Other Worlds and Landscapes of Escape

In the photographs of Maja Strgar Kurečić, reality is not a goal to be faithfully recorded, but a material to be set in motion. In a small glass vessel, the artist mixes water and pigment and observes how, under the influence of light, short-lived structures are born: forms that appear and disappear, change in an instant, and resist repetition. Photography here is not a document of "what is," but a trace of an event — the retention of a fleeting experience that remains open to the gaze. The exhibition is constructed as a continuous arc of two series. Other Worlds (2015–2018) opens a space toward the unknown: from the micro-world of liquids emerge scenes resembling planets, nebulae, and cosmic landscapes. A minimal procedure gains monumental suggestion, as if something infinite is unfolding in a small format. The key is not in "recognizing the motif," but in the moment of transition — where the visible refracts into imagination, and the image becomes a projection field of inner states. In the series Landscapes of Escape (2017–2019), the same elements shift to a calmer register. Instead of distances, places without geography are offered: scenes born of intuition, rhythm, and chance, in which time slows down, edges soften, and the need for explanation gives way to a feeling of quiet freedom. Together, the two series form a path from the exploration of perception and creative play toward visual meditation — images that are not approached "once," but returned to, because they change over time together with the viewer.