle” or “retro-avant-garde.” The group is emphatic about their work being collective rather than individual. The IRWIN artists never sign their work individually: instead, they are “signed” with a stamp or certificate indicating approval as a work from the IRWIN collective. They have exhibited widely, and created the NSK State-in-Time Pavillion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, curated by Zdenka Badovinac and Charles Esche, with installation by Ahmet Ögüt.

Although primarily painters, they have engaged in many collaborative works with other NSK art collectives, ranging from theater to music video. In 1992, in cooperation with Michael Benson, they created the performance Black Square on Red Square, in which a square of black cloth, 22 meters to a side, was unfurled on Moscow’s Red Square, in homage to Kazimir Malevich and suprematism. They have edited the volume East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe, published by Afterall Books in 2006.

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