MSE Projects

Press Release Ljubljana, December 1, 2000

LJUBLJANA EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE and LECTURES Skuc Gallery, Stari trg, 21, Ljubljana Thursday, December 7, 2000, at 8.00 p.m. - INAUGURATION OF THE EXHIBITION The exhibition will be on view until January 15, 2001.

In the 80's in Ljubljana several projects based on the idea of reconstruction of works of art from the avant-garde tradition took place. Projects such as The Last Futurist Exhibition by Kasimir Malevich (Belgrade), The International Exhibition of Modern Art (Armory Show) and the lecture Walter Benjamin: Mondrian 1963--1996 were displayed and enacted by the Skuc Gallery in Ljubljana in 1986. The author of these projects has presented himself/herself merely through exhibition titles, and often by signing his/her work with the names of famous and deceased painters and philosophers, or by using pseudonyms. We can say that this research in contemporary art is parallel to trends and concepts on a world scale. In the 90's this same anonymous author opened in a ground-floor apartment in New York's Soho, the exhibition Salon de Fleurus. Salon de Fleurus is a staged repeat presentation of one of the most significant collections of modern art from the turn of this century, which was created by the American author and literary critic Gertrude Stein (1874--1946), a Jew of German descent, with the help of her brother Leo Stein, in their Paris apartment at 27, rue de Fleurus. The collections of the projects from 1986 presented in Skuc Gallery for the first time in Slovenia, the lecture and the collection of the New York Salon de Fleurus will be deconstructed, re-enacted, and simulated again in Ljubljana in the year 2000. A symposium, video-film screenings and a book/catalogue are as well part of this complex project of reconstruction and fictionalization.

EXHIBITION: OBSERVING THE OBSERVED The exhibition is a joint research project between the anonymous artist and Marina Grzinic. Marina Grzinic was invited by Skuc Gallery to conceive the project. The exhibition consists of artifacts from three contemporary art collections and of the re-enactment of the lecture from 1986: 1. Art Collection Salon de Fleurus. Salon de Fleurus opened to the public eight years ago in a small backyard apartment at 41 Spring Street in New York. The subject of this long-term project, whose authors remain anonymous, is the collection of modern art assembled by Leo and Gertrude Stein in Paris, in their apartment at rue de Fleurus, in the beginning of the 20th century. Artifacts exhibited in this collection have been an integral part of the Salon de Fleurus for many years. In Ljubljana, and subsequently in Celje and Maribor, these artifacts can be seen for the first time outside of their "natural" context. Meanwhile, in New York, Salon de Fleurus continues to exist with another set of works, but whose subject remains the same. 2. Art Collection The Last Futurist Exhibition by Kasimir Malevich (Belgrade) - artifacts from this collection were already exhibited in Skuc Gallery in Ljubljana, in the spring of 1986]. 3. Art Collection The International Exhibition of Modern Art (Armory Show) - artifacts from this collection were already exhibited in Skuc Gallery in Ljubljana, in the fall of 1986. Walter Benjamin: Mondrian '63 - '96 is the lecture that was given by Walter Benjamin, a German philosopher who had been dead for almost half a century, while Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter and the founder of abstract painting, had died four years after Benjamin (in 1944)]. An excerpt from the lecture: "The theme of tonight's lecture is, as was already announced, the work of Piet Mondrian created between 1963 and 1996, at least as it can be concluded on the basis of the dates on the paintings themselves. /.../ So, you will ask, 'Why are so many of Mondrian's paintings gathered in one place in this city?' I believe that most of you will find it almost incredible. Even if we believed, just for a moment, that by some miracle it was possible to collect original Mondrian's just for this occasion, we would soon be confused by the data found on the paintings themselves. Whoever looks at them closely may notice that they really have Mondrian's signature, but the dating seems, to say the very least, rather strange. The paintings are dated with the numbers 63, 79, 83, 86, 92, 96. This means that the earliest was painted in 1963. And what are we to do? Since we know that Mondrian lived from 1872 to 1944, we can simply conclude that these are not his original paintings. Even if we suppose that, for some unknown reason, Mondrian was able to date or anti-date his paintings in this way, a scientific analysis would soon prove that these paintings were done after his death. Therefore, we must pose a new question: 'Who is the real creator of these paintings?'"

FICTION RECONSTRUCTED Copies contain not only all the parameters of the painting that is being copied, but much more: the idea itself and the act of copying. Copying makes repetition and reproduction intrude into the features characteristic of modern art, such as the new, the original and the authorial; it is not there to falsify and to forge the original, but to question the current, canonized foundations of modern art: the identity of the artists and their work, the meaning and significance of the work, and its interpretation. Questions such as the relation between the original and the copy, truth and falsehood, sense and non-sense are legitimate subjects of philosophical discussion. Therefore, the entire ritual of reconstruction and repetition is not an attempt to falsify, but rather to analyze the conceptual processes in art and culture. These are actually anti-historical works. I can therefore, in relation to this project, re-formulate Dubuffet's notion that "painting can be a machine communicating philosophy" into "painting can be a machine which already elaborates philosophy" (H. Damisch). Copies do not originate from an opposition between works, and do not directly refer to pictorial inventions, but rather refer to the possibilities of their own appearance. This is a completely anti-historical reading which does not believe in the disappearance of things, in linear genealogy, or in a homogenous time without interruptions. The copy confronts us with forms of historicity and/or anti-historicity of the visual and virtual /cyber world. (From: Marina Grzinic, Fiction Reconstructed, Vienna 2000.)

LJUBLJANA EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE and LECTURES Skuc Gallery, Stari trg, 21, Ljubljana Thursday, December 7, 2000, at 8.00 p.m. - INAUGURATION OF THE EXHIBITION The exhibition will be on view until January 15, 2001.

Skuc Gallery, Stari trg, 21, Ljubljana Friday, December 8, 2000, at 6.00 p.m. - a lecture - guidance by Goran Djordjevic will be held; Djordjevic works as a doorman and care-taker at the Salon de Fleurus in New York. Friday,

December 8, 2000, at 8.00 p.m. - a re-enactment of the lecture Walter Benjamin: Mondrian '63 - '96. Walter Benjamin is performed by the Slovenian actor Jozef Roposa. Skuc Gallery, Stari trg, 21, Ljubljana Tuesday, December 12, 2000, at 8.00 p.m. - lecture by Marina Grzinic entitled Fiction Reconstructed - from The Harbingers of the Apocalypse to the Retro-avant-garde (1980-2000) ].

CELJE, Slovenia Gallery of Contemporary Arts: EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE, LECTURES From February 1 until March 1, 2001. MARIBOR, Slovenia Gallery Media Nox, MKC Maribor: EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE, LECTURES From May 8, 2001 until May 19, 2001.

The project was produced by Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (Gregor Podnar, Josko Pajer) and Gallery of Contemporary Art Celje. Partners in the project: - Gallery Kapelica, Ljubljana (Jurij Krpan) - symposium organization - Maska, Journal for Performing Arts], Ljubljana (Emil Hrvatin) - publisher of the book-catalogue - MKC, Maribor (Dragica Marinic, Joze Slacek) - exhibition and book-catalogue - Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana (Koen van Daele) - video-film programme The project was suported by: ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Director's Fund, dr. Oto Luthar French Institute Charles Nodier, Ljubljana, dr. Christine Schell KulturKontakt, Avstrija, dr. Annamarie Türk, dr. Nicole Marjanovic-Zoubek Ministy of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia City of Ljubljana - cultural department

Sponsored by GOSTISCE MRAK, Ljubljana. We would like to express our gratitude to: Moderna galerija Ljubljana and Nives Zalokar, Adele Eisenstein/C3, Aleksandra Rekar, O & V Art Commerce Ljubljana. INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM WITH VIDEO-FILM SCREENINGS AND PUBLISHING OF THE BOOK_CATALOGUE FICTION, SPECTRAL HISTORY, TIME AND THE VIRTUAL: ART, POLITICS, GLOBALIZATION, FEMINISM AND NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES January 11 and 12, 2001 - Ljubljana Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Gallery Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana In collaboration with Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana and Maska, Journal for Performing Arts, Ljubljana.