It’s been fourteen years since his first invasion of the Slovenian capital, and now the notorious Frenchman Invader is back in Ljubljana, this time with an official exhibition he’s calling Invader: Prints on Paper. Officially opened in December at the International Centre of Graphic Art, it’s valiantly and patiently opening and closing due to local health restrictions. But check your “local listings” and try to visit by May of 2021 when the show ends its unscheduled, scheduled run.
Curated by Božidar Zrinski this presentation is a fascinating retrospective of works on paper from 2001 to 2020 which provides the process and blueprint of his glorious madness. Enormous energy and passion have resulted in a dizzying 3960 invaders placed in 79 cities worldwide, the urban artist has been stealthily, architecturally laser pointing the myriad effects of technology on society, has had on contemporary culture.
\The silkscreens, lithographs, woodcuts, and four-color process prints currently on view in Lubljanja are not Paris-based artist's chosen mediums, but over the years, he has experimented with a diverse range of techniques in order to give his signature mosaics new methods of exposure. The big, focused overview of his practice beyond the street interventions and invasions, presents different paper forms of the infamous aliases (mosaics depicting the iconic Space Invaders characters), printed versions of works from Rubikcubism series (works created with Rubik cubes as mediums), a variety experimentations with the print techniques and 8-bit graphics. A special treat is the selection of 24 invasion maps chronicling the artist's invasion of those cities, each revealing the exact location of the works.
Marking the exhibition, an extensive retrospective catalog Prints on Paper, Catalogue raisonné 2001–2020 will be published sometime after February 2021, alongside books, graphic prints, and other items related to the Invader. —Sasha Bogojev
Photo credits: Jaka Babnik / MGLC Archive
