LAZE TRIPKOV: Immersive Transformation of the Glagolitic

At a time when images, information and digital experiences circulate with unprecedented speed, Immersive Transformation of the Glagolitic: Entering Memory, Body and Digital Space by Laze Tripkov creates a space for slower and more critical reflection. Presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, the exhibition approaches technology not as spectacle, but as a medium through which cultural memory, identity and human presence can be reconsidered in contemporary digital environments.

At the centre of the project is the Glagolitic alphabet, the oldest Slavic script. In Tripkov’s artistic research, it is not treated only as a historical artefact, but as a living structure of meaning through which memory, identity, spirituality and digital subjectivity can be reactivated.

For curator Lenka Sýkorová, this transformation shifts the Glagolitic sign from a historical visual form toward a “living narrative experience.” Her curatorial approach considers how typography can activate memory and identity, and how immersive technologies can allow cultural codes to remain relevant through new forms of experience.

The exhibition transforms the letter from a static sign into an active encounter. Through posters, three-dimensional objects, animation, augmented and virtual reality, spatial sound, haptic feedback and interactive environments, the Glagolitic signs move beyond the flat surface. The visitor is no longer only an observer; the body enters the work and becomes part of the process through which meaning is created.

The exhibition develops through a gradual dramaturgy: from the printed poster and spatial objects toward animation and multisensory immersive environments. Rather than simply presenting a chronology of media, this movement gradually dissolves the distance between the human being, the script and space.

Co-curator Vladimir Jančevski situates this dialogue within what he describes as “the image through the gaps of the archaic and the new.” The phrase captures a central tension of the project: the Glagolitic alphabet is deeply rooted in history, yet its forms possess a visual autonomy that allows them to function convincingly within contemporary digital environments.

Detached from the manuscript page, enlarged, animated and spatialised, the letters become environments, portals and responsive digital bodies. They appear simultaneously ancient and contemporary, suggesting that cultural heritage does not survive only by remaining unchanged, but also through continuous reinterpretation.

Although the exhibition uses advanced digital technologies, its focus remains profoundly human. Immersion is understood not simply as a sensory effect, but as a cultural and emotional condition — a way of entering memory, questioning identity and experiencing heritage as something alive and evolving.

Through the dialogue between Tripkov’s artistic research, Sýkorová’s emphasis on a “living narrative experience,” and Jančevski’s reflection on “the archaic and the new,” the exhibition proposes cultural memory as something dynamic — inherited, embodied, questioned and continually recreated.

The Glagolitic alphabet therefore returns not as a remnant of history, but as an active contemporary medium capable of producing new meaning in the present.