Slavko Tihec placed his abstract Guidelines for Life composition on the exterior wall of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia building in Maribor, which was designed by the architect Milan Černigoj. The painted concave and convex surface protrudes from the façade. The composition was created in sgraffito by removing the plaster of the façade to produce a motif of imprecise details and a limited colour palette. The technique and undulating design of the surface emphasize the flow and dynamics of the composition, softening an otherwise static building.
Tihec’s Guidelines for Life are long, deep, and interlaced black lines of various width against a rose-coloured background. The remaining space is filled with smaller, softly blurred surfaces of white and dark red. This abstract image can be interpreted as an allusion to different paths in life. Each line represents a path an individual chooses, whose course, however, we cannot predict. The intertwinement and crossing over between the lines could be interpreted as common points of different decisions.
The abstract composition is an original in Slavko Tihec’s oeuvre, and cannot be compared with his other sculptures, such as the fan-like Trafficlights, the moving Aquamobiles or monuments created by the layering of structures (Liberation Monument in Maribor).
(Jure Donša, in the framework of the Creative Path to Knowledge project, Virtual guide; The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund)
