Not so long ago my four year old son asked me, "Are mountains living beings? Is the ocean a living being?" He thanked the wind this past summer for bringing him a breeze of fresh air while walking in extreme heat. He experiences everything as animate.

I see the Atelier as animate, like a very old person whose passing is imminent. I wonder what will happen to the wisdom and knowledge this place holds after it goes through renovation. What will remain? What will be carried on?

I am responding to the pulsating energy of the place radiating through the layers of history that are peeling off its walls. The Atelier is fragile, cracking under the weight of time, like a very old person. I am thinking about the interconnectedness of nature and architecture, culture, society, creation, education and heritage, about the cyclicity of life and transformation, about fragility and resistance.

This exhibition was born in my thoughts in this very place and then manifested itself in physical form at the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science Zagreb, titled Pendulum. Now, having evolved and morphed like a living organism adapting to a new environment, it is coming back and shifting from speaking about relationships between people and nature, to contemplating the relationships between places, architecture and cities with nature and man.
SofijaSilvia (excerpt from the statement)

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On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Atelier 11, L’AiR Arts former resident artist SofijaSilvia returns to Cité Falguière to prepare a solo exhibition, reflecting on Atelier 11’s rich legacy as a historic hub for artistic reflection and creation.

The collaboration between SofijaSilvia and L’AiR Arts began in 2022, when the artist participated in a residency at Atelier 11 to prepare her solo exhibition Pendulum, which was presented in April 2023 in Zagreb, Croatia. Commissioned by the Art Pavilion Zagreb and realized at the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science in Zagreb, the exhibition was originally conceived within the context of the botanical garden. It now “returns” through its organic evolution to Atelier 11 — a space that inspired and nourished the artist’s thoughts, further enriched by a series of coincidences linking the three locations.