Nastati, Institute for Art Projects and Creative Solutions

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Contact
Nastati, zavod za umetniške projekte in kreativne rešitve
Rimska 6, SI-1000 Ljubljana
Phone386 (0) 1 244 1777
Whose Water is it?, Project



Phone386 (0) 40 882 578



The Institute formally ended its activities in 2019. That same year the Ulay Foundation Project Space opened its doors in Ljubljana.

In March 2020, Ulay passed away.

Archival article


Nastati is a private institute for art projects and creative solutions founded by Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) (1943–2020) and Lena Pislak in November 2010. It aims to provide local solutions for global problems, develop a new communication platform for the values and dignity of different cultures and establish new links between art, science and community through a universal language. Their goal is to develop a platform of ideas and actions for educational, communal and artistic networking as a direct integral support system.


The name of the institute

The Slovenian word nastati means "to become" and could be also translated as awake, arise, emerge. In this suggestive spirit Nastati finds its mission, not just in formulating differences but more in taking actions. Becoming is a central term of the process-based philosophy that allows the individual to constantly change one's identity.

Nastati was also the title of Ulay's solo exhibition curated by Tevž Logar in Škuc Gallery in October 2009, dedicated to Ulay's early ontological photographs from 1968 to 1976. It included the screening of the Ulay in Photography documentary directed by Marjoeline Boonstra (1998) and the artist talk with Thomas McEvilley. For the occasion Škuc Gallery published the publication Ulay: Nastati with texts by Thomas McEvilley and Tevž Logar and an interview with Marina Abramović. The collaboration kicked off a year earlier when Ulay held a lecture Credibility of Photography in the frame of Željko Jerman's posthumous exhibition in Škuc.

Ulay moved to Ljubljana in 2010 and by the beginning of 2013 a film about him is set for release, directed by Damjan Kozole and produced by Vertigo/Emotionfilm.

Projects

Since the 1990s Ulay has been making mostly socially engaged projects. Currently he is working on water-themed projects that are questioning the fact that water resources are being privatised by global corporations.

In May 2012 there was an opening of the installation Whose Water Is It? (co-produced by Nastati Institute and Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012) in Judgement Tower in Maribor. The opening was accompanied with a concert by Charlemagne Palestine.

Whose Water Is It? encourages viewers to perceive water in the context of beauty. The light installation consists of a neon sign saying "Whose water is it?" which Ulay created in co-operation with the French art collective Société Réaliste. The sign is projected on the façade of the tower and reflected on the surface of the Drava River. Inside the tower there is a water reservoir and a heated iron surface where water evaporates.

Another project that Nastati Institute presented in the frame of Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012 was an interactive online gallery Earth Water Catalogue. It includes artworks dedicated to water by different artists.

Also included in the project were a House of Water, a place for lectures and other events, and Ulay's collection of water bottles (he has been collecting them for over twelve years).

See also

External links