ODSTREL (BLAST-OFF). POSTERS, 1983–1987

This time around, architectural historian Bogo Zupančič is presented as a poster designer. He created posters while studying architecture at the University of Ljubljana. In the mid-1980s, at the dawn of postmodernism and alternative movements, the artist used this medium to pursue his artistic impulses. He designed posters for parties, ski trips, and other events at his faculty, lectures, exhibitions, youth labour drives, and the theatre. He created them spontaneously or “overnight,” using simple art media on the back sides of discarded study sheets in basic (100 cm × 70 cm) or double-sized (200 cm ×140 cm) format. As he participated in student poster competitions, his pencil and pastel drawings with punchy slogans in an initially more painting style gradually transformed into a more graphic technique and collage drawing with plastic adhesive tape on a pastel background. These unique posters were gradually followed by printed ones. From a narrow interest group, within which the posters first began to be created, they gradually reached a wide circle of people through their message and artistic value.

The exhibition Odstrel showcases thirty posters, which we present to the Slovenian public for the first time in their entirety to mark the artist’s sixtieth birthday. Also displayed at the exhibition are his comic books, study drawings, and short film Come ti chiami? (What’s Your Name?)