performance / Neja Tomšič
About the Performance
Untangling a Garden is an artistic research project dedicated to Rafut Park, one of the first exotic gardens on Slovenian territory. Interweaving stories from its history with its botany, it unravels the imaginations of the park and looks at the historical, cultural, mythological and symbolic aspects of its territory, tracing in it the threads of rich cultural exchanges between Egypt and Slovenia.
Untangling a garden combines the imaginations of two parks: the Rafut Park (one of the first exotic parks in Slovenia) near Nova Gorica, and the garden of the so-called 'Alexandrine women' (thousands of women who migrated to Egypt to work in the professions of care) in Alexandria. Rafut Park was abandoned for a long time and grew into a paradise garden. The garden in Alexandria became only a whisper. Untangling a garden unfolds before us an overgrown landscape of these two gardens. In it, it juxtaposes fragments of histories, creating a new, imaginary garden in which trees and plants become co-narrators and the garden becomes the materialisation of overgrown narratives and images.
About the Artist
Neja Tomšič is research-based visual artist, storyteller, performer and ritual maker, working with drawing, objects and sound, interested in long processes and slow work. Her practice reflects on dominant historical narratives, researches into particularities, and creates situations in which new understandings of the present can be formed. Her Opium Clippers performance saw more than 120 repetitions and was presented in 16 countries. Her artist book Opium Clippers published by Rostfrei Publishing was the recepient of the Best Slovenian Artist Book in 2017/2018 award and the Best Book Design at the Slovenian Book Fair. She is a member of the Nonument Group that was awarded the Plečnik medal for their contribution to architectural culture. Neja also co-founded MoTA (Museum of Transitory Art), a Ljubljana-based research and production platform devoted to transitory art, where she worked as a producer and international projects coordinator between 2007 and 2020 and was the director of SONICA festival from 2017 to 2021. She lives and works in Ljubljana.