17/4/2009
Sanja Ivekovic
Two locations, Eindhoven and Utrecht
Urgent Matters: a two-part solo exhibition presented in BAK basis voor actuele kunst and in the Van Abbemuseum. Since the 1970s, Ivekovic works in a range of media; she belongs to the artistic generation that emerged after 1968 with post-object, conceptual art known as "New Art Practice". Her work can be characterized as a critical artistic practice, invested in the politics of image and body and an analysis of identity constructions in the media, employing strategies of political engagement, solidarity, and activism.
From Saturday 18 April until Sunday 2 August 2009, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven present Urgent Matters, a two-part solo exhibition by Sanja Iveković. The opening takes place on Saturday 18 April 2009 at 14.00 hrs at the Van Abbemuseum and at 19.00 hrs at BAK. At BAK, the performance Übung Macht den Meister (Practice Makes a Master), originally realized by Iveković in 1982 in Berlin, will be re-enacted by dancer Sonja Pregrad, at 20.00 hrs
Sanja Iveković (born 1949, lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia) is one of the key artists of her generation working today. Since the 1970s, Iveković works in a range of media such as photography, performance, video, installations, and actions. Iveković belongs to the artistic generation that emerged after 1968 with post-object, conceptual art known as “New Art Practice.” Iveković’s work can be characterized as a critical artistic practice, invested in the politics of image and body and an analysis of identity constructions in the media, employing strategies of political engagement, solidarity, and activism. In the (then) Yugoslav (and thus Croatian) art scene, Iveković was the first artist to adopt a feminist perspective in her artistic work and activist practice. Since the political change of 1989, she mainly deals with the collapse of socialist regimes and the consequences of the triumph of capitalism and market economy on living conditions, particularly of women.
From her early photography and performance, through to the major collaborative and public projects of recent years, Iveković has tracked the changing place of individual and personal values and how they appear (or fail to appear) in public. The constraints of politics, economics, and gender consistently serve as an inevitable backdrop to her works—a position that survives the changes of 1989, altered, but intact. In her persistent exploration of the border between the public and private self, Iveković subtly insinuates the collective responsibility we share for the things that take place around us. By doing so, without any moral exhortation, her art permits us to see more clearly the interdependence of things and the scalability of our actions, from small gestures to grand narratives.
Sanja Iveković participated in the 10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007), documenta 12 (2007) and documenta 11 (2002) in Kassel, and Manifesta 2 (1998) in Luxembourg. Other exhibitions include (selection): re.act.feminism – performance art of the 1960s and 70s today, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 2008–2009; As soon as I open my eyes I see a film. Experiment in the art of Yugoslavia in the 60’s and 70’s, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, 2008; The Order of Things, MuHKA, Antwerp, 2008; Living Currency/La Monnaie Vivante, Tate Modern, London, 2008; Forms of Resistance – Artists and the Desire for Social Change from 1871 until the Present, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2007; WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2007; Die Regierung. Paradiesische Handlungsräume, Secession, Vienna, 2005; Now What? Dreaming a better world in six parts, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, 2003; and After the Wall, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1999–2000.
BAK and the Van Abbemuseum
The work of Sanja Iveković has been seen only rarely in museums and art spaces in the Netherlands. This two-part exhibition aims to introduce a new audience to Iveković’s work, and seeks to provide an understanding of the artist’s practice by connecting her feminist voice to the social, political, and historical developments in general, and specifically to such realities in Croatia, her country of residence. Iveković’s body of work performs a crucial role in understanding how European art has developed over the past thirty-five years. This exhibition presents a selection of key works from Iveković’s oeuvre from the 1970s to today.
The exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum focuses on more historical work from before 1989, consisting primarily of photographic series, collages, and filmed performances. The works are installed around the large vertical space of the museum tower, where a newer monumental sculpture, realized originally as a public art project in Luxemburg in 2001, Lady Rosa of Luxembourg, is reconstructed.
At BAK, a selection of more recent work is shown, including three new productions, amongst which a new version of the well-known Women’s House, a collective portrait of women from a local shelter for abused women. The exhibition is also planned to extend into the public realm with Iveković’s proposal to rename a city street in Utrecht after the Unknown Heroine.
As institutions, BAK and the Van Abbemuseum have collaborated on a number of projects in the past and we are delighted to continue developing our common interests with this extensive look at the complex practice of Sanja Iveković.
Symposium: When is Feminism in Art? The Case of Sanja Iveković
28.05.2009, 11.00–18.00 hrs
On Thursday 28 May 2009, BAK and the Van Abbemuseum organize When is Feminism in Art? The Case of Sanja Iveković. This one-day symposium aims to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the history of art in the Central and Eastern European region through a concrete case of the evolution of a feminist position in a particular cultural and political topography.
Speakers include: Katy Deepwell, founder and editor of n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, London; Tom Holert, art historian and cultural critic, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna/Berlin; Nataša Ilić, curator and member of the curatorial collective What, How and for Whom/WHW, Zagreb; Bojana Pejić, art historian and curator, Berlin; and Georg Schöllhammer, writer and editor-in-chief, Springerin, Vienna.
The project is curated by Maria Hlavajova.
Handbook Euro 5
Image: Novi Zagreb (Ljudi iza prozora) [New Zagreb (People Behind the Windows)], 1979
Press contact Van Abbemuseum
Ilse Cornelis
t: +31 (0)40 2381019 f: +31 (0)40 2460680 e: i.cornelis@vanabbemuseum.nl - pressoffice@vanabbemuseum.nl
Opening: Saturday, 18 April 2009 14:00
Locations:
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst
Lange Nieuwstraat 4 NL-3512 PH Utrecht
t +31 (0)30 2316125 f +31 (0)30 2304866 info@bak-utrecht.nl
http://www.bak-utrecht.nl
Opening hours & entrance fee BAK:
Wednesday–Saturday 12.00–18.00 hrs
Sunday 13.00–18.00 hrs
Entrance fee € 4
Discount (students, 65+/seniors, groups min. 10, Children < 12) € 2
BOOKS@BAK members: free
Van Abbemuseum
Bilderdijklaan 10 - 5611 NH Eindhoven Netherlands
t +31 (0)40 2381000, f +31 (0)40 2460680 info@vanabbemuseum.nl
http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl
Opening hours & entrance fee Van Abbemuseum:
Tuesday–Sunday 11.00–17.00 hrs
On Thursdays the museum is open until 21.00 hrs, admission is free from 17.00 hrs.
Entrance fee € 8,50
Groups of 15 or more, 65+ € 6
Students, CJP pass € 4