Bojan Brecelj
Martin Bricelj
Vuk Cosic
Davide Grassi
Igor Stromajer
Brane Zorman
Tomaz Gregoric
Dejan Habicht
Tanja Lazetic
ziga Kariz
Andreja Kuluncic
Borut Peterlin
Franc Purg
Tobias Putrih
Random Logic
Son:Da
SaSo Vrabic
Tao Grega
Sambolec Vrhovec
Christine Van Assche
The exhibition of the 4th Triennial, entitled Here and There, is conceived and selected by the chief curator of the new media department at the Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Christine Van Assche. It concentrates on the concept of the museum, which has changed tremendously over the last fifty years.
Artists:
Bojan Brecelj, Martin Bricelj, Vuk Ćosić, Davide Grassi & Igor Stromajer & Brane Zorman, Tomaz Gregoric, Dejan Habicht & Tanja Lazetić, ziga Kariz, Andreja Kuluncić, Borut Peterlin, Franc Purg, Tobias Putrih, Random Logic, Son:Da, SaSo Vrabic, Tao Grega Sambolec Vrhovec
Guest Curator: Christine Van Assche, Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
The Moderna galerija Ljubljana instituted the Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Art in 1994 to provide a periodic overview of the current situation in contemporary Slovene art through the subjective eye of a curator/selector, drawing attention to works which are, according to the selector, the best and closest to the sensibility of the time. To assure a certain level of objectivity, the selector of every second Triennial is a foreign curator, since this emphasizes the purpose of the event: to underline differences in aesthetic concepts as well as in professional, critical, cultural, political and social positions.
The selector of the first Triennial was Tomaz Brejc who stressed the presence of the modernist tradition in contemporary Slovene art, the predominant medium being painting. Peter Weibel, curator of the Triennial in 1997, based his selection on the fact that digital media and technology have radically changed not only our opinions about art but also our perception of time and space. He singled out works of Slovene art that explore the areas he usually encounters in the international space: displacement, the issue of the local or geopolitical basis of the subject, the issue of communication as a sentiment of remoteness rather than closeness, the problem of medialization and contextualization and the critique of the museum as an institution and of the system in which art functions. The selector for the 2000 Triennial, Gregor Podnar, prepared an exhibition called Vulgata, which focused on the issue of Slovene national identity and was based on social constructs. The selection of the artists was not based on nationality (the selected authors were not only Slovene nationals but also artists who worked in Slovenia at that time).
The exhibition of the 4th Triennial, entitled Here and There , is conceived and selected by the chief curator of the new media department at the Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Christine Van Assche. It concentrates on the concept of the museum, which has changed tremendously over the last fifty years.
"Built as a temple for the arts in the 40s and 50s, the museum was then protecting the artworks, isolating the artists and their works from the world.
Over the last ten years, a new economy of the museum has emerged, as institutions have started to look for funds, which changed their general configuration: shops, restaurants, parking lots, pedagogical and tourists' visits have progressively appeared in their programs. Architects created buildings based on this new conception of the museum, taking into account the context and the urban environment. The buildings became transparent and opened their doors widely.
Similarly, the artists searched for new ways to communicate with the public, and accordingly, artworks started to invest spaces outside the museum: the streets, television, the Web, as well as schools and universities.
For good or sometimes negative reasons, the museum has become, 60 years after Walter Benjamin's writings, part of the city itself." (Christine van Assche)
In its 2003 version, the Triennial will propose a selection of projects reflecting the shifting concept of the museum. For instance, prints will be exhibited on billboards throughout Ljubljana (SaSo Vrabic) and a video will be broadcast on TV (Davide Grassi, Igor Stromajer and Brane Zorman). The exhibition will include projections on the fa?e of the museum (Martin Bricelj), a music performance in a theatre (Random Logic), a project on the Internet (Andreja Kuluncic), and a project involving visitors' cell phones (Vuk Ćosić).
Press conference: Thursday, 18. December 2003 at 11 a.m.
Opening view: Thursday, 18. December 2003 at 8 p.m.
Moderna galerija Ljubljana
Tomsiceva 14
Ljubljana