Transdisciplinary artist who explored the fluid boundaries between consciousness, technology, and the future
“The 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts has been dedicated to the Slovenian artist Dr Vesna Petresin (BSc PhD FRSA) who died in May 2025 on the eve of the biennale. According to Chus Martinez, biennale director, while suffering what would be the end of her fight with cancer, she oversaw the installation of her work and, signing it off, passed away days later. A multimedia artist of international renown, her final work encapsulates not just her career but also the themes of this year’s biennale. Making a poignant statement about the nature of utopianism, science and immersive consciousness, her piece asks us to consider our position as it relates to the future.
The piece Autonomous Energy Machine (2025), created in collaboration with her father Prof Dr Eugen Petrešin (scientist, see details below), contains signature elements from her career: fluid dynamics, water, generative structures, energy and synaesthetic immersion. Many of these themes/subjects were rooted in both her academic background as a student but also her continued work as an educator. Her work, as for many artists, drew on the totality of her experiences: academic, aesthetic, musical, literary and of course that shadowy source, ineffable inspiration.”
