Digitalna Umetnost + Nadrealizem Interview in Maturanska

A full-page interview published in the january 2005 edition of "Maturan&ka", a magazine for students. The magazine was published in 63.000 copies and distributed all over Slovenia.

Images from the interview:



Technology is connected to our generation since it's birth. Computers have become our tools for misc tasks: writing, drawing, creating, designing, ... They have become our right and left hands, our brains, with which we can do what we want and create things that are fantastic. Domen Lombergar, a young surrealistic artist thinks that he can create his imagery only by the use of the computer, thus giving them their true form.

Domen, what kind is your style?
My style is hyperrealistic, surrealistic, it means a runaway from reality.

What does your way of work look like?
Having acknowledged the fact that the whole art scene is "softwareizing" itself the whole process of my work is digital. I am working with a new media, one that is unacceptable for academic/school painters.

How many digital artists are there in Slovenia?
The numbers are ever-growing, but a majority of them are employed in advertising, due to the fact that the public is not ready for this kind of art.

Why isn't it ready?
Because our art is accepted differently. Most think that classicism, impressionism and expressionism is the real deal. And everything that has evolved with dadaism and after is is deviant, strange, ununderstandable.

And is your art really deviant or not?
Maybe it is, but that is a subjective remark. You could understand deviousness by the fact that you are creating scenes, which are impossible to see in real life. Impressionism for instance is drawing objects around you, but the motives in my images do not exist in reality.

The most common reaction to art, that is distant to the general public, is that it's "whateverish". Would you say that people do not understand your images due to the fact that they don't have anything to hold on to?
Because of surrealism you cannot watch my art solely from an objective point of view. The critiques of attendants of my exhibitions show how some of them feel something at a certain image, while others remain cold, some even shiver. There are those too, that say that this is the real art for them as they are experiencing emotions not evoked by any other art form.

What about you, do you understand your images?
My images emerge from my subconcious, where there is a lot hidden even from me. I find ideas in every step, I deepen myself in greek mythological tales and find a lot of inspiration from it. I feel the image inside me and then I just have to transform it into "flesh". I can create is solely on a digital media.

So your images are "unusual". What about your exhibitions?
My artwork is better accepted by the younger generation, therefore I exhibit in places where these people gather. I have been hosting DJs at exhibition openings, professional swing dancers, fire breathers and jugglers, food and drink is of course mandatory. I want to create a specific anbiental emotion (like you would feel in a pleasant space). The attendants of my exhibition come to watch my artwork and get something extra as well.

Due to the fact that you are young and not so known at the moment - do you think that it is hard to succeed in Slovenia?
Definetely. The first breaktrough is by far the hardest ... it's a highway from there. Connections are of course welcome, without them it's very hard to do anything anymore. I would as well have to state that the quality of art itself is not so important for the artist as is the acquired skill to promote yourself decently.

And how do you promote yourself?
I promote myself with my website and the content on it (free wallpapers etc.) with internet promoting and reciprocal linkage, trough art forums, with mailings, with an ambassador system of print sales. A huge amount of "advertising" however comes by word-of-mouth.

What is your oppinion of the future of digital art in Slovenia?
Digital art will be the future. The technique of painting will go trough computers, with which you will be able to use all the existing media and incorporate new ones.

Do you do anything else besides painting?
I work my daily bread as a graphic designer. I design cd artwork, magazines, books, calendars, posters for bands, etc. For instance - I made the whole design for the band Anavrin, whose posters you might see all over Ljubljana.

What are your ambitions and goals?
I want to become a famous name in digital art. I wish that my artwork will once become accepted as such. I hope to make it in Slovenia, if not worldwide. But most of all I hope to make such a big commercial to digital art that it'll in time have it's rightful place in galleries and be widely accepted by the general mainstream audience.

The interview was taken by a talented journalist Tjasa Polak and was conducted in December 2004.