A multi-monitor installation by Andrej Zdravic creates a mesmerizing illusion of water flowing in time and space across the 7m-wide video monitor horizon. The artist's unique exploration of river phenomena is enhanced by a multi-channel natural soundscape.

Secrets of Soca is a 33-minute garland of songs of the river Soca (so:cha). The songs unveil the power of flowing water, and play with your perception of time and space.

The message of Soca is in its primal aerial clarity. The pulse of the river, its shapes and colors are created by rocks, the sun, the spinning Earth .... Soca's volume, forever moving on, creates a sense of peace in those who watch it.

The crystalline river Soca flows in the Julian Alps, Slovenia.
Andrej Zdravic made his first film in 1973 in the valley of Soca. Already as a five year old boy, he experienced the wonders of Soca while playing in its pools. Hence his fascination with water, which he has been exploring with a film camera around the world for more than twenty years. His first underwater Soca filming experiments in 1987 inspired him to devise a special tool to capture Soca from unique, as yet unseen perspectives.

The installation Secrets of Soca, is based on Zdravic's original installation concept Time Horizon, which he first realized in Water Waves (1992) for the Exploratorium - a museum of Science, Art and Human perception in San Francisco.

His Time Horizon installations are also permanently exhibited the Kalamazoo Public Museum (Michigan), the National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung (Taiwan) and the Triglav National Park Information Centre, Trenta (Slovenia). Presented at EXPO'98.

New Time Horizon programs on volcanoes, sea ice, forests, and other natural phenomena are in the making.

Riverglass (V steklu reke), a video film by Andrej Zdravic (1997, 41 min.) is a companion piece to the Secrets of Soca installation and the culmination of the 5-year Soca project. It should be noted that, although Riverglass deals with the same subject matter as the installation Secrets of Soca - Time Horizon, it is a very different work both in terms of visual composition and the use of sound and contains many new materials. It was designed for a single-screen projection as opposed to the multi-monitor installation. It is a completely different experience.
Through the liquid lens of crystalline water we perceive, perhaps for the first time, the magical underwater world of turquoise volumes, flying bubbles, pulsating sun membranes, dancing stones....

Riverglass is available on VHS. Additional information about Andrej Zdravic's films and installations can be obtained from: