From the very beginning, when the idea of a joint project barely took off, Parada was a very ambitious store. The idea that this will also become a place for socializing and promoting local design was very present all the time. Since we are not easily noticed and it is necessary to climb into the atrium before visiting our store, we will always try to reward the persistent curious with breathtaking views. Our beautiful atrium already performs this task successfully, and we will do our best to upgrade this experience accordingly.
The first such opportunity came already in December 2019, when we organized a sales exhibition of wire sculptures and drawings on paper bags by the painter Branet Širca in our atrium and also in the Parade premises. In order to make the cable cars stand out even more clearly, in the atrium, in accordance with the time of year and the approaching holidays, we have placed a real small spruce forest. The positive reactions of the visitors further encouraged us and strengthened our desire that the Parade, together with the space in which it is located, would always bring something new and fresh.
Brane Širca uses different approaches and materials in his creations and explores different techniques - from sculpture to graphics and painting. He is interested in various aspects of human life, beliefs and values. He is particularly sensitive to the position of man/artist in the era of brutal capitalism, which is why he is especially keen on researching the influence of the worship of money on our lives.
What did the artist want to tell us with the cable cars? It's best if we ask him. This is how the artist described his wire portraits:
For the wire portraits, which I named WIRES, I use a basic artistic element - a line, which I do not draw with a pencil this time, but I design the portraits with wire. The coiled wire, the wire line of the face, draws a shadow drawing on the gallery wall with light, so that we can see the wire portraits in a new dimension.
I am thinking about modern man and his role in a society of continuous technological progress. In an ironic way, I show images of people drawn from wire: an element of modern society that shapes today's times. Wires are everywhere, in all electronic devices, through which information flows and energy travels, which is the engine of this society. The cable cars thus depict ordinary people who are located within these cable networks. They are empty spaces surrounded by an impenetrable mass of wires. A very current topic today, not only among artists, but throughout Western civilization, where people have begun to question the meaning of continuous technological and informational progress. It is this doubt that is the main message of these silent images made of intertwined wire, which stare at us and ask us for salvation.