Silvan Omerzu

Silvan Omerzu’s installations welcome us to each exhibition venue, entering into a dialogue with each space, its history and significance, as well as with the whole of The Oracle. As a sculptor, puppet designer, and director, Omerzu’s work is based in storytelling, masterfully navigating between addressing children or adults, never underestimating his audience, and delivering complex messages in his signature visual style.

The installations linger between the theatrical and the sculptural, frozen in motion or left to their automated movements. Even so, their expressiveness and the scenographic quality of the scenes are relatable and legible. Observing them feels like taking in lines from a book, or almost hearing the spoken words of a theatrical performance.

In Švicarija, the artist draws upon the work of Ivan Cankar, one of the most important Slovene writers, poets, and playwrights, as well as a former inhabitant of Švicarija (the then Tivoli Hotel) who once called it “the refuge of sinners”. The installation is inspired by Cankar’s novel Hiša Marije Pomočnice (The House of Our Lady, Help of Christians, 1904), which tells the story of sick and abused girls trapped in a poorhouse, where they wait for death in a shelter from the violent world. The puppets thus portray the darker side of man’s nature, as well as the possibility and the need for hope and salvation.