This project is a metaphor.
What happens when you say something is a metaphor? You designate that ‘something’ as that what it is but also as ‘something else’. You create a space for anyone who engages with this ‘something’ to co-create what ‘something else’ might be. By naming his personal artistic practice a metaphor, Vedran Kopljar wilfully creates this space and the opportunity for anyone who engages with it to co-create what else it might be.
What is the potential of metaphorizing artistic practices? Can the artistic archive be an embodiment of an artistic practice? How does painting relate to metaphor? Is a book a theoretical model? How can an academy function as a metaphor? These are just some of the questions summoned by Kopljar’s designation of his practice as a metaphor and reflection on it. The designation is rooted in the division of his practice into sub-practices and the subsequent discovery of their functioning. The sub-practices evolved from works or long-term projects into distinct forms and became semi-autonomous practices with their own distinct methodology, archiving and documentation. By reflecting on this breakdown of his artistic practice into these sub-practices he has come to see their potential as metaphors, and they have evolved to function as such. In this process he has come to question the role of metaphor on the level of artistic practices, instead of on the level of the artwork itself.
Promotors: Nico Dockx (Academy) and Arthur Cools (UAntwerp)
(image: Vedran Kopljar, 'A METAPHOR Fig. 0')
