BENJAMIN PÉRET about SLAVKO KOPAC

We would not know how to introduce Slavko Kopac as we would any other artist; was he the most talented in the world, since he does not offer at all to present his artistic approach to our time, but, on the contrary, places himself at the very birth of art, at the point where a child — which dwells in the heart of every man — discovers the world and is delighted with it. Such a position implies a deep innocence of the original and non-existent, however brilliant; there is no way to get it; at most, can he simulate it without hoping to deceive anyone?

The authenticity of Slavko Kopac precisely lies in that very innocence which transforms him into a creator of a personal and familiar folklore, just like all the folk beliefs at their source. His comes from the street (“The terrace is behind”) to desires for travels and adventures which haunt his existence of a sedentary artist, because he is as much a painter as he is a ceramist. Better still, he paints on ceramics like others on gouache. As opposed to primitive painters who, from the material, extract characters of their myths, he offers beings that wait for their stories and totems which claim their people. Do not children do the same? His work, in any case, renders the pure sound of the first crystal and nothing appears that does not have the essential character of an intimate necessity, such as the will-o’-the-wisp coming from the depths of the pond. What more is needed to appreciate and to love him?