Litera(l) wor(l)ds, 2026

3D ceramic clay prints (~8×9×7cm), metal table construction covered with ready-made letterpress shelves, lettrrpress cupboards, synthetic textile masks with digital print

ARTIST: With the project Litera(l) wor(l)ds, I look at printmaking (graphic art, estampage) through the prism of language. I apply concepts developed by 20th-century Western European thinkers to explain language in the context of printmaking: the signified of the print / the signifier of the print / the discourse of the print / the medium of the print. Complicated words, but simply put: according to Saussure, language is a chain between thought and its naming: a cup is the objectification of the thought of a cup < the thought of a cup is the naming of the thought of a vessel < the thought of a vessel is the naming of the need to scoop or draw something < the need to draw is the naming of thirst < and whose naming is thirst? From where do all signifieds (signs) and signifiers arise? The epicenter of this project is the litera — the unit of movable type printing — which is both signified and signifier, both imprint and cliché. Perhaps typography unites language and art? Because it objectifies language. And what is objectified language: which word becomes flesh? This is the type project, where I creted 3D ceramic objects- letters-mugs, which were used for the performance. During the presentation of the project 7 masked people came with two metal letterpress cupboards, walking round placed metal letterpress shelves on a metal table construction, creating the worktop. Then they started constructing words out of the objects, while reading a monolog of litera, where it thinks, if it becomes an artwork, because it is objectified (the monolog was based on a trascript of video artwork of austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm, where “Fat House” thinks if it is an artwork, because it is fat, I changed words “house” into “letter” and “fat” into “objectified”). In the end the phrase “litera(l) worlds” appears and masked people, created words “be” and “leave” by themselves, take the masks off. While visitors are coming to the table to look what has happened, performers come back with water containers, change letter “l” and fill mugs with water. “(Literal words)” leaves on the table.