Sara Bezovšek
SND
An interactive website named SND (Introduction to Nature and Society – a common subject in Slovenian elementary schools) plucks its visitors from their idyllic starting position and leads them through possible futures of our planet – natural catastrophes such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, fires and tsunamis, overpopulation, ice ages, worldwide pandemics, alien invasions, nuclear explosions, meteor strikes, and other potential apocalyptic scenarios.
Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2020–. Courtesy of the artist.
Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2020–. Courtesy of the artist.
The content that the artist has found online, e.g. short videos, clips from popular films and TV series, memes, photographs, GIFs, pop culture references, emojis and hyperlinks to various articles, forms a complex and visually saturated narrative which follows the premise of a typical Hollywood film. In the nooks and crannies of her online project, there are numerous additional links and other content that visitors to the site can use for their own exploration of given topics and for choosing their own paths that can lead them to a variety of different futures for humankind. SND (2020–) is an ongoing project and currently encompasses multiple subsites/videos with titles such as You Are Here, Human Extinction, False Utopia, Overpopulation, Evacuate Earth, Nuclear Winter and Through the Wormhole. In an era marked by doomscrolling, conspiracy theories, climate change-related anxiety and political tensions, in which we often question our way of life and wonder about our existence in the future, SND uses the medium of the website to depict the general feeling of unease and helplessness that we experience whenever we see what is going on in the world.
In her work, visual artist Sara Bezovšek appropriates materials she finds online to create new narratives. Her focus is on what people look at and share on social media, on how visuals are transmitted around the internet, on how these visuals are influenced by different contexts and how they themselves impact people. Within the context of the post-internet paradigm, hers is a space in which online content and references are a consistent and indispensable part of the world we live in.
In her work, visual artist Sara Bezovšek appropriates materials she finds online to create new narratives. Her focus is on what people look at and share on social media, on how visuals are transmitted around the internet, on how these visuals are influenced by different contexts and how they themselves impact people. Within the context of the post-internet paradigm, hers is a space in which online content and references are a consistent and indispensable part of the world we live in.
Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2020–. Courtesy of the artist.
Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2020–. Courtesy of the artist.
Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2020–. Courtesy of the artist.
Sara Bezovšek (1993) is a visual artist focused on new media, experimental film and graphic design, in which she also holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In her work, she is researching, archiving and collaging visual references that she discovers while browsing the web and watching films and TV series. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, among others in Ljubljana at the Aksioma project space, Kamera in Kino Šiška, Osmo/za, sloART, DobraVaga, P74 and SCCA-Ljubljana, online in Feral File, in Maribor at Kiblix and MFRU, and in Koper at IZIS. SND has been showcased at the online biennial The Wrong Biennale and on the online platform Do Not Research. She was the recipient of the Prešeren Award for Students in 2018 and was nominated for the OHO Young Artist Award in 2022. She received the main award at the Ljubljana Short Film Festival (FeKK) for one of her short films in 2021 and the Vesna award for the best Slovenian experimental film in 2022.
Etc. is a annual magazine, dedicated to showcasing current artistic production from the Baltic to the Balkans.
Based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, each issue is dedicated to a relevant topic in art and life. Founded to promote emerging artists, its goal is to initiate a dialogue, inspire collaborations, and challenge set views.