Presentation of the book Men Face Down by Matjaž Wenzel
You are cordially invited to the presentation of the book Men Face Down by Matjaž Wenzel. The book was created with the support of the Maribor Art Gallery and the EMPACT project as part of the triennial exhibition EKO 9, which is this year entitled Eyes in the Stone. The presentation of the book is part of the EKO 9 Triennial programme and will feature the author of the book and some of the people portrayed. The presentation of the book will be followed by a gathering in the garden of the old sanatorium.
A generation that has undergone sweeping changes in values and the social fabric, growing up with humanism and coming of age in a world of pragmatic materialism.
The beginnings of the Men Face Down project date back more than a decade – a time when the city of Maribor was given a little more breathing space in the rather loose bubble of cultural inspiration. The book focuses visually and textually on two dozen men (or people who consider themselves to be men) from the creative landscape of Maribor. The author’s approach to the publication lies in questioning and resisting contemporary public image and the representation of public figures in the populist media landscape. In the book Men Face Down, the authors approach this phenomenon from the opposite, recalcitrant point of view – that of vulnerability and sincerity. This is borne out both in the visual aspect of the reclining figure and in the text, which is based on intimate conversations with the people portrayed.
Matjaž Wenzel is an artist working in the fields of photography, video and graphic design. He graduated from the University of Maribor. After several jobs as an art teacher, he founded the studio for photography and graphic design MILIMETER. He has designed several books and book covers for various publishers. He has presented his photographic work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, the Maribor Art Gallery, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles, the International Photographic Salon (Tokyo), the Pavillon Populaire, the Musée Fabre (Montpellier) and Nuit Blanche (Paris). He has received numerous awards and accolades, including the awards for the best designed book in 2007, 2017 and 2018 at the Slovenian Book Fair in Ljubljana, the Glazer Award of the City of Maribor (2011) and nominations for the Prix Albert Renger-Patzsch (Museum Folkwang, Essen, 2009), the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 2009) and the OHO Group Award (Ljubljana, 2007). He lives and works in Maribor.
Editor, author of photography, graphic design:
Matjaž Wenzel
Texts:
Rene Maurin, Jure Mikuž, Miran Pustoslemšek
Texts of the portrayed persons (2012–2024):
Andrej Brumen Čop, Andrej Cvetnič, Matej Dečko, Sebastijan Duh, Borut Gombač, Mišo Hochstätter, Aleš Horvat, Jure Ivanušič, Boris Kolar, Bojan Labovič, Matjaž Latin, Rene Maurin, Marko Ornik, Borut Popenko, Rok Predin, Primož Premzl, Dejan Pušenjak, Miran Pustoslemšek, Sašo Rek, Marko Samec, Bojan Sedmak, Simon Šerbinek, Andrej H. Štruc, Rok Vilčnik, Borut Wenzel, Matjaž Wenzel, Peter Žiger
Editing:
Ksenija Vidic
English translation:
Ksenija Vidic, Rene Maurin
Published by:
Matjaž Wenzel for Studio MILIMETER, www.milimeter.si
Format:
217.5 x 280 mm
Photographs:
47 original photographs
Number of pages:
144
Binding:
Swiss binding
Copies:
500
Maribor, 2024
