Everything is a work in which we observe in real-time the etching and transformation of a zinc printing plate submerged in a solution of copper sulphate, salt, and water—implementing the element of time in the most direct way through processuality. The reaction is strongest at first, then slows down, and over the three weeks of the exhibition, we witness the decomposition of a living organism—a presence of the natural cycle within the gallery space. In a deeply poetic, melancholic, yet direct way, the work shows how everything is subject to change and how nothing escapes time. The word revealed at the end—everything—also alludes to erosion and disappearance through time, while remaining open enough to allow multiple interpretations and inscriptions of meaning. The eroded material collects at the bottom of a plexiglass container. This process is different in each gallery space, yet always prompts the question: is it truly about disappearance or merely a transformation into another form, shape, vibration? The work also raises the question: can we preserve ideas and emotions from decay through writing, speech, fixing them in words? Is language enough for that? The traditions of conceptual art, processuality, and performativity converge here in a work that painfully and beautifully reveals the effects of the passage of time.

Tanja Špoljar