Almost like Olympia (2001/2012) is the title of a large-scale, “sewn” digital image. The title alludes to Manet’s Olympia from 1863. Olympia’s confrontational gaze caused shock and astonishment when the painting was first exhibited because a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute. The fact that Manet’s model Victorine Meurent was an ambitious artist and not a prostitute, as she was labeled, is a creative identificatory moment for me.
Odtisi in vtisi / Prints and Impressions
International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), Ljubljana
20 April – 17 June 2012
Curator: Breda Škrjanec
Impressions +386. Contemporary Slovenian Art Exhibition
Calcografía Nacional, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid
3 October – 17 November 2013
Curator: Breda Škrjanec
Tanja Lažetić: What’s Art Got to Do with It? (solo)
Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana
4 – 28 August 2016
Curator: Vladimir Vidmar
”Olympia in Almost like Olympia, a unique homage to Victorine Meurent, a model for Manet’s painting, features a woman who sought to be exceptional, but is remembered only through an ordinary moment of being one in a series of odalisques, the one who looked back at the viewer. ” Vladimir Vidmar
Olympia (2001/2020)
Olympia is a “sewn” digital image printed on canvas. It’s an homage to Victorine Meurent, a model for Édouard Manet’s painting. Olympia shocked the Parisian public in 1863 not because of its nudity, as the reclining Venus has always been naked, but it was her flirty gaze that tells us, that she is well aware of her sexuality. Victorine Meurent (also the model for Le Déjeuner sur L’herbe) was a painter, who even exhibited at the Paris Salon. The fact that Manet’s model was an ambitious artist and not a prostitute, as she was labeled, is a creative identificatory moment for me.
Europe Enterprise
Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
15 October 2020 – 26 October 2021
Curators: Danijela Dugandžić & Jelena Petrović
