Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko
THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS
Andrej Beštak and Anja Leko revealed a soft poetic space with their ambient installation, that came to life at the opening of the exhibition in the form of an extended, anthropomorphic sculpture. In THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS (2022), they are reflecting on the transformative role of forgetting as a meditative method that places us somewhere in between being and not being. In this process, they take us to a sort of pre-state, to a pre-linguistic mass that eludes discursive interpretations – to an affective zone that resists the rationalization of the
intellect.
intellect.
Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS, 2022. Photo: Juraj Vuglač / HDLU, Zagreb. 
Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS, video still, 2022. Courtesy of the artists.
Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS, video still, 2022. Courtesy of the artists.
Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS, video still, 2022. Courtesy of the artists.They transport us into these subtle fluctuations with a bold visual language that communicates directly with the viewer, the exhibition and the space itself. Ceramic fingers protrude from the installation, exploring this newly-sprouted space around it. Ethereal animations draw us into a world where forgetting becomes the primary meditative tool. What can we learn from forgetting? Our history, our memories, and our position in society all lose their meaning and value, we are seized and transported to a new world, refreshed as a newborn with a cognitive blank slate.
Self-help, transcendental meditation and manifestation belong to the everyday vocabulary of our generation as a response, an integral part and result of the neoliberal call for productive development and individual discovery. Andrej Beštak and Anja Leko create an oasis in which, instead of water, we find forgetfulness as a lifesaving elixir.
Text by KUĆĆA (Jurica Mlinarec, Klara Petrović, Luja Šimunović)
The project was produced for the 36th Youth Salon’s central exhibition PARASITES (2022, Meštrović Pavilion – Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Zagreb) curated by KUĆĆA curatorial collective.
Supported by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media.
Self-help, transcendental meditation and manifestation belong to the everyday vocabulary of our generation as a response, an integral part and result of the neoliberal call for productive development and individual discovery. Andrej Beštak and Anja Leko create an oasis in which, instead of water, we find forgetfulness as a lifesaving elixir.
Text by KUĆĆA (Jurica Mlinarec, Klara Petrović, Luja Šimunović)
The project was produced for the 36th Youth Salon’s central exhibition PARASITES (2022, Meštrović Pavilion – Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Zagreb) curated by KUĆĆA curatorial collective.
Supported by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media.
Andrej Beštak & Anja Leko, THIS IS HOW WE HIKE RAINBOWS, 2022. Photo: Juraj Vuglač / HDLU, Zagreb.
Andrej Beštak (1993) and Anja Leko (1991) are an artist duo from Zagreb, currently living in Reykjavik. In their artistic practice, which usually includes installation, performance, and video works, they are interested in urban mythologies, spiritual experiences, techno music, club culture, individualism, materialism, heavy industry, collective memory, body, oblivion, future of the body, virtuality, object/subject relationship, etc. They consider themselves storytellers who use visual language and sounds rather than words to create an emotional dialog between an artwork and its audience. They both finished their studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. As an artist duo, they participated in different exhibitions, such as in the Jelsa Art Biennial in Hvar (2021), at the 36th Youth Salon PARASITE in Meštrović Pavilion in Zagreb (2022), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (2022). They received the Grand Prix at the 36th Youth Salon in 2022.
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