Umetnik in urbano okolje/ Artist and un Urban Environment
 

 Razmišljanje (paradoksalno) o mestu umetnosti/
 A (Paradoxical) Reflection on the Place of Art
 Fernando Castro Flórez

GOSTI/ GUESTS
Bogdan Borčić
Daniel Buren

I
Minna Heikinaho
Sana Sarva
Alii Maria Savolainen

II
Katja Valeska Peschke

III
Ona B.

IV
Popo Iskandar
Setiawan Sabana
Milivoje Štulović
Jože Tisnikar
 Jože Tisnikar
 Marko  Košan
Teresa Volco
 
 
 

V
Sašo Vrabič
 Ekrani in skrinje/ Screens and Chests
 Marko Košan
Carlos Villa

VI
Peter Hergold
 Peter Hergold
 Marko  Košan

VII
Achile Ghidini
Linda Kramer
Jovan Marinković
Keith Morrison
Barli Sasmitawinata
Aelina Surya Sumorna

VIII
Giorgio Catani
Luc Marelli
Gorki Žuvela
 Predgovor/ Introduction
 Želimir Koščević

IX
Maurizio Cosua
Robert Maciejuk
 Uccello - vaje v perspektivi/  Uccello - exercises in perspective
 Adam Szymczyk
Fabio de Sanctis
Marco Tronci
Concha Garcia
Antonio Murado
X
Gonzalo Puch
Javier Tudela
Christoph E. Exler
Alija Hafizović Haf
 Odstranitev, Uničenje, Rez, Brazgotine/ Elimination, Destruction, Cut, Scars
 Nives Marvin
Katrin von Maltzahn
Georg Manthe
Paolo Minoli
David Sequeira
Ester Wolf

XI
Seiichi Furuya
George Graciansky
 Zgodba o dveh mestih/ The  Tail of the Two Cities
 Vanesa Cvahte
Klaas Gubbels

XII
Pjotr Chapligin
Milorad Djokić
Alojz Jerčič
Martin Kellenberger
Tadeusz Lapinski
Anatoly Mikhailov
Jacquelin Moses
Christine Nehammer - Markus
Amalija Perez Molek
Heino Partanen
Goran Rakić
Yukihiro Sumie
Toon Wegner
Projekti na prostem/ Openair Projects
Matten Vogel
BHK
 Mednarodna razstava Umetnik in urbano okolje
International exhibition Artist and un Urban Environment

Župan Slovenj Gradca/ Mayor of Slovenj Gradec
Janez Komljanec

Predsednik odbora mednarodne razstave "Umetnik in urbano okolje"/ President of the board of the international exhibition “The Artist and an Urban Environment" of the city Slovenj Gradec
Karel Pečko

Direktor Galerije likovnih umetnosti/ Director of the Art Gallery
Milena Zlatar

Koordinacija razstave/ Exhibition coordination
Vanesa Cvahte
Jernej Kožar
Barbara Žavcer

Selektorji/ Selectors
Milena Babić (Milorad Djokić, Jovan Marinković, Goran Rakić, Milivoje Štulović)
Vanesa Cvahte (Seiichi Furuya, Sarva Sanna, Minna Heikinaho, Alii Maria Savolainen)
Mathias Flügge (Katrin von Maltzahn, Katja Valeska Peschke, Matten Vogel)
Fernando Castro Florez (Concha Garcia, Antonio Murado, Gonzalo Puch, Javier Tudela)
Marko Košan (Peter Hergold, Jože Tisnikar, Sašo Vrabič, Achille Ghidini, Alija Hafizović - Haf)
Jernej Kožar (Yukihiro Sumie)
Želimir Koščević (Gorki Žuvela)
Pino Poggi (Paolo Minoli)
Ron Ramsey (David Sequeira)

Umetniki, ki so se odzvali na vabila Galerije likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec in vabila, poslana  županom mest miru:/ The artist that were invited by the Art Gallery directly or by the mayors of the Peace messenger cities: Pjotr Chapligin, Christoph E. Exler, Popo Iskandar, Luc Marelli, Anatoly Mikhailov, Christine Nehammer - Markus, Setiawan Sabana, Barli Sasmitawinata, Aelina Surya Sumorna, Ester Wolf, Ona B., Bogdan Borčić, Giorgio Catani, Maurizio Cosua, George Graciansky, Klaas Gubbels, Martin Kellenberger, Linda Kramer, Tadeusz Lapinski, Robert Maciejuk, Georg Manthe, Jacquelin Moses, Keith Morrison, Heino Partanen, Fabio de Sanctis, Marco Tronci, Toon Wegner, Amalija Perez Molek, Teresa Volco.

Mednarodna žirija/ International Jury
Pino Poggi (I)
Fernandez Castro Florez (E)
Brane Kovič (SLO)
Jernej Kožar (SLO)

1.nagrada/ 1st Price - Johnson Controls - NTU, Slovenj Gradec
George Graciansky, Copenhagen
Zgodba o dveh mestih/ The tale of two cities, 1997

2.nagrada/ 2nd Price - PA-GAT, Slovenj Gradec
Peter Hergold, Slovenj Gradec
Pericarežeracirep, 1997

3.nagrada/ 3rd Price - Nova Oprema, Slovenj Gradec
Gonzalo Puch, Madrid
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
 

Komentar predsednika žirije

Na razstavi Umetnik in urbano okolje nisem razstavljavec, kot na prejšnjih, temveč predsednik žirije.
Ker je tema tokratne mednarodne razstave zelo zahtevna, naše žirijsko telo ni imelo lahkega dela. Opozoril bi na stvar, ki nam je pri večini umetnikov  povzročale težave: umetniki so premalo razmišljali o temi razstave (le malokateri se je pri realizaciji ukvarjal z ozko specifiko urbanega).
Zato smo se člani žirije koncentrirali na umetnike, ki so bolj kot drugi v svojem delu tematizirali razstavno temo. Ravno na te bi rad opozoril. To so:Peter Hergold, Sašo Vrabič, Katrin von Maltzahn, Valeska Peschke, Ona B, Concha Garcia, Gonzalo Puch, Javier Tudela, Seichi Furuya, Robert Maciejuk.  Rad bi jih pohvalil in hkrati opozoril, da bi naslednjič svoje koncepte še jasneje in korektnejše pripravili in predstavili.
Pri nekaterih avtorjih sem pogrešal prepričljivost in izžarevanje moči. Z veseljem pa kot umetnik, ki ga v umetnosti zanima predvsem socialna angažiranost ("socialna estetika"), ugotavljam, da so razstavljali umetniki, za katere mislim, da tudi v prihodnosti ne bodo zanemarili socialne vloge umetnosti.
Nekateri ne sodijo v koncept razstave, jih je pa, upoštevaje kvaliteto, potrebno omeniti: Giorgio Cattani, Fabio de Sanctis, Gorki Žuvela.
Na splošno sem nad razstavo navdušen, saj sodeluje dosti mladih umetnikov, ki razvijajo senzibiliteto za svet, v katerem živijo.Ravno ti mladi umetniki pa bi se morali naučiti bolje artikulirati zamisel.
Žirija, ki je bila odgovorna tudi za podelitev nagrad, je morala biti pogumna pri odločitvah. Odločili smo se podeliti prvo nagrado Georgeu Gracianskemu, za katerega menim, da je konkretno formuliral in realiziral svoje delo. Osebno sem se lahko identificiral z mestnimi občutji, kot jih je izrazil Graciansky. Za drugi dve nagradi v žiriji nismo bili enotni, zato smo se odločili za tako imenovano večinsko glasovanje.
V upanju na še mnoge uspele in kvalitetne razstave, bi komentar zaokrožil s Cicerovim stavkom, ki je bistvo vsakega humanističnega početja:
"Ne začni nehavati, ne nehaj začenjati." (Fange nicht an aufzuhören, höre nicht auf anzufangen)

Pino Poggi

6. 6. 1997, Slovenj Gradec
 

Commentary of the President of the Jury

At "The Artist and an Urban Environment" exhibition I am no longer a participating artist, as I was at previous exhibitions, but the president of the jury.
Since the theme of this year's international exhibition is very demanding, our jury did not have a simple task to accomplish. I would like to mention something which caused us a great deal of trouble with many of the artists: they did not reflect adequately on the theme of the exhibition (rare were the artists who had dealt with the strict specificity of the urban in the realisation of their works). Therefore the members of the jury concentrated their attention on the artists who had thematised in their works the exhibition theme to a greater extent than others. And it is precisely these artists I would like to expose: Peter Hergold, Sašo Vrabič, Katrin von Maltzahn, Valeska Peschke, Ona B, Concha Garcia, Gonzalo Puch, Javier Tudela, Seichi Furuya, and Robert Maciejuk. I would like to compliment them and advise them that in the future they prepare and present their concepts even more eloquently and concretely.
In the case of several artists, I missed persuasiveness and the radiation of energy of the exhibited works. But as an artist interested primarily in social engagement ("the social aesthetic") I am glad to say that the exhibition features some artists who, I believe, will not neglect the social role of art also in the future too.
Some artists do not fall within the narrow concept of the exhibition, but from the quality aspect it is worth mentioning them: Giorgio Cattani, Fabio de Sanctis, Gorki Žuvela. In general I am delighted with the exhibition because of the participation of numerous young artists who develop a sensibility for the world in which they live and which they own. But precisely these young artists should learn to better articulate their ideas in texts.
The jury responsible for the bestowal of awards had to be very courageous in its decisions. We decided to confer the first prize on Georg Gracianski who, in my opinion, has formulated and realised his work very concretely. I could personally identify with the sensations of the towns represented by Gracianski. For the other two awards the members of the jury were not in agreement, and thus we decided on the "majority vote".
With the hope of many successful exhibitions in the future I would like to conclude this commentary with Cicero's comment which I believe is the essence of every humanistic activity: "Do not start ending, do not end starting."
 

Kontinuiteta angažirane likovne prakse na mednarodnih likovnih razstavah v Galeriji likovnih umetnosti v Slovenj Gradcu

Leta 1966 je bila v slovenjgraški galeriji prva večja mednarodna likovna razstava in v Sloveniji se je zgodil edinstven primer, da  so za ta namen zgradili novo galerijo. Koncept razstave je bil povezan z humano - idealističnim motom Mir, humanost in prijateljstvo med narodi, zato so vabili umetnike iz kar največ držav. Imeli pa so pri izboru avtorjev srečno roko, saj so se med mladimi umetniki mnogi kasneje uveljavili na domači in mednarodni likovni sceni . Razstavljale pa so tudi uveljavljene zvezde petdesetih in šestdesetih let, kot so Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vassarely, Johny Friedllaender in drugi, kar je pomenilo v znanih družbenih razmerah takratne države svežino in hotenje zamenjati provincionalnost sredine z živahnim mednarodnim umetnostnim dogajanjem. V Ljubljani je bila že več kot poldrugo desetletje delujoča Akademija za likovno umetnost, ki je  s svojimi profesorji, študenti in diplomanti poleg osrednje slovenske galerije za sodobno umetnost - Moderne galerije v Ljubljani - iskala poti, da se uveljavi tudi zunaj domačega kulturnega prostora. Tem zgledom so sledili tudi drugi, med njimi Slovenj Gradec. Pobudnik slovenjgraških likovnih razstav je bil akademski krog domačinov, na čelu katerega je bil Karel Pečko, diplomant ljubljanske likovne akademije . Ambiciozno je zasnoval razstavni program, povabil k sodelovanju likovne kritike, ki so nastopali kot selektorji, kar v šestdesetih letih ni bila ravno uveljavljena praksa slovenskih galerij. Prvo Dokumento v Kasslu so na pubudo Arnolda Bodeja odprli leta 1955. Tam nekje v provinci, na obrobju Evrope, pa je slikar in pedagog Karel Pečko sanjal podobne sanje - razgibati dolgočasno mestece in mu dati s pomočjo likovne umetnosti svetovljanski značaj. Najsi je primerjava še tako ambiciozna, narediti iz podeželskega mesteca, kakršno je bilo Slovenj Gradec, likovno središče, si zasluži tudi takšno primerjavo. Slovenija je bila del socialistične Jugoslavije in le spretnemu organizatorju je uspelo prepričati vladajočo elito v mestu, da bo k ugledu mesta prispevala prav likovna umetnost. Odločitev - organizatorji razstav so zaprosili Združene narode za častno pokroviteljstvo nad razstavami - je bila prava in je zagotovila udeležbo uveljavljenih umetnikov; ne nazadnje pa je nekaterim umetnikom pomenilo sodelovati na razstavah v socialistični državi celo svojevrsten izziv. Kakorkoli, razstave so odprle Slovenj Gradec svetu, domača likovna produkcija je bila postavljena ob bok s tujo.  V Sloveniji je na mednarodmem likovnem področju v teh za sodobno likovno umetnost pionirskih časih takšno pomembno vlogo kontinuirno odigraval uveljavljen Mednarodni likovni bienale v Ljubljani, razstava, ki še danes zmore dovolj fluida, Slovenj Gradec pa se je oziral tudi na razgibano likovno dejavnost bližnjega Gradca in Zagreba, mesti, ki sta mu bili dostopni vsaj toliko kot slovenska prestolnica.
Ko so leta 1975 povabili francoskega umetnika Daniela Burena v Slovenj Gradec, da sodeluje na mednarodni likovni razstavi  - angažirana figuralika je bila predpisana tematika - je svoj umetniški angažma zastavil konceptualno in med zastave, ki so razglašale sodelovanje umetnikov iz številnih držav, izobesil pred stavbo Galerije še svojo modro - belo zastavo. V svetu je bila že dobro desetletje predtem znana  ideja, da ni zgolj pomembno fizično obstajanje umetniškega dela - njegova materialna podoba, temveč predvsem ideja in sporočilnost ter čisti filozofski razmislek, ki se hkrati z instalacijo tudi popredmeti. Slovenija je še vedno bila v duhu bolj ali manj nerazumljenega konceptualnega početja skupine OHO v sedemdesetih letih (manifest konceptualne umetnosti Josepha Kosutha v Muzeju moderne umetnosti v New Yorku z naslovom One and three chairs je bil postavljen leta 1965). Čeprav ne bi mogli več govoriti o pionirskih časih slovenske sodobne umetnosti, se takratna slovenska likovna kritika ni kaj dosti menila za delo danes zelo slavnega francoskega umetnika, ki je pred slovenjgraško galerijo izvedel svojo instalacijo. Ob številnih umetnikih, ki so bolj "klasična" dela razstavili v galerijskih prostorih so bili tudi drugi konceptualisti. Med njimi Pino Poggi z AU (Arte Utile) - manifestom, za katerega je dejal, da je grafika, ki ima funkcijo filma in časopisa; gledalca pa pritegne h konstruktivnemu razmišljanju. Tudi Braco Dimitrijević, rojen v Sarajevu, pozneje mednarodno uveljavljen umetnik, je sodeloval na razstavi z dvema dokumentarnima fotografijama: pod portretno bisto Alberta Vierija, ki jo je izdelal nam neznani kipar, je zapisal: "Alberto Vieri, mimoidoči, ki sem ga slučajno srečal ob 1615, Torino 1973." Pod drugim portretom pa: "To bi bilo lahko delo Brace Dimitrijeviča."
Že čez štiri leta, leta 1979, je slovenjgraška mednarodna likovna razstava ponovno načela najaktualnejša vprašanja v sodobni likovni umetnosti, tokrat s samozavestnim nastopom domačih selektorjev in njihovih kolegov iz  tujine , kajti vedno bolj so se utrjevali stiki  z mednarodnim združenjem AICA in nekaterimi institucijami v tujini. Razstava je izpostavila problematiko socializacije umetnosti, psihooblikovanja, obravnavala je periferna področja v likovni umetnosti in se dotaknila alternativ v sodobni arhitekturi sedemdesetih let - vse v želji stimulirati kritično razmišljanje v kontekstu z likovno umetnostjo. Med drugimi je razstavljal italijanski umenik Ico Parisi in v avli galerije postavil Zid apokalipse, danes naravnost preroški opomin sodobnemu komuniciranju in zasvojenosti z elektronskimi mediji. Instalacija je sodila v vrsto njegovih "terapevtskih" akcij, z eno izmed teh t. i. Operacijo Arcevia je sodeloval tudi na bienalu v Benetkah leta 1976. Metaforično in alegorično sporočilo pa so na isti razstavi odsevala dela njegovega rojaka Fabia de Sanctisa. Njegova dela Mize z motenim delovanjem, Veliko potovanje evrofetišista, Divan v oljčnem lesu in druga so bila polna cinične ironije in parafraze. Tudi nenavadno pohištvo angleža Johna Makepeace je bila parafraza postmoderne dobe. Seveda pa se je večina umetnikov izražala v tradicionalnem likovnem besednjaku (sekcija Narativna slika), v paleti osebnih poetik, ki so bolj ali manj upoštevale tudi principe estetskih pristopov s kritičnim pogledom na kontinuiteto umetniške prakse.
Takšno kontinuiteto je predstavljala tudi razstava leta 1985, kjer ni bila opredeljena tema, koncept je bil vezan le na tehniko lesoreza in male skulpture v lesu . Odločitev za tradicionalne likovne materiale  je bilo tudi vračanje k ponovnemu uveljavljanju tradicionalne estetike likovnega dela. Sočasni mednarodni arhitekturni natečaj za enodružinsko hišo v lesu in razstava prispelih projektov sta to le še potrjevala. Probleme bivanjske arhitekture, kjer so bile posebej izpostavljene alternative sodobne arhitekture, je namreč isti avtor - umetnostni zgodovinar Stane Bernik - predstavil na razstavi že leta 1979.  Povsem  logično je torej razstavnemu konceptu leta 1985 sledila odločitev, da gostuje v Slovenj Gradcu razstava del Ossipa Zadkina iz zbirke umetnikove fondacije v Parizu . Razstavo smo postavili leta 1991. Postavitev skulpture Spomenik apologetu kubizma - pesniku Guilliaumu Appolinairu (1937, bron: Zadkine jo je podaril Slovenj Gradcu ob prvi mednarodni likovni razstavi leta 1966, iz Pariza  je bila z dovoljenjem fondacije prenesena šele leta 1990 ter je istega leta dobila mesto v galerijskem atriju), ni bila edini vzrok za razstavo; Zadkinova razstava je pomenila logično nadaljevanje razstav, ki so poudarjale tradicionalno likovno prakso, ena izmed najpomembnejših pa je bila vsekakor tudi razstava skulptur in grafik Henryja Moora leta 1979.
Ob izteku devetdesetih let, pred pripravami na mednarodno likovno razstavo, ki jo je tokrat še posebej spodbudilo aktivno delovanje Slovenj Gradca v nevladni organizaciji mest glasnikov miru, je postalo odločilno dejstvo, da moramo ponovno obuditi vprašanje vpliva urbanega okolja na umetnike in njihova dela. Pri tem nismo toliko mislili na manifestacije v konktretnem urbanem prostoru, t. i. projekte na prostem (vendar tudi te), temveč na vpetost umetnikov v bivalno okolje, njihova odzivanja tukaj in danes, zavestno ali podzavestno. Umetnikova angažiranost je v bistvu v sublimiranju stvarnega z različnimi sredstvi: v materializirani likovni ideji ali celo v njeni fikciji (novi mediji) se namreč zrcali več resničnosti  kot v zgovornem zapisu na način figurativnega upodabljanja. V urbanem, prenaseljenem okolju se tembolj kažejo vsa nasprotja sodobne družbe, problemi migracij ter etične in kulturne posebnosti ljudi, ki soblikujejo umetnikovo individualno stališče. Percepcija tega je subjektivno ustvarjalno dejanje, ki se ga umetnik včasih niti ne zaveda in se na videz ukvarja s povsem drugimi problemi. Tako kot ni mogoče izbrisati poznavanja zgodovine, četudi je ne preučujemo posebej, je kulturna resničnost na določen način zavezujoča, pa naj gre za  še tako introvertirano osebnost. Urbano okolje torej ni le sklop človekovih dejanj in materialne kulture; družbeni prostor kot celota se še posebej manifestira skozi delo umetnikov ne le v konkretnih posegih v prostor, temveč celo v naiintimnejših osebnih poetikah.
Tematika razstave Umetnik in urbano okolje se nam je zato zdela dovolj široka, da bo dopustila vključevanje tudi tistih kvalitetnih likovnih del, katerih avtorji niso preveč konkretno in poglobljeno razmišljali o vprašanjih sodobnega urbaniziranega sveta. Prepustili so se le lastni ustvarjalni potenci in univerzalnosti likovnega izražanja, nam pa ostaja vloga, da tudi ob takšnih delih poiščemo odgovore na vprašanja, kot so: Kakšna je vloga umetnikov v urbanem okolju in kako se umetniki nanj odzivajo? Koliko na njih vpliva specifičnost nekega okolja - kulturnega prostora? Kaj mu dajejo tudi sami?
Razstava je odgovorila vsaj na nekaj vprašanj. Vedno aktualna tema je nakazala  probleme sodobne družbe: zgovorneje z izrazno potenco fotografije in videa, zelo konkretno tudi z zapisano mislijo in instalacijami, dovolj senzibilno ter ponekod celo eksotično pa z nekaterimi "klasičnimi" likovnimi deli. Ne glede na različnost nagovorov prezentiranih del, je očitna kompleksnost razstave, ki nam  daje zanimivo konfrontacijo med posameznimi eksponati in  razgrne tudi aktualen sociološki aspekt razstave; ta je za razumevanje likovne umetnosti vedno bolj  potreben.

Milena Zlatar
 

The Continuity of Engaged Fine Art Practice at the International Fine Art Exhibitions in the Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec

The first large international fine art exhibition in the Slovenj Gradec gallery was held in 1966, and it was a unique occurrence in Slovenia that a new gallery was built for this occasion. The concept of the exhibition was related to the humanistic and idealistic slogan of Peace, Humanity, and Friendship between Nations, and therefore artists from as many countries as possible were invited. The selectors were fortunate, since many of the young artists invited have since become prominent in the domestic and international fine art scenes . But several famous stars of fifties and sixties art also exhibited, including Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vassarely, Johny Friedlaender, and others, which in the given social conditions of the existing state meant freshness and the will to supplant the provinciality of the surroundings with lively international artistic activity. For over a decade and half the Academy of Fine Arts had been operational in Ljubljana, and it was its professors, students, and graduates who - beside the central Slovene contemporary art institution, the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana - explored ways to assert themselves also beyond the domestic cultural arena. Others had followed these endeavours, and Slovenj Gradec was one of them. The incentive behind fine art exhibitions in Slovenj Gradec came from the local academic circle with Karel Pečko, a graduate from the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts, on its forefront.  He conceived an ambitious exhibition programme, and invited fine art critics to co-operate as selectors, which in the sixties was by no means established practice in Slovene galleries. The first Documenta in Kassel was launched by Arnold Bode in 1955, while somewhere in the province, on the fringe of Europe, the painter and pedagogue Karel Pečko had a similar dream: to animate this sleepy town and give it a cosmopolitan character with the help of the fine arts. Perhaps the comparison is too ambitious, but the endeavour to create a fine arts centre out of a rural town like Slovenj Gradec, certainly merits it. Slovenia was part of the then Socialist Yugoslavia, and only a skillful organiser could successfully have convinced the ruling elite in the town that the fine arts were precisely what was needed to elevate the town's reputation. The decision to invite the United Nations to take honorary patronage over the exhibitions proved to be appropriate, and it guaranteed the participation of renowned artists. Last but not least, participation in exhibitions in a socialist country represented a kind of challenge to some artists. One way or another, the exhibitions have opened Slovenj Gradec up to the world, and domestic fine art production has taken its place side by side with that from abroad. In these pioneering times for contemporary fine art in Slovenia regarding international fine art activity, an important role was performed by the approved International Fine Art Biennial in Ljubljana, which still proves to be fluent, while Slovenj Gradec has also been turning its attention to the lively fine art scene in the nearby cities of Graz and Zagreb, which were as accessible as the Slovene capital.
When in 1975 the French artist Daniel Buren was invited to Slovenj Gradec to participate at the international fine art exhibition  - the outlined theme was Engaged Figuration - he chose a conceptual artistic engagement, as he placed his blue-white flag among other flags hanging in front of the gallery and announcing the participation of artists from different countries. It was over a decade ago when the idea developed in the world that it is not only the physical existence of a work of art, or its material form, that is important, but primarily its concept and message and pure philosophical reflection, which partly materialises itself in the installation. Slovenia still lived in the spirit of the more or less uncomprehended conceptual activity of the OHO group in the seventies (the manifesto of conceptual art, entitled One and Three Chairs, was produced by Joseph Kosuth in 1965 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York). Although one could no longer speak of the pioneering days of Slovene contemporary art, Slovene fine art criticism of the day did not take much interest in the work of the currently very famous French artist who created his installation in front of the Slovenj Gradec gallery. And beside numerous artists who exhibited more "classical" works in the gallery, there were still other conceptualists. One of them was Pino Poggi with his AU Arte Utile Manifesto, which the artist claimed to be a graphic work with the functions of film and newspaper, and which entices the viewer to engage in constructive thinking. Braco Dimitrijević, an artist born in Sarajevo who only later acquired international acclaim, also participated at the exhibition with two documentary photographs; under the portrait bust of Albert Vieri, made by an unknown artist, he wrote: "Alberto Vieri, a passer-by whom I met by chance at 4.15 PM, in 1973 in Turin." And under the other portrait he wrote: "This could be a work by Braco Dimitrijevi}."
Four years later, the Slovenj Gradec international fine art exhibition opened some of the most topical issues of contemporary fine art again, and this time it was with the self-confident appearance of domestic selectors and their colleagues from abroad , as the contacts with the AICA international association and several foreign institutions were continually growing stronger. The exhibition exposed the problems of the socialisation of art and psycho-formation, it dealt with the peripheral areas of fine art, and touched upon the alternatives in contemporary architecture in the seventies - all this subjects were intended to stimulate a critical reflection in the context of fine art. Among the exhibitors was the Italian artist Ico Parisi who constructed the Wall of Apocalypse in the hall of the Gallery; today this act is seen as a truly prophetic warning on modern communication and the addiction to electronic media. The installation made up part of a series of his "therapeutic" actions, and with one of them - the so-called Operation Arcevia - he also participated at the 1976 Venice Biennial. The metaphorical and allegorical messages were also expressed in the works of his compatriot Fabio de Sanctis, also presented at the exhibition. His works - Tables with a Disturbed Functioning, The Great Travel of a Euro-Fetishist, The Olive Wood Divan, and others - were filled with cynical irony and paraphrases. Unusual furniture pieces by the Englishman, John Makepeace, also paraphrased the post-modern era. Of course, most of the artists expressed themselves through traditional fine art vocabulary (the Narrative Painting section), with a palette of personal poetics which also took account - to a greater or lesser extent - of the principles of aesthetic approaches with a critical consideration of the continuity of artistic practice.
This continuity was certainly also featured in the 1985 exhibition, when the subject of the exhibition was not defined, while the concept was only bound to the technique of woodcut and small sculpture in wood.  The choice of traditional fine art materials also meant a return to the appreciation of the traditional aesthetic of fine art works, while the simultaneous international architectural invitation for a wooden family house, and the exhibition of the submitted projects, only confirmed this orientation. The author of the exhibition, art historian Stane Bernik, had already presented the same problems of residential architecture, with a particular emphasis on alternatives in modern architecture, at the 1979 exhibition. Therefore it came as a logical decision that the 1985 exhibition concept was followed by the exhibition of works by Ossip Zadkine from the artist's collection in Paris.  The exhibition took place in 1991. The sculpture Memorial to the Apologist of Cubism - the Poet Guillame Apollinaire (1937, bronze), which Zadkine presented as a gift to Slovenj Gradec at the first international fine art exhibition in 1966, was transferred from Paris - with the permission of the foundation - as late as 1990, and in the same year it took its place in the atrium of the gallery. But this was not the sole reason for the exhibition; Zadkine's exhibition meant a logical continuation of the exhibitions which emphasised traditional fine art practice, and one of the most important among them was certainly the exhibition of sculptures and graphic works by Henry Moore in 1979.
Towards the end of the nineties, before the preparations for the international fine art exhibition which this time was particularly animated by the active contribution of Slovenj Gradec in the non-governmental organisation of Cities - Messengers of Peace, the fact became prominent that the issue of the influence of urban surroundings on artists and their works needed to be reassessed. We did not primarily have in mind manifestations in specific urban space, known as open-air projects (although these are also included), but rather the incorporation of artists into living surroundings, their reactions here and now, conscious or unconscious. Artistic engagement lies precisely in the sublimation of the actual through various means: namely, a materialised fine art concept, or even its fiction (new media), reflect much more reality than an eloquent inscription in the manner of a figurative depiction. All the contrasts of contemporary society, the problems of migrations, and the ethical and cultural individuality of peoples, which contribute to the creation of an artist's individual attitude, are much more strongly expressed in urban, over-populated surroundings. Such a perception leads to a subjective creative act, although the artist is not always aware of it and he/she seemingly engages quite different kinds of problems. But just as it is not possible to eliminate the knowledge of history, although we do not study it specifically, the cultural reality is in a certain way binding, regardless of how introverted a person might be. Thus the urban surrounding is not only a set of human actions and material culture: the social space as a whole is manifested precisely in the work of artists, not only in their concrete interventions in space, but also in their most intimate personal poetry.
The theme of The Artist and an Urban Environment exhibition, therefore, seems to be broad enough to allow for the incorporation of quality fine art works, including those whose creators did not reflect very profoundly or concretely on the issues of the contemporary urban world, but had allowed themselves to be driven by their own creative potential and the universal nature of fine art expression; our task remains, however, that even in such works we look for answers to such questions as: "What is the role of artists in the urban environment, and how do artists respond to it? How much are they influenced by the specificity of a surrounding, or the cultural space, and what can they themselves give to it?"
The exhibition provided answers to at least some of the questions. The ever topical theme indicated the problems of contemporary society, most eloquently with the expressive potential of photography and video, very concretely also with the written reflections and installations, and sufficiently sensitively and sometimes even exotically with several "classical" fine art works. But regardless of the variations of discourses of the represented works the exhibition proves to be very complex, and it offers an interesting confrontation of individual exhibits, while also revealing the sociological aspect of the exhibition, which is topical and ever more necessary.
Milena Zlatar

Razmišljanje (paradoksalno) o mestu umetnosti

Značilna izkušnja življenja v metropoli je zaznamovana z znakom razlastitve, ne samo v obliki nečesa, kar nam ni dano, temveč kot gotovost, da celo v tistem, kar je najbolj določeno, nekaj manjka. Tehnika je postala idealen model, referenčna točka umetnosti; proces tehnične reprodukcije podob, kot bi to označil Walter Benjamin, omogoča njeno masovno recepcijo, čeprav z estetiziranjem življenja umetnosti odvzema njeno vsebino. Danes je estetska izkušnja na razpotju: nič več avantgarda ali tradicija, pač pa formalni in tematski kompromis, ki prinaša novo senzibilnost časa, ustvarjalno (in zato kritično) uporabo podob, ali pa izginotje v tehniki, prehajanje v tehnično komunikativno enoto, ki tvori hiperestetizirane jezike masovne kulture. Vsekakor smo prisotni potrebnemu rojstvu neke nove morale umetniške dejavnosti ali njenemu razkroju. Dejansko niha umetnost med poskusi porušiti status quo, politično kritiko, meditacijami o identiteti in telesu ali pa se prizanesljivo meče na kič, parodično ponavlja postavantgardne modele ali fetišistično išče "avtonomizacijo". Ravno, ko je simbolična izmenjava postala dejansko nemogoča, so se kritični pogledi usmerili na umetniško, kot da bi se iz tega rituala lahko pojavila rešitev omenjene zaledenitve. Svetovna proza se je sprevrgla v serijo stikajočih se banalnosti, kjer neprosojnost nadomešča zgoščenost negativa, kjer se je sam negativ zbanaliziral, a nikoli ni bil presežen niti ne s kakšnim gledališkim razpletom, ki bi naredil konec sumničenju, kronični nezaupljivosti, ki temeljito razjeda kredibilnost nenehno reproduciranega dejanja, dan za dnem, stran za stranjo.
Sodobna izkušnja je izkušnja ne-prostora, o katerem je razmišljal antropolog Marc Augé in ki je izhodišče za določitev različnih individualnih drž: beg, strah, intenzivnost izkušnje ali upor. Zgodovina, preoblikovana v spektakel, porine v pozabo vse, kar je "urgentnega". Kot da bi bil prostor ujet v čas, kot da ne bi bilo druge zgodovine, kot so novice prejšnjega ali tega dneva, kot da bi vsaka individualna zgodovina izčrpala svoje motive, besede, svoje podobe v nepresahljivi zalogi neke neskončne zgodovine v sedanjosti. Potnik po ne-prostorih istočasno doživlja izkušnjo nenehne sedanjosti in odkrivanja sebe. A sredi "štrajka dogodkov", v tej stalni podložnosti, ki ima po Debordu psihološke korenine v posplošeni pripadnosti temu, kar je tu, lahko odkrijemo osupljive ostanke, prostore na bregovih ne-prostorov.
Kriza urbanega zanesljivo kaže na splošnejšo krizo reprezentacij sodobnosti. Sennet je pokazal, da je razsvetljenstvo pustilo prebivalcem modernega sveta nenavadno zapuščino: pojem totalitete; ta je prepojil definicijo integritete dobro narejenih stvari. Tako se je pojavil konflikt med stavbami in ljudmi: formalna vrednost kake stavbe ohranja jasno neravnovesje z uporabno vrednostjo iste konstrukcije. Mesto je postopoma opuščalo fleksibilnost v prid nedotakljive monumentalnosti. Ampak, potrebno je preobrniti znak nihilizma, najti energijo na razpotju, se postaviti proti oslabitvi plastičnih procesov, staviti na konstrukcijo dogodka. Vizijo sveta kot negacijo in praznino pretehtajo v pozornost naključne nesimetrične forme stvari, geometrija objektov in mesto, ki razvršča strasti. Najti poti, ki vodijo iz labirinta, zaupati - kot Mies van de Rohe - detajlom, vzpostaviti etiko pogleda, v kateri prav ornamentalno pomeni artikulirano razmerje med notranjostjo in zunanjostjo, popolni odpor do tona parodije ali pasticcia, ki je fragment sodobne kartografije.
Živimo v obdobju vsesplošne muzeografije in kljub temu skoraj nimamo spomina. Vse, kar se izraža, so banalni spomini, male anekdote, vragolije, s katerimi "ubijamo čas". Ograjeni smo z obzorjem dolgega časa, kot da bi se izgubila sposobnost proizvajati dogodke, obdarjene z intenzivnostjo. Nezaupanje metazgodbam ali gotovost, da je modernost nezaključen projekt, sta privedli do nostalgičnega ali celo apokaliptičnega čustvenega tona, znakov postzgodovine. Monumentalne ali starinske konfiguracije zgodovine ni nadomestila kritična perspektiva, ki bi bila sposobna vpeljati umetniško izkušnjo kot protisredstvo pozabe. Proces postavreolne umetnosti, se pravi, množičnomedijska evolucija estetskega konteksta, je povzročil izgubo smeri ali implozijo, ki v mnogih primerih pomeni iskanje izhodov iz labirinta: skulpture na prostranih poljih, posegi v javne prostore, postavljanje pod vprašaj in poskus zapiranja prostora reprezentacije, konceptualni umik ali pojav kibernetične utopije.
Mesto nenehno proizvaja praznine prostora. Zaton industrijskega mesta pušča v projektu in intervenciji, ki pripadata arhitekturi, vrsto odprtih vprašanj: Kako poskusiti najti ali raziskovati pomen prostora na neizmernih območjih finančnih transakcij, kjer bi lahko bivalo človekovo dostojanstvo? Na kakšen način se lahko v okoljih "tehničnega integrizma" (Virilio) postavi projekt bivališč, v katerih zmaga instrumentalni razum neokonzervativne akcije? Kako uravnotežiti neko civilizacijo, ki ima korenine še vedno globoko v instrumentih revščine, pripadajoče agrarnemu svetu, z razvojem potratnosti dizajniranih objektov industrijske in tehnološke faze? Mora morda nova narava metropole še naprej proizvajati potrošniške vrednote kot edini pragmatični cilj družbene strukture in vizualni red simulacije kot model njene prostorske formalizacije? Mesto izginja kot prostor spomina, kot postanek za dialog, kot kraj, v katerem se izmenjuje subjektivna beseda, se pravi, kot območje naše lastne eksistence.
Moramo se naučiti misliti prostor. Prostor ne-prostora ne ustvarja identitete in ne razmerja, pač pa samoto in podobnost. Prostor je trojno simboličen, če odraža odnos vsakega posameznega stanovalca do samega sebe, do ostalih stanovalcev in do skupne zgodovine. Množenje ne-prostorov, kot sem že nakazal, je značilno za sodobni svet; to so prostori, v katerih smo le potniki ali potrošniki. Augé meni, da so mesta še vedno kombinacija prostorov (ostankov modernosti), pluralni svet, pa obstaja le v domišljiji in spominih vsakogar, ki v njem živi ali ga obišče. Tema sprehoda po mestu in sprehajalec sta ozko povezana s podobo mesta: sprehod, potepanje po mestu je izraz svobode, ki se v urbani pokrajini razširi. A v užitku sprehajanja dihamo neko nostalgično ozračje, ko je mesto že nekaj več kot tipalni in vedno nedokončani simbol. Veliko je nevarnosti, ki oblegajo mesto, na primer uniformnost (množenje depersonaliziranih prostorov), širitev (izguba meja, ki jih je zaznamovalo urbano) ali implozija (beda periferij). A med vsemi je najtežje zaceliti nezmožnost identifikacije s prostorom, v katerem prebivamo: permanentna dislokacija.
Življenje v velikem mestu s hitrim kopičenjem spreminjajočih se podob ne dovoljuje stabilnosti, nasprotno, povzroča fragmentacijo, istočasno pa tudi izravnalen pritisk. Dobro je vedeti, da se v zgodovini ravno v okviru mesta poraja najbolj intenzivna ekspanzija individualnosti: razdvojen med občutkom svoje posebnosti in abstraktno homogenostjo, ki prvo postavlja pod vprašaj, človeški individuum doživlja vrtoglavost neznanih smeri in meja. Ta radikalna dezorientacija ima lasten eksperimentalni laboratorij v umetnosti- od dekonstrukcije (kot filozofskega, arhitektonskega problema in problema upodabljajočih umetnosti) do virtualizacije: pot od dekompozicije do frakcioniranja in računalniške podobe. Dosegli smo skrajno mejno hitrost, sposobnost, da smo vsepovsod, sposobnost hipnosti in bližnjosti, obliko časovnosti, ki je absolutna zanka, predvsem pa se pojavlja nova kategorija velike transcendentnosti za sooblikovanje "novega gledalca": interakcija. Prezgodaj je, da bi vedeli, ali bosta evropska umetnost in kultura sposobni uiti banalnemu spominu in usodi zgodovinske bolezni, ne da bi se zatekli v nostalgijo pred-metropolske izkušnje. Morda drži, da je krivda sodobne kulture v tem, da je ta kultura v svoji nameri predvsem kultura pobega. Vredno se je spomniti Baudelairjeve trditve, da si vsi ne morejo privoščiti kopeli v množicah, ker je uživati v gneči umetnost, in edini, ki si lahko privošči praznik vitalnosti, je tisti, ki mu je vila ob zibelki vdihnila željo po preobleki in maski, sovraštvo do nastanitve in strast do potovanj. Ne gre za nenehno mobilizacijo ali turizem, ki prostore, če je mogoče, še bolj trga, pač pa za pregnanstvo ali eksil, ki je ena najznačilnejših potez modernega umetnika. Potrebujemo nove simbole, tehten dialog, ki bo spoštoval razlike (tako, da bo ohranjal univerzalni talent) onstran samoprizanesljive retorike ali monumentalnosti, ki bo ustvaril javni prostor in bo oživil tiste obljube mesta, ki so bile močan izziv modernemu: tla, na katerih so se ukoreninile podobe, ki odražajo našo spazmodično identiteto.
 
 
 

Opomba o španski umetnosti na razstavi

Štirje španski umetniki, ki sodelujejo na razstavi Umetnik in urbano okolje, so značilni predstavniki tendenc sodobne umetnosti, umeščeni v krizo legitimitete, ki vpliva na estetski diskurz, kot tudi med prej omenjene paradokse metropolskega. Desetletju 80-ih, v katerem so prevladovale pikturalne zasnove v uglašenosti z italijansko transavantgardo ali nemškim neoekspresionizmom, sledi generacija, katere temeljni prostor je skrb za politično (eno od jeder moderne umetnosti po avantgardi) in za položaj seksualne reinvidikacije, pri čemer v več primerih uporabljajo odkrito mimetične retorične efekte, ki so v zvezi z razvojem severnoameriške scene. Poetika objekta, ki je dosegla celo banalnost vsakodnevnega in avtobiografsko eksteriorizacijo, site-specific delo, ki brska po arhitekturi spomina, izhajajoč iz rešitev, ki so predvsem kritične ali dekonstruktivistične, ali pa ekspanzija fotografskega področja skupaj s krutim povratkom telesa v (post)performancu - vse to so tendence, značilne za neko obdobje, v katerem je prevladujoča estetika - konec koncev - kurator-izem, ki ne pomeni toliko ponovne tekstualizacije umetnosti ali, če upoštevamo simetrični ključ, demonstracije njene radikalne nečitljivosti, pač pa spektakularno-razstavljajoče in vseobsegajoče pojmovanje kateregakoli umetniškega dela, ki izhaja iz nečesa, kar si drznem poimenovati pred-koncepti.
Javier Tudela, Concha García, Antonio Murado in Gonzalo Puch so ustvarjalci, ki so diplomirali na akademijah za likovno umetnost in nekateri z njimi ohranjajo profesionalen stik, kar pa ne pomeni, da so "akademisti", ravno nasprotno, oddaljili so se od šolske dikcije in tudi od imperativov marketinga sedanje umetnosti. Antonio Murado je razvil slikarstvo edinstvene elegantnosti, v to skuša ponovno uvesti ornamentalni ključ, ki ga je internacionalni stil in še posebaj modernizem Adolfa Loosa izločil, kot da bi šlo za delikt; goščave, mreže, cvetni listi, ki jih Murado slika z izjemno tehniko, aludirajo tako na pokrajino in na izgubo dimenzij narave kot tudi na mikroskopski pogled; alegorično bi si lahko mislili, da gre za prikazovanje labirinta sodobnega mesta, v katerem subjekt ni prisoten, pač pa obstaja samo gesta obsesivnih poti, linij, ki so postavljene druga nad drugo, ne da bi se pomešale - srečajo se v logiki anonimnosti. Concha García prav tako aludira na figuro izgube v labirintnem, čeprav v skulpture, v notranjost bele in redukcionistične strukture, uvaja semena, kar bi lahko interpretirali kot razmah minimalističnih zasnov, ki proizvajajo vizualno in senzorialno diskontinuiteto: mogoče pričakujemo, da bo negostoljubje obrodilo, da bo opustošena zemlja čudežno priklicala deževje. Po drugi strani njena miza s fosiliziranimi cvetličnimi lonci, v katerih so namesto rastlin skice skulptur, aludira na ponavljanje in na nujnost razlike, na radiranje narave, ki je mišljenje danes ne more dojeti, če ne gre za entropično pokrajino, se pravi, vsekakor za kontaminiran prostor, območje, kamor lahko mečemo vse ostanke naše družbe. Javier Tudela skuša ponovno oživiti klasični mit, kot je mit o Sizifu, ki je povezan z usodo umetnika (gromozanski napor, da bi skalo prinesli na vrh, s katerega pa nato nenehno pada: zavest o bližini poloma). Avtomobil, v tem primeru kamion, ki določa konstitucijo (nomadsko ali izkoreninjeno) današnjega človeka, je podvojen in tvori kot, ki mu preprečuje, da bi se spravil v tek, razen tako, da se raztrga, kot se to zgodi z identiteto na pragu shizofrenije. Drugo delo Javierja Tudele - na tla vržena majica z utripajočo lučjo v višini prsi v njeni notranjosti - doseže veliko sugestivno moč v zvezi z elementarnostjo: telo je izginilo, ostane pa energija, znamenja tehnike, bitje, ki vznemirja. Nazadnje, Gonzalo Puch se ukvarja s hibridizacijo skulpturnega, mašinskega, gledališkega dogodka in fotografske prezentacije, da bi dosegel nenavadne prizore, za katere je težko vedeti, kaj se dogaja: pred nami so skoraj klinične notranjosti oseb, ki so oblečene v bele halje, zatopljene v svoja dela, medtem ko se blizu njih dogaja nekaj nepredvidenega (ogenj, svetleči stroji, ki se razburjajo itd.). V Puchovih podobah skozi okna opazujemo neukrotljivo naravo, ki je sposobna uvesti svojo barvo in usodo, ki jo je prav tako nemogoče napovedati; atelje ali okvir "urbaniziranega" ima naključen punctum, katastrofo, ki jo umetnost vseskozi izpričuje. Lahko, da bo pomen ustvarjalnega vedenja v urbanem okolju ob koncu stoletja ta, da bo predlagal pisavo katastrofe, povnanjanje travm, povzročil povratek potlačenega, predstavil luksuz kot nekaj nesimetričnega glede na naš način subjektivizacije, vpeljal v cinično družbo simbole nemira, oblike, ki bi dovolile občutiti intenzivnost kot tudi aktivirati tok pomena: zgraditi prostor, kjer bi bivali, čeprav le za hip, ker bi to dekontekstualiziralo naša monotona potepanja po svetu, vedno iščoč drugo okence za oddajo prtljage (potujoč nikamor ali, mogoče, v prid nepoznanemu).

Fernando Castro Flórez
 

A (Paradoxical) Reflection on the Place of Art

The characteristic experience of life in the metropolis is marked by the sign of dispossession, not only in the form of something which is not available to us, but as a certainty that even in that which is ultimately defined, something is missing. Technique has become the paragon, the point of reference of art; the process of the technical reproduction of images, as Walter Benjamin would put it, enables its mass reception, although it also brings the aesthetisation of life which deprives art of its content. Today, the aesthetic experience is at the crossroads: no longer avant-garde or traditional, but rather a formal and thematic compromise which introduces a new sensibility towards time, a creative (and thus critical) use of images, or a disappearance in technique, a transfer to a technical communicative unit which creates hyper-aestheticised languages of mass culture. Certainly we are witnessing a necessary birth of some new morals of artistic activity, or its decay. Actually art oscillates between attempts to destroy the status quo, political criticism, meditations on the identity and body, or else, it indulgently falls for the kitsch, repeats post-avant-garde models through parody, or fetishisticly seeks "autonomisation". Precisely when the symbolic exchange has become genuinely impossible, the critical views are directed towards the artistic, as if this ritual could bring the solution of the mentioned glaciation. The global prose has turned into a series of contiguous banalities in which opacity replaces the density of the negative, where the negative itself has been rendered banal, but never surpassed, not even in a theatrical denouement which would eliminate suspicion, the chronic mistrust which thoroughly corrodes the credibility of the constantly reproduced fact, day by day, page by page.
The contemporary experience is the experience of non-space, as it was regarded by the anthropologist Marc Augé, and which is the basis for the definition of various individual attitudes: escape, fear, intensity of experience, or revolt. History, transformed into a spectacle, forces everything that is "urgent" into oblivion. As if space were captured in time, as if there were no other history than the news of today or yesterday, as if every individual history depleted its motives, words, its images in the inexhaustible store of some infinite history in the present. The passenger in non-spaces simultaneously encounters the experience of the perpetual present and of discovering himself. But amidst the "revolt of events", in this constant subjection which, according to Debord, has its psychological roots in the generalised affiliation to something which is here, we can discover astonishing remains, places on the banks of non-places.
The crisis of the urban certainly points towards the more general crisis of representations of the contemporary. Sennet has shown that the Enlightenment have left a rather peculiar heritage to the inhabitants of modern world: the notion of totality, which has permeated the definition of integrity of well designed objects. Thus a conflict has emerged between buildings and people: the formal value of a building remains in evident divergence with the functional value of the same construction. The city has gradually omitted flexibility in favour of inviolable monumentalism. However, we have to invert the sign of nihilism, to find the energy at the crossroads, to stand against the weakening of plastic processes, to place a wager upon the construction of event. The vision of the world as negation and emptiness is overridden by the attention to the incidental asymmetrical form of a thing, by the geometry of objects, and by the city which arrays the passions. To find the paths leading from the labyrinth, to trust - just like Mies von de Rohe - the details, to establish the ethic of viewing, in which it is precisely the ornamental which represents the articulated relationship between the interior and the exterior, a total resistance to the mode of parody or pastiche which are fragments of contemporary cartography.
We live in the era of general museography, but nevertheless we have hardly any memory. The only things which are manifested are banal memories, brief anecdotes, practical jokes, used to "kill time". We are bounded by the horizon of boredom, just as if the capacity to produce events invested with intensity were lost. The mistrust of meta-stories, or the certain belief that modernity is an unfinished project, has led to a nostalgic, even apocalyptic, emotional tone, to the signs of post-history. The monumental or ancient configurations of history were not replaced by a critical perspective capable of introducing the artistic experience as a counter-means of oblivion. The process of the post-aureole art, i.e. the development of the mass-media aesthetic context, has caused the loss of direction, or implosion, which in many cases means the search for exits from the labyrinth: sculptures on the open fields, interventions in public spaces, questioning and trying to close the space of representation, a conceptual retreat, or the emergence of cybernetic utopia.
The city constantly produces spatial voids. The decline of industrial city leaves open a number of questions regarding the project and intervention, which form part of architecture: How to find or examine the meaning of space in the infinite territories of financial transactions, where the dignity of man would have a place to reside? How can we construct - in the circumstances of "technical integrism" (Virilio) - a project of habitations which would bring the triumph to the instrumental reason of neo-conservative action? How to balance a civilisation which is still deeply rooted in the instruments of poverty belonging to the agrarian world, with the development of the wastefulness of the designed objects of the industrial and technological phase? Should the new nature of metropolis perhaps continue to produce consumer values as the only pragmatic goal of the social structure, and the visual order of simulation as a model for its space formalisation? The city is disappearing as the space of memory, as the halt for dialogue, as the place of exchange of a subjective word, that is, as the territory of our own existence.
We have to learn to think the space. The space of non-space does not create identity, nor the relationship, but merely loneliness and similarity. The space is triply symbolic when it reflects the relationship of every single inhabitant with himself, with other inhabitants, and with the common history. The multiplication of non-spaces, as already pointed out, is characteristic of the contemporary world; these are the spaces in which we are merely passengers, or consumers. Augé believes that cities are still a combination of spaces (the remains of modernity), a pluralist world which exists only in the imagination and memories of all those who live in it or visit it. The theme of a walk through the city, and the walker are closely connected with the image of the city: a walk, a stroll through the city is an expression of freedom, which expands in the urban surroundings. But in the pleasure of walking we breathe a certain nostalgic atmosphere, where the city has already come to represent something more than merely a tactile and permanently unfinished symbol. There are many dangers lurking in the city, for example uniformity (the multiplication of depersonalised spaces), expansion (the loss of boundaries marked by the urban), or implosion (the misery of the peripheries). But the most difficult to heal is the incapacity to identify with the space in which we live: permanent dislocation.
Life in the big city with its rapid accumulation of shifting images does not allow for stability; on the contrary, it causes fragmentation, but also a levelling force at the same time. It is good to know that the most intensive expansion of individuality in the history occurs precisely in the city: divided between the sense of his/her own particularity and abstract homogeneity, which questions the former, a human individual experiences a vertigo of unknown directions and boundaries. This radical disorientation finds its own experimental laboratory in art, from deconstruction (as a philosophical, architectonic problem, and a problem of the fine arts) to virtualisation: a course from decomposition to fragmentation and the computer image. We have reached the extreme limit of velocity, the capacity to be omnipresent, the capacity of instantaneity and proximity, the form of temporality which is an absolute loop, but in particular we face the development of a new category of grand transcendence for the co-production of a "new viewer": interaction. It is too soon to know whether European art and culture will be capable of escaping the banal memory and the fate of historical disease, without colliding with the nostalgia of pre-metropolitan experience. Perhaps it is true that the guilt of contemporary culture lies in the fact that this culture - in its intention - is primarily the culture of escape. It might be useful to remember Baudelaire's claim that not everyone can afford to bath in the crowd, since to take pleasure in the crowd is an act of art, and the only person who can afford the celebration of vitality, is someone inspired by a fairy, while still in the cradle, with the desire for disguise and the mask, the hatred of the domicile, and the passion for travel. It is not the question of permanent mobilisation, or tourism which, if only it were possible, tears apart spaces, but of displacement, or exile, which is one of the most characteristic features of modern artist. We need new symbols, a prudent dialogue which will respect differences (by maintaining a universal talent) beyond the self-complacent rhetoric or monumentality, which will create a public space, and inspirit those promises of the city which represented a strong challenge to modernity: the ground where the images reflecting our spasmodic identity have taken root.
 

A Note on Spanish Art at the Exhibition

The four Spanish artists, participating in The Artist and an Urban Environment exhibition, are typical representatives of tendencies in contemporary art, figuring within the crisis of legitimacy which influences the aesthetic discourse, but also the above mentioned paradoxes of the metropolitan. After the decade of the 80s, when the prevailing pictorial basis was in harmony with Italian trans-avant-garde or German neo-expressionism, follows a generation whose essential space is attention to the political (one of the cores of post-avant-garde modern art) and to the position of sexual reinvidication, whereby they often employ evidently mimetic rhetoric effects, in connection with the developments of the North-American scene. The poetry of the object, which even reached the banality of the quotidian and autobiographical exteriorisation; the site-specific work which rummages through the architecture of memory, sourcing from solutions which are primarily critical or deconstructivist; or the expansion of the photographic field, together with the crude restoration of the body in (post)performance - these are the tendencies typical of a period in which the prevailing aesthetic is, in conclusion, curator-ism, which means not so much the retextualisation of art or, if we consider the symmetrical key, the demonstration of its radical illegibility, but rather the spectacular-exhibitory and all-embracing understanding of a given work of art sourcing from something I will venture to designate as pre-concepts.
Javier Tudela, Concha García, Antonio Murado, and Gonzalo Puch are the artists, graduates of academies of the fine arts, and some of them still retain professional contacts with those academies. This does not mean, however, that they are "academicians"; on the contrary, they moved away both from school diction and from the marketing imperatives of recent art. Antonio Murado has developed painting of a singular elegance, endeavouring to reintroduce the ornamental key rejected as a kind of offence by international style, especially by the modernism of Adolf Loos; thickets, nets, and petals, which Murado paints with an exceptional technique, allude to the landscape and the loss of the dimensions of nature, as well as to the microscopic view; as an allegory we might think that we deal with the representation of the labyrinth of the contemporary city in which the subject is absent, and what remains is but a gesture of obsessive routes, lines, placed one over another without becoming entangled - they meet in the logic of anonymity. Concha García also alludes to the figure of loss in the labyrinth, but she includes seeds in her sculptures, within the interior of the white and reductional structure, which could be interpreted as a growth of minimalist schemes which produce visual and sensorial discontinuity: perhaps we expect inhospitality to bear fruit, devastated land to miraculously invoke the rain. On the other hand, her table with fossilised flower pots, in which one finds sketches of sculptures instead of flowers, alludes to the repetition and the necessity of difference, to the erasure of nature which current thinking is unable to grasp, if it is not the question of the entropic landscape, i.e. a definitely contaminated space, a territory into which all the remains of our society could be thrown. Javier Tudela attempts to revive classical myth, such as the myth of Sisyphus, which is connected with the fate of the artist (the tremendous toil of bringing something to the peak, and yet it keeps rolling back down: the consciousness of the proximity of decay). A car, in this case a lorry, which defines the constitution (nomadic or eradicated) of modern man, is doubled, and it forms an angle which prevents it from running without getting torn apart - which is the same as what happens to identity on the verge of schizophrenia. Another work by Javier Tudela, a T-shirt thrown to the floor, with an intermittent light installed in place of breasts, attains a powerful force of suggestion related to its fundamental nature: the body has disappeared, but the energy remains, the marks of technique, the beat which excites. Finally, Gonzalo Puch deals with the hybridisation of the sculptural or mechanical, of the theatrical event and the photographic representation, to obtain peculiar scenes in which one can hardly discern what it is all about: almost clinical interiors with people dressed in white gowns, absorbed in their work, while something unexpected is taking place in their vicinity (fire, shiny raging machines, etc.). Through the windows in Puch's images we see the untamable nature capable of introducing its own colour and the fate which is also unpredictable; the studio, or frame, of "urbanised" figures has an incidental punctum, the catastrophe regularly confirmed in art. It could be that the significance of creative behaviour in urban surroundings at the turn of the century will consist of the proposal of the scripture of catastrophe, the exteriorisation of traumas; in the inducement of the return of the suppressed; in the representation of luxury as something asymmetrical concerning our mode of subjectivisation; in the introduction of symbols of disquietude into the cynical society, the forms which would allow for both the feeling of intensity and the activation of the flow of meaning: in building the space in which we would live, if only for a moment, since it would decontextualise our monotonous roamings around the world, always looking for another counter to hand in our luggage (travelling towards nowhere or, perhaps, in the favour of the unknown).

Fernando Castro Flórez
 BOGDAN BORČIĆ
Rojen leta v 1927 Ljubljani; živi in dela v Slovenj Gradcu./  Born 1927 in Ljubljana, Slovenia; lives and work in Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.
Samostojne razstave (Izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 1958 Ljubljana; 1959 Novo mesto; 1961 Ljubljana; 1966 Piran; Ljubljana; 1968 Beograd; 1970 Pasadena; 1971 La Jolla; 1972 Subotica; Koper; 1973 Dubrovnik; Celovec (Klagenfurt); Beograd; Videm; 1976 "Pregledna razstava/ Retrospective", Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1978 Beograd; Dubrovnik; 1979 Garpines; Padova; 1980 Hamburg; Novo mesto; 1981 Ljubljana; Slovenj Gradec; 1982 Ljubljana; Sarajevo; 1983 Trst; 1984 Ljubljana; 1985 Niš; 1986 Galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec; Ljubljana; 1987 Maribor; 1988 Luxemburg; 1989 Novo mesto; 1990 Ohrid; Struga; 1991  Ljubljana; Beograd; Novi Sad; 1993 Kostanjevica; Celovec; Maribor; 1995 Ljubljana; 1996 Galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec.
Skupinske razstave (Izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (Selection): "3. - 21. mednarodni grafični bienale", Ljubljana; "Graphik 63", Albertina, Dunaj (Wien); "1. in 3. Bienale grafike", Krakow; "4. trienale grafike", Grechen; "1. in 2. bienale", Liege; "8. sredozemski bienale", Aleksandrija; "Intergrafik 70", Berlin; "2., 3. in 5. bienale grafike", Bradford; 3.bienale grafike, Firenze; 9. bienale, Mentonu; 2.in 3. bienale grafike, Frechen; 1.in 2. bienale grafike, Miami; 1982 svetovni natečaj grafike, San Francisco; 1983 mednarodni festival, Kyoto; 7., 8. in 9. norveški mednarodni grafični bienale, Fredrikstad; 2. grafična razstava, Ferrol; 2., 4.in 5. bienale grafike, Wakayama; 15.in 16. razstava grafike, Kanagawa; 5.in 6. mednarodni bienale grafike, Varna; 1991 trienale, Osaka; 5.mednarodni trienale, Wroclaw; 1., 4. bienale slovenske grafike, Otočec; 2. mednarodni bienale, Gyor; 1994  1. mednarodni trienale grafike, Bitola.; "Intergrafika 94", Katovice; 1997 2. mednarodni trienale grafike, Bitola.

Črna slika V./ Black Painting V., 1983
akril na platno/ acrylic on canvas, 134 x 134 cm
 
 
 
 

DANIEL BUREN
Rojen leta 1938 v Boulogne - Billancourtu, Francija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1938 in  Boulogne - Billancourt, France, lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1967 "Buren o Toroni chichessia", Galleria Flaviana, Lugano; 1968 Galleria Apolinaire, Milano; 1969 "Position/ Proposition", Galerie Konrad Fisher, Düsseldorf; 1971 "Position/ Proposition", Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach; 1972 "Incontri internationali
d‘Arte", Roma; 1973 "Sanction du musee", The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; 1975 "Voile/Toile-Toile/Voile II", Akademie der Künste, Berlin (West), 1976 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; 1977 "Place and Placement", Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brüssel; 1979 "Stalactio-Stalagmitio", University Art Museum, Berkerly, California; "Voile/Toile-Toile/Voile", Musee d‘Art Histoire, Geneve; "Watch the Doors Pleace", Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; 1980 "On Location: in the Labirinth", Detroit Institut of Art, Detroit, MI; "Essai heterodite: les gilats", Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven;  1982 "Couleurs superposees (Acte II, 60‘)", Musee l aforet, Tokyo; 1984 "Coincidences ou la place dos colonnes", Moderna Museet, Stockholm; 1985 "Inserer la serre ou D`un espace deux", Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Saint-Etienne; 1986 "Le pavillon: cope, decoupe, touille, grave", XLII. Biennale, Venezia; 1987 "Metamorphoses II", Ezra & Cecil Zilkha Gallery, Center for the Arts Wesleyan University, Middletown; 1988 "The Revarberation", Brooklin Museum, New York; "11000 tulipes", Keukenhof; "Metamorphoses IV", Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; 1989 "Deux diagonales pour un lieu", Institute for Contemporary Arts, Nagoya;  "7 octogones pour un lieu", Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; "Im Raum: Die Farbe", Secession, Dunaj (Wien); 1990 "At the opposite", National Gallery of Shed II, Wellington; "El color y su refleyo", Fondation culturelle Mapfre Vida, Madrid; 1991 "White box for two colors", Museum for Contemporary Art, Sydney; 1992 "Placed/ Projected/ Displaced", National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik; "Ombre, lumiere, reflet", Ecuries de Saint-Hugues, Cluny; 1993 "To alter colmar", J. Weber Gallery, New York.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibition (selection): 1968 "955 000", Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; 1970 "Using Walls", The Jewish Museum, New York; "Conceptual Arts and Conceptual Aspects", New York Cultural Center, New York; "Between Man and Matter", 10th International Exhibition, Tokyo; 1971 "Experimenta 4", Kunstverein, Frankfurt; 1972 "Konzept Kunst", Kunstmuseum Basel; 1974 "Kunst über Kunst", Kunstverein, Köln; "Eight Contemporary Artists", MOMA, New York; 1975 "Aktionen der Avantgarde II", Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; "mir 75", Umetnostni paviljon Slovenj Gradec; 1976 "Prospekt Retrospekt - Europa 1946-1976", Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf; 1977 "Rooms", PS1, New York; 1978 "Poetische Aufklärung in der europäischen Kunst der Gegenwart bei J. Beuys, M. Broothaers, D. Buren, J. Kounellis, M. Merz, G. Richter. Geschichte von Heute und Morgen.", Halle für internationalle neue Kunst, InK, Zürich; 1979 "La pratica politica, il sistema dell`arte e il tessuto sociale", Galleria Cicica, Modena;1980 "Kunst in Europa nach 68", Museum van Hedendaagste Kunst; Gent; 1981 "Murs", Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; 1982 "Documenta 7", Kassel; "Bücher bilder Objekte aus der Sammlung Reiner Speck", Museum Haus Lange und Museum Haus Ester, Krefeld; 1984 "Echanges, Artistes français a Berlin 1964-1984", Goethe Institut, Paris; 1986 "XLII. Biennale", Venezia; 1987 "Implosion ett postmodernt perspectiv/a postmodern perspective", Moderna Museet, Stockholm; 1988 "Sculpture in the city", Rotterdam; "Zeitloss", Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; 1989 "Andsindustri, vaerk, koncept og integritet", Danske Kunstakademia, Kopenhagen; 1991 "14 Individualites, Aspect of Contemporary Artists from France", Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
 
 
 

Vrzeli v arhitekturi

Na tako imenovanih nevtralnih arhitektonskih mestih so nevtralne točke/ osi, ki lomijo to nevtralnost in v glavnem ne služijo v ta namen - okna, vrata, ozki hodniki, zračniki, ogrevalne cevi, svetlobni viri itd.
Vsekakor, vrzeli v arhitekturi.
Prehodna mesta. Motena mesta.
Neuravnotežena mesta. Motena mesta. Okna, moteče jih to, kar je za njimi. Vrata, moteč jih tisti, ki jih odpre. Hodniki, moteč jih tisti, ki gre vzdolž njih.

Mesto

Ko govorimo o arhitekturi, vključujemo socialni, politični in ekonomski kontekst. Arhitektura katerekoli zvrsti je dejansko neizogibno ozadje, nosilka in okvir vsakega dela.
Ne obstaja več arhitektura, svojstvena slikanju umetniškega dela (ne obstaja več zgodovina, svojstvena slikanju umetniškega dela), ki bi bila zasnovana brez upoštevanja svojstvene arhitekture kraja, kjer bo prikazana.
Od kod nemoč zasnovati delo izven kraja, kjer bo razstavljeno? Od kod neuporabnost umetnikovega studia in nesmiselnost njegovega obstoja?
Arhitektura galerije, v kateri mora delo zavzeti obliko, ni najbrž samo aktualna razstavna soba (kjer je blago razstavljeno), temveč tudi direktorski urad (kjer se blago prodaja), skladišče (kjer se blago spravlja), sprejemnica (kjer se razpravlja o blagu).
Je tudi zunanja arhitektura galerije. Stopnišče do nje, dvigalo, cesta ki vodi do nje, površina kjer stoji, mesto...

Arhitektura kot človekovo dejanje

Ko govorimo o arhitekturi, mislimo urbani (naseljen ali ne), kulturni prostor.
Določeni umetniki, ki ne priznajo, da bi bila arhitektura istočasno neizogibno ozadje in okvir dela, so prisiljeni razstavljati v pokrajini, v gozdovih, na gorah, na morjih ali v puščavi. To je poskus bega od človeka, od sebe.
To je poskus zanikanja arhitekture kot človekovega dejanja.

Iz "Studio International",
September/Oktober l975, str. 125
 
 
 

Holes in the architecture

In so-called neutral architectural places, the non-neutral points axes breaking the neutrality and generally never used for this reason - are the windows, the doors, the narow corridors, the air vents, the heating pipes, the light sources etc...
In fact, holes in the architecture.
Passing places. Disturbed places. Unstable places. Windows disturbed by what happens behind them. Doors disturbed by those who open them. Corridors disturbed by those who walk along them.
The Town

When we say architecture, we include the social, political economic context.
Architecture of any sort is in fact the inevitable background, support and frame of  any work.
There no longer exists an architecture peculiar to painting to the work of art (there no longer exists a history peculiar to painting to the work of art), which could be conceived without considering the architecture peculiar to the place where it is exhibited.
Whence the impossibility of conceiving a woark outside the place where it will be  exhibited.
Whence the impossibility of conceiving a woark outside the place where it will be exhibited.
Whence the uselessness of the artist’s studio and the absurdity of its survival.
The architecture of a gallery, in which the work must take shape, is perhaps not only the actual exhibition room (where the goods are shown), but also the director’s office (where the goods are sold), the store-room (where the goods are kept), the reception room (where the goods are discussed).
It is perhaps also the external architecture of the gallery, the staircase up to it, or the lift, the street leading to it, the area where it is situated, the town...

Architecture as the act of man

When we say architecture, we mean an urban place (inhabited or not), a cultural place. Certain artists, who will not accept that architecture should be at the same time the inevitable background and the frame of the work, are forced to exhibit in the country, in forests, mountains, seas or deserts.
This is an attempt to escape from men, from oneself. It is an attempt to deny architecture as the act of man.

Published in "Studio International",
September/October 1975, p. 125
 
 

Dokumentacija projekta z razstave "mir 75" (Slovenj Gradec, 1975)/ Project-dokumentation from the exhibition "peace 75" (Slovenj Gradec, 1975)
 
 
 

MINNA HEIKINAHO
Rojena leta 1961 v Helsinkih, Finska; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1951 in Helsinki, Finland; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne Razstave (Izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 1993 "Journey", The Gallery Of Fine Art Academy, Helsinki; 1995 "Free Breakfast", Hämeentie 6, Helsinki; 1996 "Push Firma Beige", Helsinki 23 B, Helsinki.
Skupinske Razstave (Izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (Selection): 1989 "The Art Fotography - Every Day Art", The Gallery Of Vanha, Helsinki; "Ekobäng", The Gallery Of Vanha, Helsinki; "Forum" (Happening), Helsinki; 1990 "The Fiskars Exhibitions", Pohja; "Anni Laakso, Minna Heikinaho", Kta, Helsinki; 1991 "The Young Artists Exhibitions", Helsinki; 1992 "Nina Björkman, Minna Heikianho, Carolin Ward", The Gallery Of Fine Art Academy, Helsinki; 1993 "Women's Laughter", Vapauden Aukio, Helsinki; 1994 "The Forest And Mountain Project", Galleri Wang, Oslo and The Gallery Of Fine Arts Academy, Helsinki; "The Finalshow Of Fine Art Academy", Helsinki; "Ladyshave", The Gallery Of Kluuvi, Helsinki; "Conception", Stoa, Helsinki; "Transhalles Europa", Helsinki; "Ekophoto", The Gallery Of Fine Arts, Helsinki; "Sound Calender", Yle, 8 Railway Stations Of Finland; 1995 "6th AV - Bienale", Lahti; "Art - Attack", Galleri Nebb, Oslo; The Whore Academy, Helsinki; "Memories 1945", Hammersmith Riversidestudio, London; "Ladyshave",The Gallery Titanik, Turku; "Out Post", Biennale, Venezia; "Living Texture"(Scandinavian Artproduction In The Nineties), Zürich; 1996 Galleri M. Balcong, Oslo; "The Product- Project", Savonlinna; "27.680.000", Svedish Radio, TV 1, Dagensnyheter; "Likat", Sju Kvinnor, Galleri Otto Plonk, Bergen; "Dialogues", The Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki; "Feeling The City-Project", The Gallery Of Kluuvi, Helsinki; 1997 "7th AV - Biennale", Lahti; "Smart Show", Helsinki, Stockholm.
Videi/ Videos: 1989 "Work"; 1993 "Croquis" (z/ with Nina Björkman); 1994 "What Do You Want?" (z/ with Sirupa Aalto, Anu Pesonen); 1995 "Comments"; 1996 "Map"; "Det Bästa Och Värsta"; "Recession, Love, Health... In Balance"; 1997 "Different Kinds Of Relationship".

 Ali imamo moralno - etične probleme?

In kaj so?
Kot umetnika me zanimajo ljudje in njihovo socialno okolje. Ko delam, imam neposreden odnos z okoljem in njegovimi interakcijami. Zanima me interaktivna komunikacija. Ljudje in njihova prisotnost kot del mojega dela: ljudje izkušajo, reagirajo in se udeležujejo.Delam intervjuje in videe, uporabljam računalnik in različne vrste opreme. Poskušam ugotoviti, na kakšen način različni mediji dosežejo ljudi.
Sem "vezni člen" med umetnostjo in skupnostjo okolja, v katerem delam. Najdem nove načine - kanale, na katere je možno prenesti moja vizualna dela.
Moj atelje kot predstavitev, razstava in učni prostor naredi moje delo javno in kaže sodelovanje z različnimi skupinami ljudi v okolju.
Razstavljam dvoje del:
1. fotografije: Ljudje z ulice (1994)
Pol leta sem stregla brezplačen zajtrk vsakomur, ki je bil lačen v Hakaniemi v Helsinkih.
2. video: Recesija, ljubezen, zdravje .... v ravnotežju (1996)
Vprašala sem: Kaj je najboljše in najslabše v vašem življenju?
Kaj vam pomeni ljubezen?
Lansko poletje sem intervjuvala 300 ljudi v Kalliu. Intervjuji so temelj mojega videa, ki ga predstavljam. Leta 1996 sem ustanovila push firma beige, ki vključuje izobraževalne storitve, internet, razstave, eksperimentalne lokalne publikacije. Delam z organizacijami hendikepiranih, lokalnimi šolami in vrtci. Cilj aktivnosti je oživiti solidarnost v okolju in predstaviti različne skupine oz. skupnosti drugo drugi.

Minna Heikinaho
 

Do we have moral-ethnic problems?

And what are they?
As an artist I'm interested in people and their social environment. While working I have a direct relationship with my environment and whith its reactions.
I am interested in interactive communication. People and their presence as a part of my work: people experence, react and take part.
I make interviews and videos, use computer and diferent kinds of equipments. I try to find out in which way different medias are able to  reach people.
I am a "connector"between art and the community of the area, where I work. I find new ways / channels to present my visual works.
My studio as a presentation, exhibitions and teaching place makes my work public and shows my cooperation with different kind of groups of people in my area.
I present two works:
1. The photos: Street people, 1994
I served half a year, 1994, the free breakfasts for everyone in Hakaniemi, Helsinki.
2. The video: RECESSION, LOVE, HEALTH... IN BALANCE, 1996
I asked: "What is the best and the worst in your life?"
"What love means to you?"
I have interviewed 300 people in Kallio last summer. The interviews are the basis of my videos I present here. In 1996 I grounded the place called, push firma beige, which includes: educational services, internet, shows, experimental local publication. I work with organizations of the handicapped, local schools and nursery. The goal of the actives i sto reinforce the solidarity in the area and to represent  different groups of community to each other.
http:\\www.fng.fi\fng\htm12\fi\news\conrempo\liike.htm

Minna Heikinaho
 

Ljudje z ulice/ Street people, 1997
5 fotografij/ 5 photographies, 50 x 75 cm, 50 x 50 cm
Recesija, ljubezen, zdravje ... v ravnotežju/ Recession, Love, Health ... in balance, 1996, video
 
 
 
 

SANNA SARVA
Rojena 1964 v Hämeenlinni, Finska; živi in dela v Helsinkih./ Born 1964 in
Hämeenlinna, Finland; lives and works in Helsinki.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1990 "Soap", Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki; 1993 Gallery of Fine Arts, Helsinki; 1996 "Portrait", Ministry of the interior, Ministry of labour, Office for Alien Affairs etc., Helsinki.
Skupinske razstave in festivali (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions and festivals (selection): 1992 "MUU Video Festival", Helsinki; "Lahti AV Festival", Lahti; 1994 "Degree -show", Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki; "Annual Young Artists Exhibitions", Helsinki Art Hall, Helsinki; 1995 "Lux Sonor" (festival), Helsinki Art Hall, The Whore Academy, Helsinki Theatre Museum; "Art Attack", Oslo; 1996 "Feeling the City", Kluuvi-gallery, Helsinki; "27680000 I massmedia", Sveriges TV and radio in/and Dagensnnyheter; Gallery Otto Plonk, Bergen; 1997 "Smart Show 97", Stockholm - Helsinki; St. Petersburg Gallery, St. Petersburg
 

Besedilo k fotografijam

Ko sem se preselila v Rusijo, sem bila zelo mlada, skoraj še otrok, in še vedno sem si želela bližino staršev. Želela sem si, da bi mi mama pripovedovala o kulturi in stvareh, ki so del življenja, ko si ženska. Ko sem živela v Rusiji, sem bila popolnoma sama in sem skrbela zase, tudi, če se nisem počutila pripravljeno za to.
V RUSIJI IN NA FINSKEM JE VSAKO ČLOVEŠKO BITJE POMEMBNO IN SKORAJ VSAK IMA KAKO IZOBRAZBO IN SLUŽBO.
Odkar sem zapustila Somalijo, sem odrasla. Pridobila sem izobrazbo in življenjske izkušnje. V Rusiji in na Finskem ljudje ne sodijo drug drugega samo po spolu. Vsak izobraženec lahko ima službo in skrbi za družino. Ni pomembno, ali je moški ali ženska.
STARŠE JE TREBA UBOGATI NE GLEDE NA TO, ALI IMAJO PRAV ALI NE
Že od mladosti se učim spoštovati starejše ljudi, religijo in somalsko hrano. V Somaliji je treba poslušati starše, ker ti nikoli ne prizadenejo svojih otrok. Na Finskem sem imela težave, ko sem se morala navaditi na to, da mlade deklice ne pomagajo materam ali jih ubogajo. Če bi se deklice obnašale tako v Somaliji, bi ljudje mislili, da njihove matere niso dovolj močne, in jih ne bi spoštovali. Na Finskem sem včasih slišala, da ljudje kličejo matere po imenih, to je nekaj, kar se ne bi moglo zgoditi v Somaliji.
Prav tako sem žalostna, ko vidim stare Fince, da so tako osamljeni. Ne razumem, kako lahko otroci tako ravnajo s starši. Ne glede na to, kako so ljudje zaposleni, bi se lahko menjavali s sorodniki, tako da starejši ljudje ne bi bili ves čas sami.
TRUDILA SEM SE NE PRIZADETI DRUGIH
Čeprav je religija pomembna zame, ne molim petkrat na dan. Zame je pomembnejše, da se trudim, da ne bi prizadela drugih, da jih ne bi izsiljevala, ko jih ni tu. Če me kdo hoče prizadeti, poskušam biti vseeno prijazna. Mogoče bodo tako začeli razmišljati, zakaj so me hoteli prizadeti.
Moja religija vsebuje veliko pravil, ki se nanašajo na vsakodnevno življenje. Prepovedano je jesti svinjino in tega ne počnem. Ni pomembno, ali živim v Somaliji ali na Finskem, jesti hočem po svoje, ker je to del moje religije.
V SOMALIJI NI VLJUDNO SPRAŠEVATI LJUDI, ALI SO LAČNI. MOGOČE SO TAKO LAČNI, DA JIH JE SRAM POVEDATI. HRANO MORAMO PONUDITI VEDNO BREZ VPRAŠANJ.
Čeprav je Somalija revnejša kot Zahod, sem hodila v šolo in imela hobije in oba starša sta imela službo. Včasih nam je primanjkovalo denarja, drugič je bilo bolje.
 

Text to the photographies

 When I moved to Russia I was very young, almost just like I child, and I still wanted to have my parents around. I would have like to have my mother telling me about our culture and things that are part of one*s life when one is a women. When living in Russia I was totaly alone and took care of my self even though I didn*t feel ready for it.
IN RUSSIA AND FINLAND EVERY HUMAN BEING IC IMPORTAND AND ALMOST EVERY BODY HAS SOME SORT OF AN EDUCATION AND THEIR OWN JOB
Since I left Somalia I*ve grown up. I have got my education and I have gained life expirience. In Russia and in Finland people don*t judge others only trough their sex. Anyone who is educated can have a job and take care of the family. It*s not so important whether they are male or female.
ONE HAS TO BE OBEY THEIR PARENTS NO MATTER IF THEY ARE WRIGHT OR WRONG
Since I was young I have learned to respect older people, religion and Somalian food. In Somalia one has to listen to their parents as parents never want to harm their children. In Finland I have had difficulties to get just to the fact that young girls don*t help or obey their mothers. If girls would behave like that in Somalia people would think that their mothers are not strong enough and they wouldn*t respect them. In Finland I have sometimes heard that people call their mother by names and that is something that couldn*t happen in Somalia.
Also I feel sad when I see old Finnish people being so lonely. I don*t understand how their children can treat their parents like that. No matter how busy the people may be they could for example take turns with other relatives  so that old people don*t  have to spend all their time alone.
I TRY NOT TO HURT OTHERS
Though the religion is important for me I don*t pray five times a day. What is more important for me is to try to not to harm others or black mail them when they are not around. If someone try to hurt me I try to be nice to them. Maybe that way they will start to think why they have been trying to disturb me.
My religion includes many regulations concerning daily life. It is for example vorbidden to eat pig  and still that is something I do not do. It doesn*t matter if I live in Somalia or Finland, but I wan*t to live this way as it is a part of my religion.
IN SOMALIA IT IS NOT NICE TO ASK PEOPLE  IF THEY ARE HUNGRY.
MAYBE THEY ARE SO HUNGRY THAT THEY FEEL SHY TO SAY IT. ONE MUST ALWAYS OFFER FOOD WITHOUT ASKING ANY QUESTIONS.
Though Somalia is more poor than the West, I went to the school and had hobbies and both of my parents had a job.
Sometimes we were lacking money and sometimes we were fine.
 

Portreti vrednot/ The Portraits of Values, 1996
10 barvnih fotokopij/ 10 colour photo-copies, 60 x 50 cm
 

ALLI MARIA SAVOLAINEN
Rojena leta 1963 v Polvijärvi, Finska; živi in dela v Helsinkih./ Born 1963 in Polvijärvi, Finland; lives and works in Helsinki.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1997 "one day family", Gallery Zone, Helsinki.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1988 "Lahden Taiteilijaseura Summer Exhibitions", Artmuseum, Lahti; 1989 "Departure", Vanha Gallery, Helsinki; 1990 "4000 Word", Artmuseum of Mikkeli; 1991 "Paintings", Stoa Gallery, Helsinki; 1993 "Tear Of A Crocodile",  The Museum of Photography, Helsinki; "Camera Obscura", The Museum of Photography, Hungary; 1995 "Pulp Fact", The Photographer*s Gallery, London; 1996  "More Than One", Gallery Kunststück, Hamburg; 1997 "Renvall & Savolainen", Borey Art Gallery, St. Petersburg.
Kratki filmi in videi/ Short films and videos: 1989 "The Task" (8 mm film); 1990 "The Task II" (8 mm film); 1992 "Nonstoppampam" (video, z/ with Seppo Renvall); 1993 "Tear of a crocodile" (video, z/ with S.R); 1993 "L.A.M.P" (video); 1994 "Dancing Shortly 1." (video, z/ with S.R); 1995 "Tube" (video, z/ with S.R);  "Detective stories: The Clue" (video); 1997 "I.stories: September" (video).
 

Umetnik in urbano okolje

1. Pešec prečka cesto I
2. Pešec prečka cesto II
3. Pešec prečka cesto III
Ta dela sodijo k temi One day family, s katero sem se ukvarjala zadnje čase. Ta dela so bila del samostojne razstave, ki sem jo imela v galeriji Zone v Helsinkih aprila 1997. One day family je celovita serija fotografij kogarkoli. Ljudi, ki pričajo o eksistenci drug drugega na ulici, na postajah, v knjižnicah, na javnih prostorih. Ljudi,ki so neznani drug drugemu, ki se zbirajo v skupine in vrste, mimoidoči, ki se srečujejo ravno in samo zdaj, za trenutek, ki nima več opraviti z zgodovino ali preteklostjo. Deli I in II sta seriji fotografij obrazov v dveh različnih trenutkih pred semaforji. Delo III je serija fotografij osebe v različnih vsakodnevnih opravilih. Na določen način so ta dela zvrst ulične fotografije, a so tudi podobne paparazzi fotografijam ali fotografijam, ki bi jih posnel zasebni detektiv. To so vprašanja o prisotnosti samega sebe ali drugega, pojavnosti, pozornosti, opisa in etike.

Alli Maria Savolainen

Artist and an urban environment

1. A Pedestrian Crossing I
2. A Pedestrian Crossing II
3. A Pedestrian Crossing III
These works belong to the theme "one day family", that I've been working with lately. These works were part of my solo Exhibitions, that was in Gallery Zone in Helsinki in April 97.
One day family is consisting series of photographs of anyone. Of people who testify each other existence in the streets, stations, librarys, public spaces. People, unknown to each other, making groups and queues, passing by meeting each other just and only now, this moment that has no more to do with the history or the past. Works 1 and 2 are series of photographs of faces, in two  different moments in the traffic lights. Work 3 is series of photographs of a person, in different everyday life actions. In a certain way these works go to the gategory of the streetphotography, but they also resemble about the paparazzi-photography or photographs that privat detectives might take. There are the questions about the presence, one self or another, appearance, recognition, descriptions and ethics.

Alli Maria Savolainen

Pešec prečka cesto I/ A Pedestrian Crossing I, 1997
16 fotografij/ 16 photographies, 23 x 30 cm
Pešec prečka cesto II/ A Pedestrian crossing II, 1997
6 fotografij/ 6 photographies, 50 x 40
Pešec prečka cesto III/ A Pedestrian Crossing III, 1997
7 fotografij/ 7 photographies, 30 x 40 cm
 
 

KATJA VALESKA PESCHKE
Rojena 1966 v Neustadt/ Wstr; živi in dela v Berlinu./ Born 1966 in Neustadt/ Wstr; lives and works in Berlin.
Samostojne razstave, performansi, akcije (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions, Performances, Actions (selection): 1992 "Haus/ Mauer/ Meer", Groß - Schwansee, Herrenhaus, Mecklenburg - Vorpommern; 1993 "Haus auf Sand gebaut und Sandblumengiessen", akcije na obali Vzhodnega morja/ actions on the coast of the East-See; Boltenhagen, Travemünde; "Vulkanen in Berlin" (videi, predvajano v FAB Berlin/ videos broadcasted in FAB Berlin); 1994 "Vulkanforschungsstation in Berlin", akcije v mestnem prostoru/ actions in city-space; 1995 Avtobusna vožnja do vulkanov v Berlinu, v sodelovanju s Kulturbüro Berlin/ Bus-Trip to the vulcanous in Berlin, in cooperation with Kulturbüro Berlin.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1994 "Sektperformance I", Festival de Performance, Granada; "Amada, Armada, die Geliebte, die Bewaffnete", Verborgenes Museum, Berlin; "Sektperformance III" v/ in Postkonzeptuelle Malerei II, Kunstwerke Berlin; "Melancholia" po/ after Lukas Cranach, performance, Kunstwerke Berlin; "Leben auf dem Vulkan  - ein Forschungsergebnis" & "Sektperformance IV", Industrie - und Handelskammer Berlin; 1995 "Versuch mal Vulkan", performance, Kantine der KIB Treptow, Berlin.
 

Izbruh

9. novembra 1989  se ujema združenje zahodnega in vzhodnega Berlina s trkom dveh kontinentalnih plošč. Izbruhi in potresi so predvsem v vzhodnem delu mesta. Topografija se spreminja.Počene ploskve zemlje so istočasno tudi zemeljski izbruhi. Zemeljske luknje postajajo globoki kraterji. Do izraza prihaja vulkansko pogorje, ki se širi.
Posledice vulkanizma, ki v uničevalni liniji potapljajo mesto, prenehajo delovati tako nenadno, da ostajajo nekatere hiše nepoškodovane.Profil mestne pokrajine se spreminja dnevno.
"Znanstveniki so bili presenečeni nad individualnostjo vulkanov ter so priznali, da so bili nestabilnejši kot premišljevanja."
 Vulkan demonstrira substanco preobrazbe mesta, misli, dejanj, domačega prostora.
Površina se oblikuje po vulkanskem principu. Zaradi vročine in premikov se odpirajo tla.  Hribi izmečkov se umeščajo na prometne ulice, jih ožijo ter ovirajo prehod.
Na tovrstnih vulkanskih področjih imajo cestni delavci zagotovljeno delo, že tisočletja. "K človeškemu delu prispeva vulkan tisti material, s katerim to isto človeško delo uničuje." Cestni delavec pravi: "Ena erupcija mi priskrbi dela za dobrih 70 000 let."
Meritveni inženirji govorijo o spreminjanju višin na zemeljski obli. Raziskovalci poskušajo eksaktno kartirati okolico vulkanov in tako svariti pred katastrofami, ki bi bile posledica sprememb. Spoznanja o premikih materiala bi bila dobrodošla, da bi bili lahko prebivalci pravočasno izseljeni.
"Brez vulkanov ni življenja," pravi raziskovalec vulkanov, ko razlaga zemeljsko zgodovino.

Katja Valeska Peschke
 

Eruption

The unification of West and East Berlin on 9 November 1989 coincides with a clash of two continental plates. Eruptions and earthquakes take place particularly in the eastern part of the city. The topography changes. The cracked terrestrial plates are eruptions of earth at the same time. The holes become deep craters. The volcanic mountains are emerging and expanding.
The effects of volcanic activity drowning the city in the line of destruction suddenly cease, and some buildings remain unharmed. The city scape profile changes daily.
"Scientists have been amazed at the individuality of volcanoes, and have admitted that they were less stable than thoughts."
A volcano demonstrates the substance of transformation in the city, in thoughts, in actions, in the domestic space.
The surface is shaped according to the volcanic principle. Heat and movemenst open up the ground. Piles of discharge fall on the streets, narrow them and obstruct the passage.
In such vulcanic areas, jobs for road construction workers have been guaranteed for millenia. "A vulcano provides material for human work, but the same material also destroys this work." A road construction worker states: "One eruption gives me work for over 70,000 years."
Measurement engineers speak of alterations of heights on the globe. Researchers endeavour to minutely map the surroundings of volcanoes, and thus to warn of catastrophes caused by changes. Findings about the movements of material would help to move the inhabitants in time.
"There is no life without volcanoes", says a volcano researcher, explaining the history of the Earth.

Katja Valeska Peschke
 

Vulkani v Berlinu/ Vulcanoes in Berlin, 1996
projekcija diapozitivov, projekt/ slide-show, project
 

ONA B.
Rojena leta 1957 na Dunaju; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1957 in Vienna, Austria; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave in performansi (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions and performances (selection): 1982 "Eyes opening", UNART Gallery, Dunaj (Wien), performance; 1986 "L’amour de’l art", Künstlerhaus, Dunaj (Wien); 1990 "Blumenschmuck", performance  z/ with  E.Egerer, Galerie V&V, Dunaj (Wien);  "Ona only", Kunsthalle Innsbruck; 1992 "In luce", Secession, Dunaj (Wien);  "Der verborgene Strom", Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz;  "The Colums of the Invisible", Ricky Renier Gallery, Chicago; 1993 "Jsem jen oko", Museum of Modern Art Karolinum, Prague; 1994 "Zena Pana", performance, Gallery Litera, Prague; "Zanshin", performance z/ with  E.Kruder, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Wören, Passau; "Onna da Kara", Kunstraumst.Virgil, Salzburg;  "Dark Planet", Galerie am Stein, Monika Perzl, Schärding;  "Vortex", Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana; 1995 "Vortex", Galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec;  "Vortex Dropped Meridian", Virtual Gallery, Austrian Cultural Institute, New York; 1996 "Nigredo", stalna postavitev/ permanent installation, Minoritenkirche, Krems.
Skupinske razstave in performansi (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions and performances (selection): 1980 "Zum fressen gern (Eat Art Aktion)" z/ with E.Egerer, A.Koch, Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Dunaj (Wien); 1983 "Electrographics", Galerie in der GGK., Dunaj (Wien); 1984  "1984 - Orwell und die Gegenwart", Museum des 20.Jahrhunderts., Dunaj (Wien); 1987 "Jeune Peinture", Grand Palais, Paris; 1989  "60 Tage Museum des 21.Jhdts." Dunaj (Wien); 1989 "Aus dem Zusammenhang", Nacionalni muzej, Beograd; 1994 "The seventh Wave", Newport Harbour Art Museum, California.
 

Zero space

Zavestna izginitev individuma v urbanem okolju kot možna eksistencialna rešitev.
Instalacija je bila narejena leta 1997 za razstavo Umetnik in urbano okolje v Galeriji likovnih
umetnosti v Slovenj Gradcu.
Obe ogledali na stropu in na podu sta iluzionistični odprtini za obiskovalca NOTRANJEGA PROSTORA. Zavesa ustvarja končni prostor. Na sredini ogledala na podu je rdeča blazina za meditiranje.
Samo en obiskovalec lahko naenkrat vstopi v prostor (brez čevljev), sede na blazino in se obrne v svojo notranjost z meditacijo.

Ona B.

Zero space

The conscious disappearing of the individual in the urban environment as a possible existential solution.
The installation was made in 1997 for the Exhibitions "The artist & an urban environment" at the Art Gallery Slovenj Gradec.
Both the mirrors on the ceiling and on the floor are illusory apertures for the visitor of the INNER SPACE. The surrounding curtain creates a finite space. In the middle of the mirror, on the floor - red cushion for mediation.
Only one visitor at a time can enter this space (with shoes off), sits on the cushion and turns to his or her inner Self through meditation.

Ona B.
 

Zero Space, 1997
instalacija (ogledalo, platno, lesen podest, blazina)/ instalation (mirror, canvas, wooden base, pillow), h. 330 cm, ? 200 cm
Nigredo, 1996
2 fotografiji/ 2 photographies, 100 x 70 cm
 
 
 
 
 

POPO ISKANDAR
Rojen leta 1927 v Garutu, Zahodna Java, Indonezija; živi in dela v Bandungu, Indonezija./ Born 1927 in Garut, West Java, Indonesia; lives and works in Bandung Indonesia.
Samostojno je razstavljal v/ Solo Exhibitions were shown in: 1976 Den Haag; 1986 Leiden.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1992 Indonezijske razstave v ZDA/ Indonesia Exhibitions in USA; 1993 Indonezijske razstave na Nizozemskem/ Indonesia Exhibitions in Holland.
 

Mačka/ Cat, 1997
pero na papir/ pen on paper, 32 x 20 cm
 

SETIAWAN SABANA
Rojen leta 1951 v Bandungu, Indonezija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1951 in Bandung, Indonesia; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1982 Gallery 200 Visual Arts Building, Northem Illinois University; 1989  "Expression of Multiplicity: Nature, The Imaginative Space", The Japan Foundation Hall, Jakarta; 1991  Oda Gallery, Hiroshima; 1994  Gallery Hidayat, Bandung; 1996  Cemeti Gallery, Yogyakarta (RI).
Skupinske razstave in festivali (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions and Festivals (selection):
1980 "Contemporary Asian Art Show", Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka; 1981 "Asian Art Exhibitions", Dacca, Bangladesh; 1984 "7th Norwegian International Print Biennale", Fredrikstad;  1986 "Contemporary Indonesian Print Exhibitions", TIM, Jakarta; 1989 "Object Exhibitions", Gallery Natsuhiko, Tokyo; 1991 "Contemporary Indonesian Print Exhibitions", Asean Culture Centre, Tokyo; 1995 "Indonesian-Korean Art Exhibitions", Kbs Gallery, Pusan (ROK); "Art Exhibitions of Non-aligned Countries", Jakarta; 1996 "Indonesian Contemporary Art Exhibitions", Goather, Kunstforum, Köln; 1997 "Art Exhibitions of staff Fsrd Itb and Kyung Sung", University Pusan; Soemardja Gallery, Bandung.
 

Krajina/ Landscape, 1995
svinčnik na papir/ pencil on paper, 48 x 66 cm
 
 

MILIVOJE ŠTULOVIĆ
Rojen 1947 v Kraljevu, Jugoslavija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1947 in Kraljevo, Yugoslavia; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave v Jugoslaviji (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions in Yugoslavia (selection): 1983 The Small Art Gallery of the National Museum, Kragujevac; 1984 The City library, Valjevo; 1985 The Gallery of Sopoćani sights; Novi Pazar; 1986 The Small Art Gallery of the National Museum, Kragujevac; 1988 The Small Art Gallery of the National Museum, Kragujevac; 1992 The Small Art Gallery of the National Museum, Kragujevac; 1993 Regional Cultural Centre, Gallery Priština; 1994 The Small Art Gallery of the National Museum, Kragujevac; 1995 The Small Art Gallery of Cultural Centre, Novi Sad; 1996 The City Gallery, Užice; 1996 Cultural Centre - Art Gallery, Čačak.
Skupinske razstave v Jugoslaviji (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions in Yugoslavia (selection): 1995 Spring exhibit of ULUS, Cvijeta Zuzorić pavilion, Belgrade; Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery, Novi Sad; Poganovo colony exhibit - The gallery of Ulus, Belgrade; Spring exhibit of the Ulus, Cvijeta Zuzorić pavilion, Belgrade.
 

V nadaljevanju I/ In Continuo I, 1996
olje in pesek na platno/ oil and sand on canvas, 120 x 200 cm
V nadaljevanju II/ In Continuo II, 1996
olje in pesek na platno/ oil and sand on canvas, 120 x 200 cm
Avtobiografski leksikon/ Autobiographic lexicon, 1996
olje na les/ oil on wood, 90 X 58 cm
 

JOŽE TISNIKAR
Rojen leta 1927 v Mislinji; živi in dela v Slovenj Gradcu./ Born 1927 in Mislinja; lives and works in Slovenj Gradec.
Samostojne razstave (Izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 1959 Umetnostni paviljon, Slovenj Gradec; 1960 Univerzitetna knjižnica, Beograd; 1963 Künstlerhaus, Dunaj (Wien); 1964 Bücherhalle Winterhude, Hamburg; 1966 Mestna galerija, Ljubljana; 1969 Umetnostni paviljon, Slovenj Gradec; 1970 Französisches Kulturinstitut, Graz ; 1972 Mestna galerija, Ljubljana; 1973 Galerie 15, Graz; 1975 Gotska kapela v/ in Slovenj Gradcu; 1978 Galerija kulturnega centra, Beograd; Galerie Charlotte; München; 1979 Galerie de Auvergne, Clermont-Fernand; Galerie La Tete de l'art, Grenoble; Jugoslovanski kulturni center, Paris; 1980 Mala galerija, Ljubljana; 1981 Jugoslovanski kulturni center, Köln; 1983 Jugoslovanski informativni in kulturni center, New York; 1985 Galerie Au Petit Tresor, Basel; 1986 Stadtmuseum, Graz; 1987 Galerie Charlotte, München; 1988 Galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec; Galerija Zapiecek, Varšava ; 1991 Dolenjska galerija - Dolenjski muzej, Novo mesto; Galerija Mareld, Göteborg; 1994 Galerija Zdslu, Ljubljana; 1995 Romanski palacij na ptujskem gradu, Ptuj.
Skupinske Razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1963 Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1966 "Arte Slovena contemporanea", Palazzo Chiericati, Vicenza; 1967 Moderna galerija in/and Mestna galerija, Ljubljana; 1969 "Angažirana umetnost v Jugoslaviji 1919-1969", Umetnostna galerija, Slovenj Gradec; 1970 "Nutidskonst fran Slovenien",  Sveagalleriet, Stockholm; 1975 "Festival international de la Peinture", Cagnes-Sur-Mer; 1976 Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1979 "Slovenska likovna umetnost 1945-1978", Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana; 1981 "Umetniki in spremljevalci", Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1982 Umetnostni paviljon, Slovenj Gradec; 1983 "Panonia '83", Murska Sobota; 1986 Umetnički pavilion Cvijeta Zuzorić, Beograd; Galerija Roman Petrović, Sarajevo; Starogradska vijećnica, Zagreb; 1987 Art Cologne, Köln; 1988 Likovno razstavišče Rihard Jakopič, Ljubljana; 1990 "Izbrana dela slovenskih avtorjev iz zbirk Moderne galerije", Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; "Podoba kot globalna komunikacija", Likovno razstavišče Rihard Jakopič, Ljubljana; 1991 "Slovenske Atene", Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1992 "Portret in avtoportret", Umetnostna galerija Maribor; 1993 "Sodobna slovenska umetnost - izbrani avtorji", Muzej za sodobno umetnost M.K. Čiurlionis, Kaunas, Litva; 1994 "Sodobno slovensko slikarstvo", Gotisches Haus, Berlin; 1995 "Slovenski umetniki", London; Galerie Municipal, Luxembourg.
 

Jože Tisnikar
Dosledno humanistično sporočilo slikarske poetike Jožeta Tisnikarja se povsem ujema s splošnim družbenim trendom življenjskega sloga ob koncu tisočletja, ko smo se po obdobju neslutenega industrijskega razvoja in hlastajočega modernističnega odkrivanja novih svetov vrnili k iskanju kontinuitete duhovnih vrednot naše civilizacije. Njegov prvinsko neposredni in spontani nagovor bistva človeške eksistence nekako celo pooseblja to občutje.
V ozadju vsake od Tisnikarjevih slik tiči resnična zgodba iz življenja, lastnega ali pa iz življenja tistih, ki jih je v letih nenavadne službe v bolnišnični prosekturi pospremil na zadnji poti. A travmatski naboj teh človeških dram je Tisnikar znal povzdigniti v sfero absolutnih simbolov bivanja in nehanja. Predanost ustvarjanju in instinktivna zavezanost mrakobnemu svetu samosvojih in nezgrešljivo prepoznavnih motivov je kljub pomanjkanju klasične slikarske izobrazbe, a ob osupljivem tehnološkem znanju, rodila podobe, ki so na poseben način popolne. S pridušeno, irealno in tesnobno atmosfero so napolnjene  tako upodobitve ambientov iz prosekture kot gostilniški prizori sedmin, ki pa so kot stalno prisoten memento mori prav takšni tudi, kadar ilustrirajo veselje ob krstu otroka. Z enako srhljivim, a neizrekljivo plemenitim občutkom zremo tudi v značilne tisnikarjevsko izpraznjene pokrajine, poseljene s figurami, iz katerih je že zdavnaj odteklo radoživo življenje.
Za razstavo Umetnik in urbano okolje je Tisnikar figuralno kompozicijo prvikrat umestil v eksterier, ki ga omejuje arhitekturna scenerija. A tudi tokrat je atmosfera poudarjeno nadrealistična, saj se fasade mogočnih stavb, ki obkrožajo prizorišče, zdijo kot gledališka kuliserija s simbolično in alegorično funkcijo. Sivi hlad, ki veje izza nenavadnih pokončnih okenskih odprtin, razodeva slutnjo odtujenega življenja za zidovi, zato pa je tolikanj bolj živahno dogajanje na trgu pred njimi. V triptih povezane slike obujajo motiv pustnega karnevala, ki je bil značilen za zgodnje Tisnikarjevo delo, kasneje pa ga je opustil. Bizarna povorka maskiranih fiziognomij, med katerimi je tudi slikarjev avtoportret, ne kaže interesa po individualizaciji likov, temveč predvsem služi stopnjevanju dramatičnosti. Način gradnje množičnega prizora je blizu srednjeveškemu, ki poln ihtave izraznosti odmeva tudi v pasijonskem ciklu fresk iz 15. stoletja v slovenjgraški špitalski cerkvi. Ob pustu, ki ga po starodavnem običaju sežigajo na grmadi sredi trga, je na osrednji sliki triptiha na strašno ritualno smrt obsojen tudi krokar, slikarjev alterego, ki je v nizu upodobitev iz preteklih let odigral povsem drugačno, zmagoslavnejšo vlogo. S tem ironičnim poudarkom se Tisnikar, ne glede na privzeto pozo velikega demiurga, ni izključil iz vsakdanje dramaturgije človeške komedije, v kateri le zakrinkani brez zadržkov razkrivamo svoje strasti in hrepenenja.
Slike Jožeta Tisnikarja so v resnici le navidezno prepolne obupa in robne tesnobe, še manj so to nihilistične ilustracije niča in brezupa. So le podobe, ki brez trohice metafizike in transcendence in z osupljivo preprostostjo in neverjetno iskrenostjo nizajo podobe končnega le kot izraze nezaustavljive življenjske sile.

Marko Košan
 
 

Jože Tisnikar

The consistent humanistic message of Jo`e Tisnikar's painting poetic fully coincides with the general social trend in life style at the end of the millenium when, after the period of undreamed-of industrial development and the grasping modernistic discoveries of new worlds, we have returned to the quest for the continuity of the spiritual values of our civilisation. His essentially direct and spontaneous approach to the essence of human existence even manages to personify this feeling in a certain way.
In the background of every Tisnikar's painting there figures a true story from his own life, or from the lives of those whom he accompanied on their last journey during the years when he performed the unusual job of hospital prosector. However, Tisnikar succedded in elevating the traumatic impetus of these human dramas to the sphere of absolute symbols of life and death. Despite the lack of an education in classical painting, but with an amazing technical knowledge, his dedication to creation and his instinctive commitment to the dark world of peculiar and unequivocally recognisable motives has borne images which are perfect in their own, special right. The depictions of the ambiences of the prosection room are filled with a stifled, unreal and anxious atmosphere, and so are the tavern scenes of funeral repasts; however, as a kind of the omnipresent memento mori they are similar even when they illustrate the joy at the baptism of a child. A similarly chilling, but inexplicably noble, feeling is present when one looks at the typically Tisnikarian barren landscapes inhabited by figures long devoid of the joy of life.
For the first time at The Artist and an Urban Environment exhibition, Tisnikar has placed a figural composition in the exterior framed with architectural scenery. But even here the atmosphere is prominently surrealist, since the facades of the magnificent buildings surrounding the scene look like theatre scenery with symbolic and allegorical functions. The grey coldness breathing from behind the vertical windows instils a sense of anticipation of the alienated life behind the walls, in contrast with the much livelier events taking place on the square in front of them. The paintings, combined in a triptych, evoke the motif of the Shrove Tuesday festival which was characteristic of Tisnikar's earlier work, but which he later omitted. The bizzare procession of masked physiognomies, including the artist's self-portrait, does not show an interest in individual figures, but rather serves for the intensification of dramatic effect. The compositional manner of the mass scene reminds us of medieval scenes filled with hasty expressiveness, figured also in the passion cycle of 15th century frescoes in the Slovenj Gradec poorhouse church. Besides the Shrove Tuesday figure which, according to ancient custom, is being burned at the stake in the centre of the square, the central painting of the triptych shows a raven - the author's alter-ego - condemned to a dreadful ritual death, while in a series of depictions from past years it has played quite a different, in fact victorious role. This ironic emphasis shows that despite the posture of great demiurge he has assumed, Tisnikar did not exclude himself from the daily developments of human comedy in which we only reveal our passions and longings if masked.
In fact, the painings of Jo`e Tisnikar are only seemingly filled with misery and marginal anxiety; even less, however, they are nihilistic illustrations of emptiness and despair. They are only depictions in which images of the finite are lined up merely as expressions of unceasing life energy, without metaphysics or transcendence, but full of astounding simplicity and unbelievable honesty.

Marko Košan
 

Karneval I/ Carnival I, 1997
olje in tempera na platno/ oil and tempera on canvas, 94 x 108 cm
Karneval II/ Carnival II, 1997
olje in tempera na platno/ oil and tempera on canvas, 94 x 108 cm
Karneval III/ Carnival III, 1997
olje in tempera na platno/ oil and tempera on canvas, 145 x 113 cm
 
 
 
 

TERESA VOLCO
Rojena leta 1946 v Buenos Airesu, Argentina; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1946 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; lives and works in situ.
Razstave/ Exhibitions: 1979 Buenos Aires; 1987 Kagawa (J); 1988 El Ferrol; 1992 Ljubljana; "Rencontre aux sommets des deux mondes", Paris; 1994 "Doble entra da", Museo Sivori; 1995 Bled; 1997  Würzburg, Wiesbaden.
 

Iz serije "B.A./ 97" Ogenj/ From the series "B.A./ 97" Fire, 1997
mešana tehnika/ mixed technics, 50 x 37 cm
Iz serije "B.A./ 97" Voda/ From the series "B.A./ 97" Water, 1997
mešana tehnika/ mixed technics, 50 x 37 cm
Iz serije "B.A./ 97" Zemlja/ From the series "B.A./ 97" Earth , 1997
mešana tehnika/ mixed technics, 50 x 37 cm
 
 
 
 

SAŠO VRABIČ
Rojen leta 1974 v Slovenj Gradcu, Slovenija; živi in dela in situ. / Born 1974 in Slovenj Gradec; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave / Solo Exhibitions: 1996 "Meje demokracije - Klub mladih", Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana; 1997 Kulturni dom, Hoče
Skupinske razstave / Group Exhibitions: 1995 "Likovna delavnica ZKOS", Šmartno v Goriških brdih; 1996 KUD France Prešeren, Ljubljana; "I.slikarski bienale mladih likovnih ustvarjalcev iz Maribora in okolice", Kulturni dom, Hoče; "Likovna kolonija študentov Akademije likovnih umetnosti, IV. letnik", Galerija Turnac, Novi Vinodolski; "VII. slikarska kolonija diplomantov Akademije likovnih umetnosti", Galerija Ivana Napotnika, Velenje; Galerija Ilirija, Ljubljana.
 

Ekrani in skrinje

Slike - ekrani Saša Vrabiča vstajajo iz neoprijemljivega vakuuma breztelesnega fizičnega prostora, ki se vzpostavlja na izteku katodne cevi televizijskega monitorja. Posamezni neosrediščeni izrezi filmsko kadriranih podob se kolažno razvrščajo po površini platna, pri čemer nobeden izmed zoperstavljenih izsekov neoprijemljive zgodbe ni hierarhično privilegiran ali spremenjen v ikono. Slike niti stilno niti kompozicijsko niso podvržene vnaprejšnjim shemam, temveč procesu recikliranja okruškov vizualnih sporočil, njihovi akumulaciji in eklekticistični neproblematičnosti, ki omogoča lucidno sožitje raznorodnih elementov fragmentarne meta-realnosti. Vsebinski sinkretizem razbija koncentracijo sestavljene podobe v smislu dramatičnega ali mitskega narativnega naboja. Poudarjena je zgolj njena fenomenološka partikularnost, ki razgalja mehanizme prevladujočega sodobnega vizualnega komuniciranja. Statičnost naslikanega izreza sicer pervertira dinamiko elektronske slike, a ravno medij, ki mu takšen način ni imanenten, tolikanj bolj nazorno razgalja njegove manipulativne učinke. Zamrznjenim gibajočim se podobam bi načelno lahko dodali domišljijske ali spominske referenčne okvire, a Vrabič jih s svojim konceptom gradnje slike zavestno izriva. Zaustavljeni kadri kontinuirane elektronske slike so odrešeni balasta intelektualne senzibilnosti, ki se pretaka skozi zgodovino kulture in umetnosti. Požvižga se na patetično retoriko identifikacije z velikimi predteksti in modeli. Podobe so prevedene v tanke opne, vzete iz konteksta pa izgubljajo smisle in pomene. Hiteče in izmuzljive, a okamnele v drobcih časa, se naključno zaustavljajo na Vrabičevih platnih, ki kot velemestni “billboardi” le začasno odstopajo mesto naslikani figuralni ali vzorčasti teksturi. Vrabič aludira na rutinsko vseprisotnost tovrstnih elektronskih ikon v sodobnem urbanem okolju, ki implicira odtujenost in svojevrstno distanco ter nas spreminja v pasivne voyerje, podložne inertni vizualni fascinaciji, ki trivialna sporočila po plasteh odlaga v našo podzavest.
Pri projektu za razstavo Umetnik in urbano okolje se Sašo Vrabič ni zaustavil zgolj pri fiksaciji ikonoklastične narave sodobne vizualne kulture, temveč je neosebnemu elektronskemu odblesku fiktivne realnosti zoperstavil skrinjice s fetišiziranimi predmeti, varno spravljenimi v zaprti svet samoreferencialnega konteksta in osebne eksistencialne logike. S časovno kategorijo spomina in trajnega pulziranja introvertiranega intelekta umetnik odraža lastno razpetost med svetovoma intimnih, ponotranjenih vzgibov in hipne, medijsko eksploatirane “velemestne ulice”. V bipolarnem prepletu navidez izključujočih se izrazov kreativnega razmisleka zadobivajo Vrabičeva dela transcendenčne razsežnosti, s katerimi vznemirljivo vstopajo v izvirno polje umetniškega doživljanja sveta.

Marko Košan
 

Screens and Chests

The painting-screens of Sašo Vrabič emerge from the elusive vacuum of intangible physical space formed at the outlet of the cathode-ray tube of the TV monitor. Individual uncentered fragments of the cinematically cut images are arranged as a collage on the canvas surface, but none of the counterpoised sections of the ungraspable narration are hierarhically priviledged or transformed into icon. The paintings are neither stylistically nor compositionally subjugated to predefined schemes; they are subordinated to the process of recycling fragments of visual messages, to their accumulation and eclectic unquestionability which enable a lucid symbiosis of manifold elements of the fragmentary meta-reality. The syncretism of contents dissolves the concentration of the composed image in the sense of a dramatic, or mythical, narrative impetus. Only its phenomenological particularity, which uncovers the mechanisms of the currently dominant visual communication, is emphasised. Although the stagnancy of the painted fragment perverts the dynamics of the electronic image, its manipulative effects are only the more plainly exposed in the medium in which such a method is not immanent. In principle, imaginary or memory-based referential frameworks could be combined with frozen images, but Vrabi~ consciously drives them out with his concept of constructing the painting. The still frames of the continuous electronic image are free of the ballast of intellectual sensibility flowing through the history of culture and art. It ignores the pathetic rethoric of identification with grand pretexts and models. Images are translated into fine membranes, but taken out of the context they lose meanings and significations. They are swift and elusive, but petrified in temporal instants, and they incidentally stop at Vrabič's canvases which - just like city hoardings - give way to the painted figurative or pattern-like texture only for a limited period of time. Vrabič alludes to the habitual omnipresence of such electronic icons in the modern urban environment which implies alienation and a certain distance, and which turns us into passive voyeurs, subject to an inert visual fascination which deposits layers of trivial messages into our subconsciousness.
In the framework of The Artist and an Urban Environment project, Sašo Vrabič did not stop at the fixation on the iconoclastic nature of contemporary visual art; instead, he contrasted chests with fetish objects, safely positioned in the closed world of the self-referential context and personal existential logic, with the impersonal electronic reflection of fictitious reality. The artist employs temporal categories of memory and the permanent pulsation of the introverted intellect to reflect his own dichotomy between the world of intimate, internal stimuli and the world of the transient "big city street" exploited in the media. In the bipolar perplexity of expressions of creative contemplation, which seem to be mutually exclusive, Vrabi~'s works acquire transcendental dimensions which place them within the original range of the artistic experience of the world.

Marko Košan
 
 

Oktober/ October, 1988 - 97
akril, vosek, grafit na platno/ acrylic, wax, graffiti on canvas, 100 x 140 cm
objekt: škatla (tekstil, cunje, volna, dve risbi na papir nalepljeni na leseno škatlo)/ object: box  (textile, rags, wool, two drawings on paper glued onto wooden box), 20 x 27,5 x 44,5 cm
 

Ekran/ Screen, 1995 -97
akril in olje na platno/ acrylic and oil on canvas, 140 x 120 cm
objekt: skrinja (skice na papirju, manifest, Podobe za skrinjo - zbirka pesmi, Atlas Borealis - Tribute to John Cage - audio kaseta, dva kipca iz žgane gline, Prah v očeh - kratka zgodba, odlomki iz beležke, diapozitivi, ročna ura, dve grafiki, strip, notne partiture, dve fotografiji, nalepljeni na leseno skrinjo, kartonska škatla, vrvica) / object: chest (sketches on paper, mixed media, manifesto, Images for
the Chest - collection of poems, Atlas Borealis - Tribute to John Cage - audio casette, two figurines from baked clay, Dust in the Eyes - short story, excerpts from the notebook, slides, wristwatch, two graphic works, strip comic, music scores in notes, two photographs
glued onto wooden chest, cardboard box, twine),  14 x 28 x 39,5 cm

Posneti ekran/ Photographed Screen, 1987-97
akril, olje in grafit na platno/ acrylic, oil, pastel and graffiti on canvas, 100 x 140 cm
objekt: kovček (dve disketi, štiriindvajset audio kaset, grafika, knjiga, papirji, okvir za očala, našitek, originalna pesem Nine Schmidt, karta za prtljago) / object: suitcase (two diskettes, 24 audio cassettes, graphic work, book, papers, a glasses frame, a trimming, an original poem by Nina Schmidt, luggage ticket),   9,1 x 40,1 x 39,9 cm
 
 
 
 
 

CARLOS VILLA
Rojen leta 1936 v San Franciscu, USA; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1936 in San Francisco, USA; lives and works in situ.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1985 First career retrospective (?); 1989 Distinguished Alumni Award, San Francisco Art Institute; Delivers Commencement address; Documented for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute.
 

Sodelovati kot umetniki

Spodbujati, preoblikovati in razširjati ustvarjalne miselne vzorce in umetniške paradigme, ki predvidevajo in razvijajo umetniške smotre za skupnost oziroma spreminjanje družbe od znotraj.
Ustvariti osebni manifest, ki zadeva skupnost(i): raziskati in pripraviti predlog subvencioniranja takega ali drugačnega projekta v skupnosti(h).
Identificirati in zahtevati individualno(e) skupnost(i): npr. - od kod prihajate.
Študirati umetnost, družbeno situacijo, strategije in metodologije preživetja manjšinskih skupnosti urbane severne Amerike.
Tečaj umetnostne zgodovine v obliki debatnega seminarja in laboratorija z branjem, pisanjem, teoretskim načrtovanjem in umetniškimi nalogami.
 

Contribute As Artists

Stimulate, reform and expand creative mindsets and artist paradigms that envision and develop art purpose for community and social change from inside.
Create a personal manifesto that affects the community(s): research and construct a grant proposal for a project in the community(s).
Identify and claim individual community(s): eg: "where you are comming from"
Study art, social situation, strategies and survival methodologies of minoritized communities of urban north America.
An art history course as a discussion seminar and laboratory with its reading, writing, theoretical planning and art assignments.
Carlos Villa

Učni načrt kot Yijing heksagram / Course Syllabus as an I-ching Hexagram, 1997
lepljenka/ collage,  61 x 45 cm
 

PETER HERGOLD
Rojen leta 1966 v Slovenj Gradcu; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1966 in Slovenj Gradec; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave (Izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 1995 "MAMMA", Šrotnek; "Prima vista", Umetnostna galerija Maribor, Slovenija.
Skupinske Razstave (Izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (Selection): 1989 Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; 1990 Galerija Kompas, Ljubljana; 1991 Likovni salon Celje; Galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec; 1994 Galerija Grad, Ravne, Slovenija; 1996 in/ and 1997 Kulturni dom Zagorje.
 

Peter Hergold

“Če prostorske paradigme v smislu urbanizma strukturirata kultura in civilizacija, potem je organizacija srednjeveškega mesta derivat simbolizma mističnega krščanstva. Njegova metafora je labirint, sestavljen iz ozkih vijugastih ulic, po katerih se je ob praznikih vila procesija in od koder nikoli ni bilo mogoče neposredno videti katedrale; šele, ko se je procesija nenadoma znašla na trgu pred njo, je oko iz neposredne bližine preplavila veličina, pa tudi nerazumljivost ter skrivnostnost, zaklenjena v njeni gotski strukturi.”*
S pomočjo Scotta Lasha in njegove parafraze Mumfordovega opisa srednjeveškega mesta se skušamo približati simbolnim konotacijam prostorske instalacije Petra Hergolda z naslovom Pericarežeracirep. Tisoč dvesto šestdeset kamnitih strešnikov (število bi lahko evociralo tudi pomemben datum za srednjeveško naravo Slovenj Gradca, ki je ravno v tem času dobil mestne pravice!), s katerimi se je Hergold v obliki labirinta pretipal skozi sobo razstavnega prostora, nas spominja na arheološko najdišče temeljev stavbe davno izginule civilizacije. A stratigrafski pogled v kulturno plast je tokrat imaginarno “zarezal” skozi najvišjo, najmanj obstojno in najbolj izpostavljeno plast arhitekturnega tkiva, od koder se z robov strehe spuščamo v sotesko bivanjskih nivojev tisočletnega življenja, ki je stkano v tenko in občutljivo volneno predivo.
Shema labirinta je v razvoju urbanističnih zasnov bivalne strukture človeške družbe predmodernistična. Proces diferenciacije, ki je v novem veku ločil posvetno kulturo od religiozne, je simbolno nadomestil z racionalnim in omogočil prodor modernističnega, t. j. racionalističnega pogleda na svet. Uresničeval se je v inženirskem načrtovanju urejenih alej, prometnih ulic, ločenih sprehajališč. Šele postmodernistični diskurz se je zopet usmeril k historičnim referencam in simbolnim konotacijam. A tam, kjer so se postmodernistični arhitekti izgubljali v izpraznjenem, formalističnem citiranju izoliranih stavbnih členov, se celovitejša refleksija arhetipske simbolike v logiki zgodovinskega razvoja mestnega prostora opira na organskost manifestacije človekovega odnosa do okolja.
Hergoldov simbolni prebavni trakt, podobno kot “arhitektov trebuh” Petra Greenawaya, brez možnosti izstopa v nedogled prebavlja potohodca skozi nevidno, a vseprisotno arhetipsko občutje prostora in mu z blebetavo nesmiselnim palindromnim stavkom na steni sporoča temeljno idejo brezčasovne ujetosti v krogotok življenja, ki ga usmerja tudi človeška nečimrnost. Meander, ki določa smer orientacije v vzpostavljenem organizmu, fizično razširja prostor, a ga tudi koncentrično zvrača vase. Kadar smo na začetku, smo na koncu, in obratno. Istosmerna je bržkone tudi ujetost hkratne zazrtosti v neizogibno preteklost in v možnosti preživetja človeškega habitata v prihodnosti.

Marko Košan
 

* Scott Lash, Sociology of Postmodernism, Routledge, 1990. Slovenski prevod: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, Ljubljana, 1993.
 
 
 

Peter Hergold

If spatial paradigms in the sense of urbanism are structured by culture and civilisation, the organisation of medieval town was a derivation of the symbolism of mystical Christianity. Its metaphor is a labyrinth, composed of narrow, bending streets through which a procession would wind on holidays, and "in which there never was a straight line of sight on the cathedral, until all od a sudden one would be in the cathedral square and the eye would be from close range overwhelmed by the very size, and then by the abstruseness and mysteries locked into its Gothic structure."*
With the help of Scott Lash and his paraphrase of Mumford's description of a medieval town, we will try to approach the symbolic connotations of Peter Hergold's spatial installation, entitled Pericare`eracirep. The one thousand two hundred sixty stone roof tiles (the number could also evoke the important date of the medieval character of Slovenj Gradec - in that time it acquired the municipal rights!) used by Hergold to advance across the exhibition space as through a labyrinth, remind one of an archaeological site where the foundations of a building from some long-vanished civilisation have been discovered. In this case, however, the stratigraphic quest into cultural layering has made an imaginary "cut" through the highest, the least resistant and the most exposed layer of the architectural tissue, and from the edges of its roof we descend into the gorge of living levels of millennial existence vowen into a fine and subtle woollen thread.
Within the development of the urbanistic groundwork of the living structure of human society, the scheme of the labyrinth is pre-modernist. The process of differentiation which has separated, in the new era, the secular culture from the religious one, has replaced the symbolic with the rational, and enabled the advancement of the modernist, i.e. rationalist, view of the world. It has been realised through the engineering planning of orderly avenues, streets of traffic, separated promenades. It was only the post-modernist discourse which has refocussed on historical references and symbolic connotations. But where post-modernist architects were losing themselves in the emptied, formalistic citing of isolated building segments, the full reflection on archetypal symbolism in the logic of the historical development of the city space is based on the premise that the manifestation of the human relationship with the environment is organic.
Hergold's symbolic digestive tract, just like "the belly of an architect" by Peter Greenaway, constantly - and without any chance of ceasing - digests the path-walker with the invisible, but omnipresent archetypal sense of space; and with a mumblingly senseless palindrome on the wall, it communicates the basic idea of timeless confinement within the circle of life driven also by human vanity. The meander which determines the orientation within the established organism, physically expands the space, but also concentrically turns it outside in. Being at the beginning means that we are at the end, and vice versa. Perhaps the confinement of our enchantment with both the inevitable past and the posibility of the endurance of human habitat in the future also runs in the same direction.

Marko Košan
 
 

Pericarežeracirep, 1997
prostorska instalacija  (1260 skrilavcev, steklena volna, napis na steni)/ spatial installation (1260 slate roof tiles, glass wool, text)
 

ACHILLE GHIDINI
Rojen 1947 v Bolognji, Italija; živi in dela v Grizzana Morandi./ Born 1947 in Bologna, Italy; lives and works in Grizzana Morandi.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1992 Palazzo Comunale, San Giovanni in Persiceto; Palazzo della Ragione, Castiglione dei Pepoli; 1994 Sala "La Pianta", Corsico ; Palazzo Azienda Promozione Turistica, Montecatini Terme; Palazzo Comunale, Marzabotto; 1995 Circolo della Stampa, Milano.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1994 Centro Congressi Vittoria, Montecatini; Fondazione Corrado Alvaro, S. Luca;" Artissima", Torino; Arte 94, Padova; 1995 "Arte Fiera", Bologna; Vizenza Arte, Vicenza; "Foire d* Art", Ginevra; XXII Premio Valle Roveto, Civitella Roveto.

Prijatelji/ Friends, 1994
kovina, marmor/ metal, marble, h. 45 cm
Zapornik/ Prisoner, 1995
kovina, marmor/ metal, marble, h. 35 cm
V zaporu/ In prison, 1996
kovina, marmor/ metal, marble, h. 35 cm
 
 
 
 

LINDA KRAMER
Rojena leta 1937 v Winnetki, ZDA; živi in dela v Winnetki in Chicagu, ZDA./ Born in Winnetka, USA; lives and works in Chicago and Winnetka, USA.
Razstave in projekti (izbor)/ Exhibitions and  projects (selection): 1985 "Egypt", Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago; 1986 "Her Infinite Variety", Artemisia Gallery, Chicago; 1987 "Chicago Contemporary Sculpture", Cage Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio; 1989 "Linda Kramer", Gwenda Jay Gallery, Chicago; 1990 "Still Light", instalacija/ installation, Octagon Gallery - Evanston Art Center, Evanston; 1991 "Spirited Visions, Portraits of Chicago Artists", Art Gallery, Chicago; 1992 "From America*s  Studio - Drawing New Conclusions", Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute, Chicago; 1993 "Luminous Light", instalacija/ installation, Tough Gallery, Chicago; "Solo American, A Delicate Balance", Loyola University, Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago; 1994 "Pool", instalacija/ installation, Franklin Square Galery, Chicago; 1995 Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago; 1996 "Joy", 900 N. Franklin, Chicago; 1997 "Pier Walk" 1997, Chicago.
 

Portret I/ Portrait I, 1989
akvarel/ watercolour, 60 x 46 cm
Portret II/ Portrait II, 1996
akvarel/ watercolour, 55 x 38 cm
 

JOVAN MARINKOVIĆ
Rojen leta 1965 v Kruševcu, Jugoslavija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1931 in Kruševac, Yugoslavia; lives and works in situ.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1991  Flu, Beograd; 1994 University Kolarac, Beograd.

Mali človek v drobovju/ Little Man in the Intestines, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 104 x 79 cm
Urbani norci/ Urban Fools, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 104 x 79 cm
 

KEITH MORRISON
Rojen leta 1942 na Jamajki; živi in dela v San Franciscu, USA./ Born 1942 in Jamaica; lives and works in San Francisco, USA.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1976 "Works on Paper," De Paul University Gallery, Chicago; 1978 Chicago State University, Chicago; 1978 Name Gallery, Chicago; 1987 Brody’s Gallery, Washington; 1990 Alternative Museum, New York; 1996 Bomani Gallery, San Francisco.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1971 Malcolm X College, Chicago; 1977 Battle Creek Museum, Batle Creek; 1984 "East/ West: Afro-American Contemporary Art", California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles; "Ninth International Drawing Exhibitions", Muzej savremene umetnosti, Rijeka; 1986 Museum of Fine Arts, St . Petersburg; 1988 Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida; 1990 Bronx Museum, New York; 1992 Museum of Modern Art, Monterrey; 1994 Caribbean Biennale, Santo Domingo; 1996 "Art in Chicago 1945-95", Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Posse'/ Posse', 1994
ofset litografija/ offset lithograph, 55 x 75 cm
 
 
 
 

BARLI SASMITAWINATA
Rojen leta 1921 v Bandungu, Indonezija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1921 in Bandung, Indonesia; lives and works in situ.
Razstavljal je v/ Exhibitions were shown in: Indoneziji (RI), Singapurju (SGP), Maleziji (MAL), Tajski (T), Japonski (J), Filipini (PI), Evropi/ Europe, ZDA/ USA, Veliki Britaniji (GB), Avstraliji (AUS).

Tradicionalna tržnica/ Traditional Market , 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
Tradicionalna tržnica/ Traditional Market, 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
AELINA SURYA SUMORNA
Rojena leta 1947 v Cirebonu, Indonezija; živi in dela v Bandungu, Indonezija./ Born 1947 in Cirebon, Indonesia, lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1990 Keke Gallery, Bandung; Chase Manhatten Bank, Jakarta; 1991 May Bank, Kuala Lumpur; 1992 Savoy Homman Hotel, Bandung; 1993 Hilton International, Jakarta.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1991 Asri Gallery, Jakarta; 1993 Atea Mirama Hotel, Surabaja; Asri Gallery, Jakarta; 1994 Marco Galerry, Bandung; Neo Decor Galerry, Jakarta; 1995 Hidayat Gallery, Bandung.

Dolga kriza/ Long Crisis, 1992
olje, kovina, poldragi kamni na vezano ploščo/ oil, metal, stones on multi-ply plywood,
 75 x 86cm
Moder mir svetu/ Blue peace to the world, 1996
olje, kovina, poldragi kamni na vezano ploščo/ oil, metal, stones on multi-ply plywood,
75 x 80 cm
Olive/ Olives, 1996
olje, kovina, poldragi kamni na vezano ploščo/ oil, metal, stones on multi-ply plywood,
75 x 90 cm
 
 
 

GIORGIO CATANI
Rojen leta 1948 v Ferrari, Italija; živi in dela v Ferrari in Rimu./ Born 1941 in Ferrara, Italy; lives and works in Ferrara and Rome.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1987 Muzej Gemeemte Malatempora, Haag; Erpf Gallery Broadway, New York; "Documenta 8", Kassel; "Metropolitan Traces", Gallery  La  Polena, Geneve; "Ravna pot", Paviljon sodobne umetnosti, Ferrara; 1988 "Čakalnica", Gallery Bleecker, New York; "Art 88", Umetnostni sejem/ Art Fair, Basel; 1989 "XXIII. mednarodni slikarski tedni", Neue Galerie, Graz; "Portret nekega imena: Abo", Galleria Cleto Polcina in/ and Galerija Sprovieri, Roma; "Igre moči", Galleria Primo piano, Milano; "Za muzej", Loggetta lompardesca, Ravenna; 1990 "Arco 90", Madrid; Galleria Ferran Cano, Barcelona; Art Frankfurt, Frankfurt; "Forum", Galleria Cleto Polcina, Düsseldorf; Fortezza da Basso, Studio Bocchi,  Firenze; 1991 Umetnostni sejem/ Art Fair, Bologna; Muzej sodobne umetnosti, Lyon; Arco: Galleria Cleto Polcina in/ and Ferran Cano, Madrid; 1992, "Art", Galleria Ferran Cano, Los Angeles; "De Europa", Muzej sodobne umetnosti, Atene; "Prepoved plakatiranja", Galleria Ennio Borzi, Roma; Umetnostni sejem/ Art Fair, Galleria Ferran Cano, Chicago; 1993 "Razglednice Palma de Mallorca", Galerie Triebold, Basel; "Čeprav", Fuori uso, Pescara; 1994 Umetnostni sejem/ Art Fair, Galerija Ferran Cano, Chicago; "PdC", Palača Massari, Ferrara; Evropska hiša, Celovec (Klagenfurt).
 

Igralka, kje/ Actress, Where, 1996
olje, kovinska žica na platno/ oil, metal wire on canvas, 180 x 320
Izgubljena dežela/ Lost country, 1996
olje, terakota na platno/ oil, terracota on canvas 180 x 320
 
 
 
 

LUC MARELLI
Rojen 1958 v Athenazu, Švica; živi in dela v Ženevi./ Born 1958 in Athenaz, Swiss; lives and works in Geneve.
Samostojne razstave, akcije, performansi (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions, actions, performans (selection): 1982  "Exappart", Geneve; 1983 "Gleis Dreieck", performance, Berlin; 1984  "La voie triangulaire", Salle Crosnier, Palais de L*Athenee,Geneve; 1985 Galerie Steinmetz, Bonn; 1986  Galerie Stummer, Zürich; 1987  Galerie Anton Meier, Geneve; 1988 "Stella 88" z/ with Piguet, (performance);1990  Galerie Anton Meier, Geneve; 1991 "Les Refugies", Hochschule
für Bildende Künste, Dresden; 1993 Galerie Foëx, Geneve; 1995 "La Mine", Ancienne Usine de Secheron, Geneve.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1983 Grafični bienale/ Grafic Biennale, Ljubljana; 1984 Triennale Europa dell Incisione, Grado; 1985 Graphik Triennale, Baden Baden; Graphisches Biennale, Granges; 1988 Biennale de Gravure, Cracovie; "Art 88", Galerie Stummer, Bale.
 

Trojanska vojna/ The War of Troi, 1996
akril na platno/ acrylic on canvas, 300 x 1010 cm
Telefonska govorilnica/ The phone cabine, 1990
olje  na platno/ oil on canvas, 190 x 157 cm
Gledalci/ Spectators, 1993
olje  na platno/ oil on canvas, 160 x 130 cm
 
 

GORKI ŽUVELA
Rojen leta 1946 v Našicah, Hrvaška; živi in dela v Splitu./ Born 1946 in Našice, Croatia; lives and works in Split, Croatia.
Samostojne razstave (Izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 1986 Galerija Krševan, Šibenik; 1987 "Dijalog" (z/ with Deanom Jakanovičem Touminom), Gliptoteka, Zagreb; 1988 Galerija Protiron: Ostendero Cryphios, Split; 1990 Galerija Protiron: Ventus, Split; Progelto Volpini: Dall opposto ed oltre, Milano.
Skupinske Razstave (Izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (Selection): 983 "Minimalizam u Jugoslaviji", Galerija suvremene umetnosti, Zagreb; 1987 "Jugoslovenska Dokumenta 87", Sarajevo; "Splitsko Art - ljeto", Split; 1992 "Savremena Hrvatska umjetnost", Ernst museum, Budapest; 1993 "Nova hrvatska umjetnost, Moderna galerija", Zagreb.
 

Predgovor

Stavki, ki jih plastično oblikuje Gorki Žuvela, so poskus vzpostavitve umetniškega dialoga na ravni poetike odprtega dela. Dialog je imaginaren in ponuja za niz domišljijskih komunikativnih efektov, ki - po določenih parametrih časa in prostora - skrivajo v sebi univerzalnost, ki je lastna kreativnemu duhu. Čeprav še tako enostavni v formalnem jeziku, izdajajo Žuvelini "stavki" umetnika, naklonjenega dialogu ne samo s - kakor umetnik lepo pravi - "podnajemniki" v samem sebi, temveč s širšo populacijo bližnjih in daljnih sostanovalcev. V kakofoniji urbanega hrupa so njegovi "stavki" opombe, povedane v jeziku plastične forme, k splošnemu stanju stvari in sveta, hic et nunc. Medtem ko je umetnik pred dvajsetimi leti še poskušal v okviru takrat aktualnih konceptualnih tendenc najti napako v sistemu (družbenem, političnem, ekonomskem itd.) in  se pogovoriti s sistemom na umetniški način, danes - dvajset let kasneje - Žuvela neprekinjeno angažirano umetniško pozicijo izpričuje s sintaktično čistimi plastičnimi in estetsko prefinjenimi formulacijami. Estetska prefinjenost njegovih "stavkov" prinaša zanimivo estetsko ambivalentost dela: istočasno poziva na dialog in ga odklanja. V tej ambivalentnosti Žuvelinega dela je jasen dopolnjujoč efekt skoraj klasično (Sokrata, Platona) definirane ironije, s katero umetnik slobodno, vedoželjno in skoraj radostno pristopa k interpretaciji sveta in pojavov, ki ga obkrožajo. Ta je ključ estetske sodbe in razlikovanja zunanje forme od notranje strukture. Medtem ko je zunanja pregnantna in eksplicitna, je notranja fluidna, metaforična in implicitna. Ker Žuvela kot umetnik, obdarjen s sposobnostjo, da - kot sam pravi - "vedno vidi nevidno", zelo dobro ve, da se šele na oni strani resničnosti skrivajo pravi izzivi in odprto polje resnične dialoške komunikacije.
Štirje "stavki", ki jih Gorki Žuvela razstavlja na tej razstavi, so priložnost za duhovno interakcijo na estetski ravni z umetnikom, ki v sodobni Hrvaški zavzema vidno mesto. Pripada generaciji, ki je od zgodnjega konceptualizma do obdobja postmodernih turbolenc zelo premišljeno raziskovala naravo estetskega dejanja in njegovih socialnih implikacij. Ne glede na številne težave, so Žuvela in umetniki njegove generacije uspeli prepoznati "napake" in v hrvaško sodobno umetnost vnesti nove ideje in potrebno živost.

Želimir Koščević
 

Introduction

The plastically formed sentences by Gorki Žuvela are an attempt to establish an artistic dialogue at the level of the poetry of open work. The dialogue is imaginary, and it enables a series of communicative effects which, according to particular time and space parameters, nest the universality proper to the creative spirit. Although very simple in their formal language, Žuvela's "sentences" reveal an artist susceptible to the dialogue not merely with - as the artist succinctly says - "tenants" within himself, but also with the wider population of closer and distant cohabitants. In the cacophony of the urban noise, his "statements" represent notes on the general state of affairs, on the world, hic et nunc, expressed in the language of plastic form. While twenty years ago the artist still endeavoured, within the then topical conceptual tendencies, to find a mistake in the (social, political, economic) system and to speak to the system in his own artistic way, today - twenty years later - Žuvela shows his continuously engaged artistic position with syntactically pure and aesthetically refined plastic formulations. The aesthetical refinement of his "sentences" conveys an interesting ambiguity of the work: it calls for the dialogue, but at the same time rejects it. This ambiguity in Žuvela's work reveals an evidently appending import of almost classically defined irony (by Socrates and Plato), used by the artist to openly, curiously and almost cheerfully confront the interpretation of the world and events around him. This is the key to the aesthetic judgement and to the difference between the outer form and the inner structure. The external is concise and explicit, while the internal is fluid, metaphorical and implicit. As an artist with the capacity - in his own words - to "always see the invisible", Žuvela is well aware that the true challenges and the open field of the real dialogic communication are hidden on the other side of reality.
The four "sentences" presented by Gorki Žuvela at this exhibition give a chance for spiritual interaction at the aesthetical level with the artist holding a prominent place in contemporary Croatia. He belongs to the generation which has, from early conceptualism to the period of postmodern turbulences, very thoughtfully explored the nature of aesthetical act and its social implications. Regardless of numerous difficulties, Žuvela and other artists of his generation have succeeded in recognising the "mistakes" and in bringing new ideas and the necessary liveliness to Croatian art.
Želimir Koščević

Deseti stavek/ Tenth sentence, 1996/97
les, kamen/ wood, stone, h. 160 cm
Drugi stavek/ Second sentence, 1994
les, kovina/ wood, metal, 25 x 270 x 4 cm
Sedmi stavek/ Seventh sentence, 1995
les, platno/ wood, tissue, 50 x 300 x 10 cm
Peti stavek/ Fifth sentence, 1995
kamen ( 2 kosa)/ stone ( 2 pieces), ? 40 cm
 
 
 
 
 

MAURIZIO COSUA
Rojen leta 1945 v Ferrari, Italija; živi in dela v Rimu./ Born 1945  in Ferrara, Italy; lives and works in Rome.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1982 Galerija Ferrari, Verona; Palača Massari, Ferrara; 1984 "Sodobna italijanska umetnost", Galerija Unimedia, Genova; 1984 "Samorog", Galerija Pio Monti,Roma; 1985 "Prenovljena tradicija", S.I.M.A.,Venezia; 1986 "Novoromantični akademiki", Galerija Ezio F. Grisanti, Milano; 1988 "Verdrängung 1938 - 1988", Galerija Lang, Graz; 1989 "Italijanski interjer", Italijanski kulturni center, Zagreb; 1990 Palača Gambalunga, Rimini; "Onkraj vsake simulacije", Galerija Cavallino, Venezia; 1993 "Hommage Brancusiju", Romunski inštitut za kulturo, Palača Correr,Venezia; 1994 Obalne galerije, Piran; 1995 Scarperentola, Hongkong; Scarperentola, Firenze; Ferrara, Ospite.
 

Gnoj + Zlato/ Shit + Gold, 1996
iverka, zemlja, barva za kovina, vezivo/ chipboard, earth, metal colour, binding substance,
61 x 31 cm
Zemlja/ Earth, 1996
iverka, zemlja, vezivo / chipboard, earth, binding substance, 42 x 40 cm
 
 
 

ROBERT MACIEJUK
Rojen 1965 v Biala Podlaski, Poljska; živi in dela v Varšavi./ Born 1964 in Biala Podlaska, Poland; lives and works in Warsaw.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1988 Galeria Dziekanka, Warszawa; 1990 Galeria Rzezby "Kuchina", Warszawa; Galeria Dziekanka, Warszawa; 1991 Galeria Biala, Lublin; 1994 Galeria Foksal, Warszawa; 1995 Galeria Biala, Lublin; 1996 Galeria Foksal, Warszawa; Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; 1997 Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1989 "Poruszanie mysli - dzialania rownolegle", Center of the Contemporary Art, Warszawa;  "Uczucia", Galeria Dziekanka, Warszawa; 1991 "Kunst, Europa", Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; 1992 "Przypisane sztuce", Galeria Biala, Lublin; "Current situation 3:3", Galeria Otso, Etsoo; Waino Aaltosen Musco, Turku; 1993  "Un-Volkommen",  Museum Bochum, Bochum; "Bilans - Bilans", Galeria Biala, Lublin; 1994 "Biala - sztuka bez scian", Galeria Bwa, Krakow;  Galeria Foksal Warszawa; "Biala sztuka bez scian", Galeria Baila, Lublin; "26e Festival Internationale de la Peinture", Chateau-Musee de Cagnes-sur-Mer; 1995 "Ideal Places", Lillechammer Kunstmuseum, Lillehammer; "Artysci polscy na festiwalach miedzynarodowych", Museum Narodowe, Wroclaw; 1996 "Styki/ Contact Prints", Galeria Foksal, Warszawa;  "Rozpoznanie", Galeria Bwa, Krakow.
 

Uccello - vaje v perspektivi

Abstrakcija - naj bo v slikarstvu ali mislih - predpostavlja -prelom z resničnostjo, ravnovesje perspektivi, ki jo -zgrabi toliko trdneje. Abstraktni grafični znaki niso nič- manj razdvojeni: ikone, ki pričajo o smrti simbola ali emblema, -kažejo na postopno izrojevanje podobe (metafore) v nenehnem -procesu simbolne menjave v kulturi.
Maciejuk je slikar prav takih znakov. Njegovo ukvarjanje s- procesom abstrahiranja zajema vračanje znaka po zaporednih- plasteh opuščenih pomenov z namenom ponovne vzpostavitve -njegove simbolne, nedoločne lastnosti. To povratno gibanje (ki -odraža hermenevtično metodo) je rezultat slikarske -reinterpretacije oblik, v katerih Maciejuk dokazuje -privrženost zahtevnemu opravilu slikanja, mešanja pigmentov in -nanašanja plasti (v nasprotju s procesom sunkovitega- nametavanja, ki proizvaja "resnične" znake, ki so v prvi vrsti -funkcionalni). Metaforično rečeno, ta proces je sočasen z -razmišljanjem o izgubljeni resničnosti simbola in omogoča- njegovo delno osvoboditev.
Njegove podobe - slika avstrijske zastave, slika logotipa BMW, -slika znaka za radioaktivno nevarnost, slika znaka, ki označuje -konec vlaka, slika znaka, ki visi na zaščitenih zgradbah- - ne sestavljajo sistema podob (slik), ki bi spominjal na katerikoli -obstoječi sistem znakov (iluzorna "abstraktna resničnost" -industrijskih znakov, logotipov korporacij, državnih emblemov itd.). Nasprotno, gre za kaotični skupek portretov znakov, -ki so rezultat naključja. Ne zdi se prav smiselno, da bi se -ukvarjali z vprašanjem, zakaj Maciejuk izbira prav te znake?- Mnogo več lahko dosežemo, če preučimo posamezne portrete -znakov in preverimo njihovo notranjo koherentnost in to, kako se- skladajo s prototipi.
Drobne spremembe v merilu, spremenjena razmerja v znakih samih in- njihovem odnosu z ozadjem, oblikovanje znakov na način, da -izgine njihova funkcionalna razvidnost, usmerjanje pozornosti k- sliki kot objektu (tako, da okvir začrta meje znaka, ali- nasprotno, da je majhen znak postavljen v središče platna), -spreminjanje ali izmenjevanje barv, odpravljanje natančnosti- reprezentacije (npr. prometnega znaka znotraj slike) - vse to vodi k vprašanju o uporabnosti znakov in njihovih funkcij- opozarjanja, informiranja, opominjanja, razlaganja. Maciejukovi- znaki so naduti, samoprikazovanje jim je pomembnejše od- uslužnosti do naslovnikov. Na ta način avtor opozarja na -metaforični ali simbolni potencial danega znaka (ki se je v- procesu abstrahiranja od simbola/besede do znaka izgubil). To spremembo semantičnega dometa naslikanega (t.j. pomožnega) znaka deloma pogojuje kontekst slike, kontekst galerije in razstave. Če so znaki razstavljeni, lahko torej izgubijo ali pridobijo -pomembnost, ki je odvisna od njihovih "pravih" pomenov.
Paradoksalno, čim manj pomembne so formalne spremembe v -znaku, tem bolj zmedejo gledalca/bralca.
Če bi čez rdečo zvezdo naslikali kljukasti križ, bi bilo to le -provokativno vzporejanje, ki bi proizvedlo nov pomen, ne da bi- kršilo načela pomenjanja. Vendar bi bilo težko izmeriti- presežek (ali primanjkljaj) pomena, ki spremlja komaj zaznavno- spremembo oblike znaka ali odtenka njegovega ozadja v primerjavi -s "kanonsko" inačico. Zdi se, da za to modifikacijo ni nobenih racionalnih ali- formalnih razlogov: povezani znak, ki -prepoveduje to ali ono, postane preprosto čuden, ne da bi -zdrsnil v zloveščo karikaturo ali očitno perverznost. Ta sprevrnitev pomena je mučna, saj jo lahko razločimo le, če -zavzamemo sumničav pristop k vsem Maciejukovim slikam (celo- tistim perverzno "pravilnim", ki reproducirajo znake brez -sprememb). To nezaupanje vzbuja znak kot oljna slika v umetnostni galeriji. Nezaupanje, katerega kritičnost sega daleč -onkraj galerijskih sten.
Kaj je tisto, kar vidimo na sliki? Enaki dvomi se pojavijo, če si -ogledamo Maciejukova zgodnejša dela, ki zaradi uporabe -arhitekturnih motivov navajajo k tradicionalnejši- interpretaciji.
Nenaslovljena slika iz leta 1990 prikazuje baldahin, napet na- tenkih, absurdno dolgih drogovih, ki nas spomnijo na dela starih -mojstrov. Toda umetelno izrisana prostorska konstrukcija obdaja -le temo ali, bolje, izpostavlja in razkriva to temo: izkaže se, -da je prava vsebina slike z barvo prekrita površina platna,- živi odtenki temno zelene barve, polni praznine. Ničnost, ki zaradi mogočne arhitekture in skrbne slikarske tehnike postane -monumentalna. Muhava, starosvetna tempera, uporabljena le za- poslikavo nekoristnega baldahina ...? Četudi je monarh odsoten, -ga njemu namenjeno mesto čaka, in vsebina slike se zdi kljub- vsemu veličastna .... Baldahin brez vladarja kot nasmeh brez -mačke - je to le delo, ki prikazuje sliko, naslikano s tempero?
Čeprav je delo iz 1991, Vaje v perspektivi po Uccellu, preveč -ironično, da bi služilo kot kredo, je osrednje za vprašanja, -ki jih zastavlja Maciejukovo slikarstvo. V naslovu navedeno ime -je postalo sinonim za popolno vdanost umetnosti konvergenčne -perspektive. Konsistentna uporaba pravil perspektive je Uccella -privedla do roba abstrakcije. Avtorji monografij radi- reproducirajo na tak način izrezane fragmente njegovih slik, da -spominjajo na abstrakcije, in s tem kažejo na temeljno -protislovje, do katerega lahko pripelje hlapčevska uporaba -perspektive. Privrženost pravilu izključuje pravo posredovanje- resničnosti. Perspektiva ni naravna in obstojna metoda- odkrivanja pravil, ki vodijo konstruiranje vidnega sveta, temveč- v najboljšem primeru hipoteza, prav zanesljivo ideološka- svoboščina, v končni instanci pa sramota. Maciejuka ne zanima -perspektiva kot hipoteza ali kot način spoznavanja sveta skozi- slikarstvo: njegove Vaje niso vaje, temveč končana oljna slika- velikih razsežnosti, ki - kot kaže naslov - predstavlja -Uccellove vaje (prav kakor BMW predstavlja logotip BMW, ne da bi- zares bil ta logotip). Poklon, ki se nevarno približuje -parodiji.
Maciejuk se prav tako ne posveča neposredni kritiki idej, -na katerih temelji perspektiva. Dosti zanimivejše se mu zdi -subverzivno interpretiranje njenih pravil, pri čemer gradi na- Uccellovih izsledkih. Sobe in zgradbe, ki jih gradi Maciejuk, so -daleč od tega, da bi bile funkcionalne: so dekoracije, navidezne -zgradbe, ki imajo mesto nekje za prizorišči. So ozadje -dogodkov, ki se nikdar ne zgodijo, ali pa se odigrajo le med -posameznimi arhitekturnimi elementi (stopnicami, stenami, pregradami, strehami itd.) in njihovimi kombinacijami ("sobe", "zgradbe"). Dinamiko vizualnega dogajanja določa razkroj- odnosov, do katerih pride med notranjostjo in zunanjostjo,- bližino in oddaljenostjo, majhnostjo in velikostjo, senco in- svetlobo. Toliko drobnih prostorskih oksimoronov je natrpanih v- eno sliko, da natančna analiza njihovih medsebojnih odnosov ne- pove veliko. V najboljšem primeru lahko rečemo, da dana slika predstavlja - s pomočjo dokaj konvencionalnih sredstev - -nemožno arhitekturo, na glavo postavljen svet. Mikrostrukture -- prikazi podrobnosti - razpadejo v abstrakcijo ali neizrazite- kombinacije barv. Vsebina pogosto ni nič drugega kot preprosto -binarno nasprotje barv, nemo v svojem pomanjkanju konteksta. Ta- vtis povečuje tudi netipični, torej nekomunikativni format- platna (69 x 300 cm). Enako obskurne so makrostrukture - vizije- "idealnega" mesta, ki je preveč kompleksno, da bi ga -poimenovali, in zatorej nenaseljivo.
Te slike nimajo namena pripovedovati zgodb, temveč prej- osvetliti zgodovino slikarstva in tehnične rabe, na katere je slikarstvo v -sodobni vizualni kulturi izvedeno. Neskladnost med naslovom in- vsebino, prostorske zagonetke, optične iluzije, trajna disonanca- med banalno (četudi navidez razburljivo) vsebino in- natančnostjo izvedbe: te napetosti imajo terapevtski učinek na- gledalca - zagrizenega voyeurja, navajenega naglega branja, ki prakticira običajno miselno mapiranje neštevilnih podob, ki -jih dnevno prejema po nominalni vrednosti. Krajinsko -slikarstvo v velemestu odmira: prometni znaki in medijske podobe- so nadomestili mestno veduto. V tej krajini je Maciejukovo -slikarstvo znak, ki je onkraj sistema, ki pritegne gledalčevo- pozornost in jo usmeri k perceciji sami. Kot je nekoč dejal H. -D. Thoreau: "Stvar začnem ... videti, ko jo neham razumeti."

Adam Szymczyk
 
 

Uccello - exercises in perspective

Abstraction - whether in painting or in thought-postulates a break with reality, offset against the  perspective of grasping all the more firmly. Abstract graphic signs are no less ambivalent:icons testifying to the demise of a symbol or emblem accounts for the gradual deterioration  of the image  (metaphor) in the continuous  process of symbolic exschange within culture.
Maciejuk is a painter of just such signs. His treatment of the abstractive prosess involves taking the sign back down successive layers of abandoned meanings with a view to restoring its symbolic, ambiguous quality. This recessive movement (echoing the hermeneutic method) is achieved via the painterly reinterpretation of forms in which Maciejuk demonstrates his commitment to the painstaking task of  painting, mixing pigments and applying layers (as opposed to the slap-dash process of producing "real" signs with their overriding functionality).
In metaphorical terms, this process corresponds to relfection on the lost reality of the symbol, enabling its partial redemption.
His images: a painting of the Austrian flag, a painting of the BMW logo, a painting of  the radioactive hazard sign, a painting of the sign indicating the end of a train, a painting of the sign placed on listed buildings-do not make up a system of images (paintings) in the likeness of any existing system of signs (the illusory "abstract reality" of industrial signs, corporate logos, national emblems, etc.)What we have instead, is a chaotic assemblage of portraits of signs encountred by accident. There seems to be little point in labouring the question:Why does Maciejuk choose the signs he does? Much more is to be gained by studying the individual portraits of signs and examining their inner coherence and how they correspond with their prototypes.
Minute shifts of scale, altered proportion in the signs themselves and in their relation with the background, framing signs so as to deprive them of their functional obviousness, drawwing attention to the painting as an object (by making the frame mark off the bounds of the sign, or conversely by placing a small sign in the centre of the canves), changing or switching colours, subverting the precision of the representation (e.g. of a traffic sign within a painting) - all lead to questioning the utility of signs and their functions of warning, informing, reminding, expaining. Maciejuk''s signs are haughty, putting self-presentation over a servility towards referents. In this way he evokes the metaphoric or symbolic potential of a given sign (lost in the process of abstracting from the symbol/word to the sign). This change of the semantic scope of a painted (i.e.subsidiary) sign is partly conditioned by the context of painting, the context of the gallery and exhibition. When exhibited thus, signs can lose or gain in significance depending on their"proper" meaning.
Paradoxically, the less significant the formal changes within the sign, the greater the confusion of the viewer/reader.
A swastika painted over a red star would simply be a provocative juxtaposition, generating a new meaning without violating the principles of signification. Yet it  would be difficult to gauge the surplus (or shortfall) of meaning that accompanies a barely perceptible change in the shape of the sign or the hue of its background, as compared to the "canonical" version. There are no rational or formal reasons for this modification that we can see: an enlarged sign prohibiting something or other becomes simply incanny without lapsing into an ominous caricature or an evident perversion. This infrigement of meaning is poignant, for it can only be discerned if we adopt a suspicious approach to all of  Maciejuks paintings (even the perversely "correct" ones that reproduce signs without modification). This distrust is aroused by the sign as an oil painting in an art gallery. A distrust whose criticism extends far beyond gallery walls.
What is it we see in the painting? The samw doubts arise when looking at Maciejuks earlier works which, owing to their use of architectural motifs, encourage a more traditional interpretataion. An untitled painting from 1990  depicts a canopy stretched on thin, absurdly long poles bringing to mind the work of the Old Masters. However, the artfully drawn spatial construction encloses only darknes or rather exposes and unveils that darkness: the true subject of the painting turns out to be the paint-covered surface of the canvas , vibrant hues of dark green, abounding in emtiness. Nothingness made monumental by the stately arhitecture and meticulous painterly technique.
Whimisical, old-fashioned tempera used only to paint a useless canopy...? Though the sovereign is away, his due place awaits and the pictures theme seems elevated after all... A canopy without a ruler like a smile without a cat. Is this simply a work depicting a tempera painting?
Though too ironic to serve as a credo, Exercises in Perspective After Uccello, a 1991 work, is central to the issues addressed by Maciejuks painting. The name invoked in the title has come  to be synonymous with a complete surrender to the art of convergent perspective. Consistent application of the rules of perspective brought Uccello to the verge of  abstraction. Authors of monographs like to reproduce fragments of his paintings framed in such a way as to resemble abstractions, thereby demonstrating the fundamental contradiction to wich slavish use of  perspective may lead. Adherence to the rule excludes a true rendering of reality. Perspective is not a natural and viable method of discovering the rules governing the construction of the visible world, but a hipothesis at best, certainly an ideological liberty, and ultimately a disgrace. Maciejuk is not interested in perspective-as-hypothesis or as a way of knowing the world through painting: his Exercises are no exercise but a finished, large-scale oil painting, which - as its title indicates - represents Uccellos exercises (just as BMW represents the BMW logo without actually being that logo). A homage that comes perilously close to a spoof.
Maciejuk is not engaged in the direct critique of the ideas behind perspective either.
Wat seems far more interesting for him is a subversive interpretation of its rules, expanding upon Uccellos findings. The rooms and buildings constructed by Maciejuk are far from functional: they are decorations, mock-ups of buildings, whose place is somewhere behind the scenes. They are a backdrop fo events that never happen or are payed out only between individual architectural elements (steps, walls, partitions, roofs,etc.) and their combinations ("rooms", "buildings"). The dynamics of visual happening are determined by a disruption of the relations obtaining between inside and outside, closeness and distance, smallness and largeness , shadow and light. So many subtle spatial  oxymorons are squeezed into one painting that a precise analysis of their mutual relations - with  does not explain much. At best we can tell a given painting represents- with the aid of fairly conventional means - an impossible architecture, a world gone topsy - turvy. Microstructures - portraits of detail - decompose into abstraction or insignificant combinations of colours, mute in its lack of context. The impression is augmented by the untypical, hence incommunicative format of the canvas (69 x 300 cm). Equally obscure are the macrostructures- visions of an  "ideal city", too complex to name, and therefore uninhabitable.
These paintings are not meant to tell stories, but rather to gloss upon the history of painting and the technical uses to which it is put in contemporary visual culture. Disparities of title and content, spatial conundrums, optical illusions, the continuous dissonance between the banal (though superficially exciting) content and the meticulousness of execution. These tensions have a therapeutic effect on the spectator - an  inveterate voyeur used to speed reading, who practises a habitual mind mapping of the myriad images taken daily at face value. Landscape painting is dying out in the metropolis: traffic signs and media images have superseded the cityscape. In this landscape Maciejuks painting is a sign from  beyond the system, seizing the attention of the viewer and directing it towards perception itself.  As H.D. Thoreau once said: "I begin... to see a thing when I stop understanding it"

Adam Szymczyk
translation: Artur Zapalowski
 
 

Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1993
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 37 x 15 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 44 x 62 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 27 x 41 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 54 x 54 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1997
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, * 65 cm
 
 

FABIO DE SANCTIS
Rojen leta 1931 v Rimu, Italija; živi in dela v Rimu in Parizu. / Born 1931 in Rome, Italy; lives and works in Rome and Paris.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1966 The Museum of Modern Art, NewYork; 1974 "XXXVI Biennale Internazionale d* Arte", Venezia; 1991 "La Beaute Conulsive", Beaubuoubg - Paris.
 

Novi zaljubljeni svet/ New world in love, 1988
marmor, bron / marble, bronze, h. 25 cm, ? 87 cm
Kadalijevi čari/ Charms of Kadali, 1990
bron / bronze, h. 55 cm
Narava v službi človeka/ Nature in service of man, 1994
bron, kamen, mavec, vosek/ bronze, stone, plaster, wax, h. 160 cm
 
 
 

MARCO TRONCI
Rojen leta 1955 v Ascoli Piceno, Italija; živi in dela v Benetkah in Rimu./ Born 1955 in Ascoli Piceno, Italy; lives and works in Venice and Rome.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1976 Galleria degli Artisti, Trieste; 1978 Pallazzo Balladoro, Povegliano; 1978 Pallazo dei Priori, Perugia; 1979 Galleria Veniexia, Venezia; 1981 Chiesa de San Basso, Venezia; 1982 Magazzini del Sale, Venezia; 1985 Galleria Fenice, Venezia; Chiesa di San Stae, Venezia; Centro Culturale Italiano, Zagreb; 1986 Galerija Bečkič, Brod; Ambasciata d’Italia, Beograd; 1990 Galleria Il Punto, Firenze; 1993 Palazzo dei Priori, Perugia; 1994 Polveriera Napoleonica, Palmanova (Udine); Museo Nazionale Villa Pisani, Benetke/ Venice.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1983 Museo dell’Immagine e del Suono, Sao Paolo; 1985 Museo di Belle Arti, Ciudad de la Plata, Buenos Aires; 1995  "13 + 13 Winter salon", Mestna galerija, Ljubljana.
Video: 1984 "Flusso"; "Video Makers Italiani U -Tape"; 1985 "Videoarbitrio";  "8° Video Festival".

Srce iz cementa/ Heart of Cement, 1996
obarvan mavec/ coloured plaster, 39 x 32 cm
 
 
 
 

CONCHA GARCIA
Rojen leta 1960 v Santanderu, Španija; živi in dela v Madridu. / Born 1960 in Santanderu, Spain; lives and works in Madrid.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1992 Galeria Ad Hoc, Vigo; Galeria Siboney, Santander; 1994 "Huellas Anonimas", Galeria Estiarte, Madrid; Galeria Siboney, Santander.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1987 "Il Bienal de Pintura", Murcia; 1988 "IX Convocatoria de Artes Plasticas", Alicante; "XII Bienal Internacional de Grabado", Krakow; "Bienal Latinoamericana de Arte Grafico", New York; 1989 "Madrid que joven ares", Semana de la Juventud, Madrid; 1990 "Grafica creativa", Museo Alvar Aalto; "Bienal of Woodcut" (CS); 1991 "VII edicion Premio de Pintura L’Oreal", Madrid; 1993 "Arco 93", Galeria Siboney,  Madrid; "Cuatro Grabadores en el Desierto", Fundacion Marcelino, Botin; 1994 "Ultimas Adquisiciones. Artistas 80/90", M.N.C.R.S. Madrid; 1995  "Faros Para Perderse", Galeria Trafico de Arte, Leon; "Teritorios Indefinidos", Museo de Elche, Galeria Luis, Adelantado, Valencia.
 

Terarij/ Terrarium, 1995
vezana plošča, glinaste posode, mavec, svinec, aluminjasta folija, kovinska žica, pvc, voda/ multi-ply plywood, earthenware, plaster, lead, aluminium foil, metal wire, pvc, water , h. 56 cm
Korenine/ Roots, 1996
glinasti posodi, kovinska žica/ earthenware, metal wire, h. 80 cm
Labirint/ Labirynth, 1995
vezana plošča, akril na platno, čokoladne mrvice/ multi-ply plywood, acrylic on canvas, chocolate, h. 137 cm
 

ANTONIO MURADO
Rojen leta 1964 v Lugu, Španija; živi in dela v Madridu./ Born 1964 in Lugo, Spain; lives and works in Madrid.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1987 Galeria Sargadelos, Santiago de Compostela; 1989 Galerie Cult, Dunaj (Wien); 1990 Galerie Esse, Köln; 1991 Galerie Niels Ewerbeck, Dunaj (Wien); 1992 Galeria XXI. Madrid; Galeria Antonio de Barnola, Barcelona; Galeria Niels Ewerbeck, Dunaj (Wien); 1993 Galeria Ad Hoc, Vigo; 1994 Galeria Altxerri, San Sebastian; Galeria Trinta, Santiago de Compostela; Galeria Parallel 39., Valencia; Espacio Minimo, Murcia; Galeria Rafael Ortiz, Sevilla; Galeria Volter, Orense.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1989 "Muestra de Arte Joven", MEAC, Madrid; "Germinations 5", Musee St Pierre, Lyon; "III Bienal de Pintura de Murcia", Murcia; 1991 "Murado - Mentl -Haas", Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Dunaj (Wien); "O Rostro do Tempo", Banco de Espana, Vigo; 1992 "Propuesta 92", Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; 1993 "Arco 93", Galerie Niels Ewerbeck (Wien) - Madrid; "Kunstmesse Frankfurt 93", Galerie Niels Ewerbeck (Wien) - Köln; "Trazos e Caminos", Xunta de Galicia, Itinerante; " Art Cologne 93", Galerie Niels Ewerbeck  (Wien) -  Köln; "Propuesta", Maatschappij Arti e Amicitae, Amsterdam; 1994 "Areas de silencio", Bienal International, Pontevedra; " Art Cologne 94", Köln, 1995 "Arco 95", Stand Galeria Trinta (S.Compostela), Madrid; 1995 "XV Salon de los 16." Antiguo Meac, Madrid.
 

Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 170 x 170 cm
Goščava/ Bushes, 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 137 x 217 cm
 
 
 

GONZALO PUCH
Rojen leta 1950 v Seviliji, Španija; živi in dela v Madridu./ Born 1950 in Sevilla, Spain; lives and works in Madrid.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1985 Galeria La Maquina Espanola, Sevilla; 1986 Galeria Winsorkulturguinza, Bilbao; 1990 Diputacion Provincial de Malaga; 1991 Galeria Buades, Madrid; 1994 Galeria Buades, Madrid; 1994 Sala de Exposiciones Facultad de Bellas Artes, Cuenca.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1985 "Europalia 85", Amberes; Un Palacio dentro de otro, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes, Santander; Fundacion Luis Cernuda Sevilla, Sevilla; Feria International Basilea, Galeria La Maquina Espanola; 1986 " Arco 86", Galeria La Maquina Espanola, Madrid; "Estiarte", Feria de Arte de Vallencia, Galeria La Maquina Espanola; 1991, 92, 93, 94, Arco, Galeria Buades, Madrid; 1993 "En la Torre", Torre de los Guzmanes, La Algaba, Sevilla; "More Than Zero", Ecole du Magasin Veme Session, Grenoble.
 

Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
fotografija/ photography, 82 x 108
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1996
fotografija / photography, 82 x 108
 
 
 
 
 
 

JAVIER TUDELA
Rojen leta 1960 v Vitorii, Španija; živi in dela v Madridu./ Born 1960 in Vitoria, Spain; lives and works in Madrid.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1989 "Dibujo y escultura", Casa de Cultura, Vitoria; "Getxoarte’89", Getxo, Vizcaya; 1990 "Getxarte’90", Getxo, Vizcaya; 1993 "Essais d’ordre", Credac-Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Ivry, Paris.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1986 "Arte Universitario", Capa, Vitoria; 1988 "Muerte en Venecia", Gesaltza, Vitoria; 1989 "Bienal Escuelas de Bellas Artes de Europa", Amberes; "Excultura", Casa de Cultura de Basauri, Vizcaya; "Bienal de Escuelas de Bellas Artes", Tenerife; 1990 Aula de Cultura de la Bbk, Bilbao; 1991 "8a Bourse d’art", Centre d‘art d‘ Ivry, Paris; 1992 "37 Salon d'art contemporain de Montrouge", Paris; 1993 "I'Anual America de artes plasticas", Sala America, Vitoria; 1994 "Etat de transfert", Galerie J. Aliskewycz, Paris; 1995 "Gure Artea ’94", Sala Recalde, Bilbao, Sala Koldo; Mitxelena, San Sebastian, Sala Amarica, Vitoria; "Foro Atlantico Arte Contemporaneo", Santiago de Compostela; "Acepciones", Trayecto Galeria, Vitoria.
 

Kaj je filozofija/ What is philosophy, 1995
instalacija (les, kovina, guma)/ instalation (wood, metal, rubber)
Esej o redu/ Essay on Order, 1996
instalacija (majica, tiskano vezje, diode)/ instalation (T-shirt, PCB, diode)
 

CHRISTOPH E. EXLER
Rojen leta 1948 na Dunaju; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1948 in Vienna, Austria; lives and works in situ.
Grafični bienali/ Grafic biennale: 1985 St. Ambrogio di Vallpolicella; 1987 Ljubljana; Valloire; 1988 Seul; Kemijarvi; Liechtenstein; Södra Sanderbyn; Quebec; Calgary; Milwauke; Belluno; Cortina; Rosenheim; 1989 Kemijarvi; Quebec; 1990 Kyoto; Cividale; 1993 Maastricht; Kyoto.
 

Kot v Benetkah/ A Corner in Venice, 1996
fotografija/ photography, 30 x 45 cm
Fasada v Krakavu/ A Facade in Krakow, 1996
fotografija/ photography, 45 x 30 cm
Zid v Krakavu/ A Wall in Krakow, 1996
fotografija/ photography, 30 x 45 cm
 
 
 

ALIJA HAFIZOVIČ HAF
Rojen 1947 v BIH; živi in dela v Sarajevu./ Born 1947 in BIH; lives and works in Sarajevo.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1973 Art pavilion, Sarajevo; 1976 "Faces from Sarajevo", Sarajevo; 1977 Youth Theatre (paintings), Sarajevo; 1980 "Faces from Mostar" (caricature portraits), Mostar; 1981 "Faces", (caricature portraits), Hvar; 1986 Yugoslav Documenta 86, Collegium artisticum, Sarajevo; 1987 Graphic Design, Olympic Museum, Sarajevo; 1993 "Sarajevo 92/93 - The elimination", (multimedial exhibitions), St.Francisco Church, Koper; Equrna Gallery, Ljubljana; 1994 "Cut", (paintings), Medusa Gallery, Koper; 1995 "Cut", (paintings), Galerie Stelwerk, Monreal (D); 1996 "Destruction", Galerija Commerce, Ljubljana; 1996 "Scars", Painting, Collegium artisticum, Sarajevo.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1972 Ulubih, Sarajevo; 1973 Ulubih, Sarajevo; 1973 Sixth Sarajevo Salon, Sarajevo; 1976 Ulubih,Sarajevo; 1977-1991 Collegium artisticum, Sarajevo; 1979 "May Exhibitions", Belgrade; 1984 Zgraf 4 (International Exhibitions of Graphic Design), Zagreb; 1987 Yugoslav Documenta 87, Sarajevo; 1994 "Aer Sarajevo", Frankfurt, St. Katharinenkirche, Zagreb.
 

Opis
Prvi del besedila za katalog najine skupne multimedijske razstave "Sarajevo 92/93 The Eliminination", ki je bila leta 1993 postavljena v Sloveniji, je napisala moja žena. Tukaj se stikata dve izhodišči: a) Slovenija 1993 - razstava o uničenju Sarajeva; in b) Slovenija 1997 - razstava "Umetnik in urbano okolje". Sledijo kratki odlomki iz tekstov slovenske likovne kritičarke Nives Marvin o treh mojih projektih, ki se logično umeščajo v štiri etape mojega dela v zadnjem obdobju: "Elimination" (Odstranitev), "Destruction" (Uničenje), "Cut" (Rez) in "Scars" (Brazgotine). Slika, ki jo razstavljam v Slovenj Gradcu, sodi v zadnji cikel.
Alija Hafizović Haf
Sarajevo, junij 1997

Odstranitev
Pišem o čutenju Sarajeva v tem mračnem letu 1992. Osuplost prehaja v dvom. Strah, razdejanje, lakota, mraz, travme, smrt. Vprašanje: ZAKAJ?
Je mogoče, da se nam vse to dogaja?
V porodnišnici se je rodil otrok. Bomba zadene steno, za katero spi. Otrok je mrtev. 1992, Sarajevo.
Na pomožnem nogometnem igrišču nekoga pokopavajo. Bomba pade med ljudi, ki stojijo okrog groba. Trije umrejo, dvanajst jih je ranjenih. 1992, Sarajevo.
Ne drži, da se umre le enkrat. Tukaj umremo večkrat na dan. Je že vaše ime lahko vaša krivda?
VPRAŠANJE JE: ZAKAJ?
Lepota; prešinila me je misel nanjo. Mozart, na primer. Ali pa je tudi to nevarno?
Kajti ubijalci ubijajo lepe reči: prebivalce Sarajeva, zgradbe v Sarajevu, misel o Sarajevu ... Ne, ne bo šlo. Sarajevo, moja ljubezen.
Zakaj bi kdo sovražil ljubezen? Svet, ali poznaš odgovor? ZAKAJ?
Vanja Fundić Hafizović
Sarajevo, 9. novembra 1992

Uničenje
Dela iz cikla Destruction se delijo na več vsebinskih serij, kar je razvidno tudi iz avtorjevih različnih tehničnih postopkov - vselej pa ohranja papir kot material in kot podlago - in dokazujejo njegov intimen pristop kot odraz osebnih podoživljanj, izkušenj, želja.

Rez
Slike sugerirajo ritem, silo in nemir, v vsebinskih in formalnih oblikah pa zrcalijo osebno doživljanje in izražanje  kot posledico avtorjevih življenjskih izkušenj in vitalizma ustvarjalnih energij...  Kljub na videz prevladujoči racionalni noti je Hafizovićevo likovno ustvarjanje čutno in čustveno iskanje bistvenih počel eksistence; iz kaotičnega stanja rušilnih sil, iz temin se vendarle porajata svetloba in optimizem... Počela so kot blisk duše in krik neizrekljivega v soočanju s svetom in dogajanjem v njem.

Brazgotine
Slikarska površina je Hafov intimni prostor, kjer se v usklajenem redu prepletajo svojevrstne metafore: poteze s čopičem, forme, ki delijo skoraj monokromno ozadje na več polj, in drobni subtilni znaki so avtorjeve psihične brazgotine, ki se polagoma umirjajo in celijo.

Nives Marvin

Description
The first part of the text for our joint multimedia exhibition "Sarajevo 92/93 - The Elimination", presented in Slovenia in 1993, was written by my wife. Two points are important here: A) Slovenia 1993 - the exhibition on the destruction of Sarajevo; and B) Slovenia 1997 - "The Artist and the Urban Environment" exhibition. What follows are short excerpts from texts by the Slovene fine arts critic Nives Marvin on three of my projects which form logical part of four phases of my recent work: "Elimination", "Destruction", "Cut", and "Scars". The painting exhibited in Slovenj Gradec belongs to the last series.
Alija Hafizovič Haf
Sarajevo, June 1997
Elimination
I am writing about the feeling of Sarajevo in this grim year 1992. Astonishment turns to disbelief. Fear, destruction, famine, cold, traumas, death. The question: WHY?
Is it possible that all this is happening to us?
A baby was born in Maternity Hospital. The bomb hits the wall behind which baby is sleeping. The baby is dead. 1992, Sarajevo.
On a spare football field the man is being buried. The bomb falls to the people standing around the grave. Three people dead, twelve wounded. 1992, Sarajevo.
It is not thrue that a man dies only once. Hier we die a few times a day. Could your own name be your guilt?
THE QUESTION IS WHY?
Beuty; it crossed my mind. Mozart, for example. Or is it dangerous too?
Because the killers kill beatifuf things: the citizens of Sarajevo, the buildings of sarajevo, the tought about Sarajevo...No, it won’t work. Sarajevo, my love.
Why should anyone hate love? World, do you know the answer? WHY?

Vanja Fundič Hafizovič
Sarajevo, 9th of November 1992

Destruction
The works from the Destruction series are divided in terms of their content into several orders, which is also evident in the author's different technical approaches - despite the fact that he always uses paper as a substance and base. The works reveal the artist's intimate approach as a reflection of his personal impressions, experiences, and wishes.

Cut
The paintings suggest rhythm, force, and restlessness, while in the contextual and formal patterns they manifest individual perception and expression as a consequence of the artist's life experiences and the vital force of creative energies... Despite the seemingly overwhelmingly rational tone, Hafizović's fine art creation represents a sensual and emotional search for the essentials of existence. Nevertheless, light and optimism arise from the chaotic state of destructive forces, from the darkness... They are like flashes of spirit and screams of the inexpressible in the face of the world and its developments.

Scars
The painting surface represents Haf's intimate space with an ordered interlace of peculiar metaphors: brush strokes, shapes which divide the almost monochromatic background into several fields, and subtle, minute signs - these are the artist's psychical scars which, slowly and steadily, are being eased and healed.

Nives Marvin
 
 
 
 

Brazgotine/ Scars, 1996
olje na platno/ oil on canvas, 144 x 244 cm
 
 
 
 

KATRIN VON MALTZAHN
Rojena 1966 v Rostocku, Nemčija; živi in dela v Berlinu./ Born 1966 in Rostock, Germany; lives and works in Berlin.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1990 "Berlin in London", Royal Academie, London; 1992 "open space - open time", razstavni projekt v odprtem prostoru/ projekt in open space, Berlin; 1993 "Context Art", Steirischer Herbst, Graz;  "minimal curating", Städtisches Kaufhaus, Leipzig; 1994 "Dokument-Stationen", Neuer Kunstverein Kassel & Galerie Allgirls, Berlin; 1995 "when techno turns to sound of poetry", projekt/ project, Shedhalle; Zürich & Kunstwerke, Berlin; "english for you", Tranmission Gallery, Glasgow; 1996 "Something nice to hang", Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; "Laboratorium Berlin", Contemporary Art Center, Moskau; "Original copy", Kunsthalle Helsinki,Helsinki; "Files" (umetnost kot pozicija v času globalnih tehnologij / art as position in the age of global technologies), Bunker 4th floor, Berlin; 1997 "trial & failure", Kunsthalle Helsinki.
 

Opis:
Iz English for You - šolskega filma (tečaj za angleški jezik s spremljajočim televizijskim programom iz DDR) -, je bilo prekopirano z računalnikom naslednjih pet stoječih slik arhitektonskih ikon vzhodnega Berlina: Brandenburška vrata, Urania - svetovna ura, Vodnjak prijateljstva med narodi, Das Haus des Lehrers, Palača republike in Televizijski stolp. Pod vsako sliko je na sredini tiskan napis, ki opozarja na vir slikovnega materiala: English for You, nadaljevanje 27: In the Capital of GDR, Defa-Doc, Babelsberg 1979.
Kopiranje slik s filma povzroča neostro in grobo kvaliteto tiskov, s katero asociiram "sanje", "spomin", "oziranje nazaj". Vsakega od teh motivov sem,kolikor sem mogla natančno, ponovno fotografirala, ga prav tako odtisnila kot fotojedkanico in ga opremila s podnapisom - imenom objekta, fotografa, datumom in časom posnetka. Pri razvijanju so slike ostre, precizne in realistične. Že s podrobnim opazovanjem postanejo spremembe vidne: zarasla narava, deli gradbišč, znamke avtomobilov, arhitektonske/urbanistične spremembe itd.
Tehnika, s katero spreminjam, je bila vedno bistveni del mojega dela. Je končno najneposrednejši odnos z gledalcem in prenaša komponente kot na primer "bistvo slike", "čas" in "čutnost". Pogosto uporabljam visoko tehnologijo v kombinaciji s tradicionalnimi mediji;  v tem primeru v kronološkem vrstnem redu: video - računalnik - fotografija - računalnik - jedkanica.

Katrin von Maltzahn
 

Description:
From "English for You", a school film (an English language course with accompanying television programme from the GDR), the following five statues of East Berlin achitectural icons were copied and photoengraved on paper: "The Brandenburg Gate", "Urania-The World Clock", "The Well of Friendship Between Nations", "The House of Teachers", "The Palace of the Republic", and "The Television Tower". Under each picture there was a printed label stating the origin of the depicted object - "English for You", Part 27: "In the Capital of the GDR", Defa-Doc, Babelsberg 1979.
The quality of prints obtained by copying pictures from film is blurred and coarse, and, to me, raises associations of "dreams", "memory", and "looking back".
Then I photographed each of these motifs as precisely as possible, printed them in the same way as the photoengravings, and added labels describing the objects and giving the name of the photographer, and the date and time when each photograph was taken. The developed pictures are sharp, exact and realistic. Only with a second look can the differences be noticed: bushes and woodland, details of construction sites, panels, car brand names, architectural and urbanistic modifications.
The technique of variation always represents an essential part of my work. It is, finally, a direct interface for the viewer and it conveys elements such as, for example, "the essence of picture", "time", and "sensuality". I frequently use High-Tech in combination with traditional media, here in chronological sequence: video-computer-photograph-computer-etching.

Katrin von Maltzahn

Časovni tunel I-X/ Time Tunnel I-X, 1996
foto-jedkanica in knjižni tisk/ photo-etching and book print, 30 x 40 cm
 
 
 
 

GEORG MANTHE
Rojen v Stuttgartu, Nemčija. Živi in dela v Berlinu in Münchnu./ Born in Stuttgart, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin and München.
1978 - 1986: Študij umetnosti na Akademiji likovnih umetnosti (Akademie der Bildenden Künste), München/ studied art at University of Fine Arts, München.
Študij zgodovine starega veka na Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München/ studied  ancient
history at Ludwig-Maximilian University, München
 

Stalni gost/ Regular customer, 1994
instalacija (steklo, les, lesena figura, kovina)/ instalation (glass, wood, wooden figure,
metal), h. 72 cm
Filister/ Philistine, 1994
instalacija (steklo, les, tkanina, rogovi, kruh)/ instalation (glass, wood, textil, horns,
bread), h. 44 cm
Atmosfera/ Atmosphere, 1994
instalacija (steklo, les, platno)/ instalation (glass, wood, textil), h. 68 cm
 
 
 
 
 

PAOLO MINOLI
Rojen 1947 v Comu (Cantu), Italija; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1947 in Como (Cantu), Italy; lives and works in situ.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1964 Galleria d* Arte Pro Cantu,Cantu; 1974, Galleria mobili d* Arte G.M.A., Cantu; 1981 Galleria d* Arte Contemporanea Maurizio Corraini, Mantova; 1986 Galleria d* Arte 11 Falconiere, Ancona; 1988 Galerie Maerz, Linz; 1990 Galerija Feniks, Ljubljana; 1991 Sala Comunale delle Esposizioni, Reggio Emilia; 1992 Galleria d*Arte Niccoli, Parma; 1993, "Art Multiple - Note
d*Oriente", Galerie Aras, Düsseldorf; 1995  "Art Cologne 95", Valente Artecontemporanea, Köln; 1996 "Arte fiera", Artecontemporanea, Bologna.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1968 "Premio S.Fedele", Centro Culturale S.Fedele, Milano; 1971 "Cinque Relazioni", Galleria d* Arte Unimedia, Genova; 1972 "Premio Giuseppe Sciortino", Galleria del Vantaggio, Roma; 1976 "Colore-Premio Silvestro Lega", Palazzo Comunale, Modigliana; 1981, "Modi di Racconto", Centro Culturale Rondottanta, Sesto S. Giovanni; 1985, "Internationale Buchmesse Frankfurt"; 1986, "XLII Biennale Internazionale d* Arte", Venezia; 1988 "Kunstmesse Forum 88", Hamburg; "Dorazio, Del Pezzo, Gallliani, Minoli, Scannavino, Veronesi", Galerie Otalia, Paris; "Art Cologne", Köln; "Chicago International Art Exposition", Chicago; Galerie 44, Kaarst; 1990 "FIAC 90", Grand Palais, Paris; "Art Cologne, 24. Internationaler Kunstmarkt", Köln; "Raccolta del disegno contemporaneo acquisizioni 1990", Galleria Civica, Modena; "Art de Cologne, 25. Internationaler Kunstmarkt", Köln; 1992 "International Contemporary Art Fair", Yokohama; 1995 "Kunst 95 -  Minoli, Rotella, Santomaso, Wasselman", Galeria Aras, Zürich.
 

Diptih: Od mojstrovine do skice/ Dyptich: From work to design, 1996
akril na papir/ acrylic on paper, 100 x 50
 
 

DAVID SEQUEIRA
Rojen leta 1966 v New Delhiju, Indija; živi in dela v Wollogongu./ Born 1966 in New Delhi, India; lives and works in Wollogong.
Samostojne razstave in projekti (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions and projects (selection): 1993 "Spatia Concepta", West Space, Melbourne; 1994 "Madonna of the Bus Stop" (projekt/ project), Melbourne; "Space and Time", Continental Cafe, Melbourne;1995 "Growth, Decay and Rebirth", 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne; "there is an order", Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra; 1997 Michael Wardell Gallery, Melbourne.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1995 "Suitcase" (potujoča razstava/ touring  exhibitions), Swanston Walk, Melbourne; Bellas Gallery, Brisbane; 1996 "Australian Contemporary Art Fair", Melbourne; 1996 "... and then the eyes of both them were opened and they realised they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together...", "The Cube" (instalacija z/ instalation with Peter Naumann),  Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra; "Release", Michael Wardell Gallery, Melbourne.

Temelj - Kniga učenja/ Foundation - A Book of learning, 1997
instalacija (nit, knjiga, listi)/ instalation ( thread, book, leaves)
 
 
 
 
 

ESTHER WOLF
Rojena leta 1955 na Dunaju; živi in dela in situ./ Born 1955 in Vienna, Austria; lives and works in situ.
Razstave in projekti (izbor)/ Exhibitions and projects (selection): 1994 "Kunst im Souterrain", Dunaj (Wien); "10 x 10" , Dunaj (Wien); 1996 "Landschaftsarbeit Hüttelberg", Dunaj (Wien); Art Addiction Gallery, Stockholm; "Faxart", Heidelberg; "Frack", Amsterdam; "Milleniumstausender", Mödling; 1997 "Zeit-Reich", Amerlinghaus, Dunaj (Wien).
 

Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1994-95
steklo, pero, žuželka, las/ glass, feather, insect, hair,  15 x 20 cm
Brez naslova/ Untitled, 1994-95
steklo, svinčnik in akril na platno/ glass, pencil and acrylic on canvas 15 x 20 cm
 
 
 
 

SEIICHI FURUYA
Rojen 1947 v Izu, Japonska; dela in živi v Gradcu in Tokiu./ Born 1947 in Izu, Japan; lives and works in Graz and Tokio.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1979 "Mode Nervo" (z/ with A. Oehlen), Künstlerhaus,Hamburg; 1984 "P.F.U.I. Diffusa delle Cultura", Galerie Max Hetzler,
Köln; 1985 "Unschärfe-relation", Ngkb, Berlin; 1986  "Fotografie aus Schande", Ccd Galerie,
Köln, Zürich;  1987 "Das Heil der Kunst", Galerie Pakesch, Dunaj (Wien); 1988 Koury Wingate Gallery, New York; 1989 "Ziegelbilder", Kunsthalle Zürich; 1990 Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Galerie Lucio Amelio, Neapel; "White Sheets and Promisses", Luhring Augustin, New York; 1991 The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg; Museum van Hadendaagse Kunst, Geneve; 1992 "2. Mutter aller Attrappen", Galerie Grässlin Erhardt, Frankfurt; 1993 "Projects 39: Georg Herold & Markus Oehlen", Museum of Modern Art, New York; Galerie Max Hetzler, Köln; "Miserere", Ritter Kunsthalle, Celovec (Klagenfurt); 1994 Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg; "Zeit", Foto Salon, Tokyo; Forum Stadtpark, Graz; 1995 Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur; 1997 Past Rays Gallery of Photography, Yokohama; Gallery Najuta, Yokohama; J.M. Gallery, Tokyo; Egg Gallery, Tokyo; Studio Ebis Photo Gallery, Tokyo; Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Verso Photo Gallery, Tokyo; Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo; Works. H, Yokohama; Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibitions (selection): 1979 "1. außerordentliche Veranstaltung in Bild und Klang zum Thema der Zeit: Elend", Kippenbergers Büro, Berlin; 1984 "Kunstlandschaft in der Bundesrepublik heute", Hamburger Kunstverein, Hamburg; 1986 "What about having our Mother back!", Ica, London; 1987 "Skulptur Projekte Münster 1987",
Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster; 1988 "The Return of the Hero", Burden Gallery, New York; 1990  "New Work: A New Generation", Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; 1991 "Metropolis", Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; 1993 Nachtschattengewäsche", Museum Fridericianum, Kassel; "Drawing the Line against Aids", Bienale di Venezia;  "Japanese Contemporary Photography", Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; "Krieg", Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Jouaneum/ Forum Stadtpark Graz; 1994 "Photo International Rotterdam 1994", Rotterdam; "Monat der Fotografie", Bratislava; "Siebzehn", Forum Stadtpark, Graz; 1995 "Fisch & Fleisch", Kunsthalle Krems; "Zu Hause in Berlin - Ost 1985-1987", Alden Bieeson, Belgium; 1996 "Antagonismes", Centre National de la Photographie, Paris; "Antagonismes", Musee de L`Elysee, Lausanne; "New Japanese Photography", Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama; 1997  "Chimaera", Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle; "Stadtpark II", City Gallery, Saloniki
Tokio, 1996
barvne fotokopije/ colour photo-copies, 115 x 160 cm

GEORGE GRACIANSKY
Rojen leta 1951 v Götingenu, Nemčija; živi in dela v K?benhavnu./ Born 1951 in Götingen, Germany; lives and works in K?benhavnu.
Samostojne razstave (izbor)/ Solo Exhibitions (selection): 1986 "Sleepless Nights", Asherman Gallery, Cleveland; 1987 "Complementaries", Canton Art Institute, Canton, Ohio; 1988 Don Drumm Studios,  Akron, Ohio; 1991 "Transformations and Sleepless Nights", Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland; 1992 "The End of Something", Galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec;
Skupinske razstave (izbor)/ Group Exhibition (selection): 1986 "Forarsudstilling", Carlottenborg, Copenhagen; 1987 "Danske Progressive Fotokunstnere", Nykobing Falster, (DK); 1992 "Self-Portraits of 100 Danish Photo-Artists", The Art Hall, Frederica & The Town Hall, Odense.
 

Zgodba o dveh mestih

Ambientalna postavitev Georga Gracianskega je sestavljena iz treh formalno različnih enot: dveh serij fotografij, posušenega drevesa in treh videov na treh monitorjih.
Prva serija fotografij prikazuje mestne detajle (vhodi, portali, parterji, reklamni panoji, križišča etc.), fotografirane ponoči. Vsi urbani motivi so dosledno brez ljudi, fotografski izseki urbanega so kompozicijsko premišljeni, površine delujejo sterilno, "življenje" dajejo tem fotografijam le močne neonske svetlobe; s tem zadobijo fotografije malce groteskni, surrealistični karakter. Serija na drugi strani prostora - nasprotna serija - upodablja privatno, intimno in nevidno sfero velemesta. Spretne, lahko bi rekli filmske, inscenacije čustveno napetih situacij nekega para, včasih v kombinaciji s tretjim moškim, so podprte z dramatično osvetlitvijo z barvnimi reflektorji in dodanimi teksti. Tukaj avtor aludira na zgodbo o mestu, ki ga dojema ambivalentno kot distanciranost javnih urbanih prostorov ter zamotanost komunikacije v privatnem prostoru. V obeh primerih je čutiti umetnikovo odtujenost, ki pa ni nujno pesimistična.
Prehod v medij premikajočih se slik (video) nam to isto mesto oživi v vseh pomenih. Kopenhagen ni več sterilna množica motivov, temveč mesto arhaičnih fasad, supermarketov (v katerih lahko zaznamo med drugim posebnosti danske fast-food kuhinje), mesto naključnih smetišč, razkošnih steklenih poslopij, reklam etc.
Čeprav mesto z videom oživi, se umetnikov čustven pristop bistveno ne spremeni. Še vedno je čutiti njegovo odtujenost, le da tukaj več ne inscenira - ni dramatičnosti svetlobe in izbiranja motivov, umetnik bolj dokumentarno predstavlja različna mestna okolja. Graciansky se na sprehodu po mestu ne loči več od kamere, objektiv le-te postane - tako rekoč - njegovo oko. Gledalec vidi popolnoma vse, kar vidi umetnikovo oko. Zaradi tega in ker ni montaže (razen občasnih izključitev kamere), je ta proces posnetek partikularne resničnosti kontinuiranega časovnega obdobja in je tako nasprotje trenutnega  fotografskega izseka realnosti.
Drugi video je kolaž posnetkov z letala in vlaka in je v statično - dinamični korespondenci s prvim. Na tem videu je posneta tudi ganljiva biografska zgodba umetnikove matere, ki se je po desetletjih življenja v Ameriki vrnila v rodno Nemčijo, in sicer v vas, kjer je pokopan njen nesojeni mož, nemški vojak, ki je padel v drugi svetovni vojni. Tukaj opominja na človekovo primarnost, nacionalni parameter identitete, ki v sedanji, postmoderni dobi dislociranosti ljudi - dobi,  ki je je deležen v Nemčiji rojeni, v Ameriki in nazadnje na Danskem živeči umetnik Graciansky - pridobiva nove razsežnosti.
Na tretjem monitorju je posneta maša v neki pravoslavni cerkvi v Kopenhagnu. Ozračje te maše - slika in zvok - sočasno vpliva na videa na prvih monitorjih. Vrvež mestne profanosti nadgradi umirjena sakralnost - dinamičnost versus statičnost, časovnost versus večnost. Ta dualizem je pri postavitvi poudarjen  z nekoliko dekorativno delujočimi atributi, kot so ura, kadilo in posušeno (rajsko) drevo. Ko vse povežemo v celoto, zadobi stvar preroško, malce apokaliptično vsebino, interpretirano skozi avtobiografsko optiko. Za ta učinek uporabi avtor prijeme dokumentiranja, inscenacije realnosti, analize, konstruiranja in vizionarstva - od posamičnega k absolutnemu.
Avtor torej ni reduciral vtisov in miselnih konotacij in nam podal umetniški surogat, temveč je vtise sproti beležil za nas, jih metaforično strukturiral glede na svoj miselni ustroj in jih oblikoval z več izraznimi sredstvi v site-specific (na prostor vezano) postavitev. In če se vrnem k redukciji vtisov  - oziroma ne-redukciji, ki je značilna predvsem za videe, ki trajajo vsi preko dveh ur in so posneti ravno tako površno, kot je površna človekova vsakodnevna zaznava, ki je bolj ali manj ciljna ali selektivna, potem se tukaj odpira zanimivo vprašanje percepcije tega dela. Namreč, če sledimo Heglovi tezi o umetniškem delu (ki se v modificirani obliki pojavlja v vseh teorijah estetike do danes), potem le-to doseže svoj namen (zaživi) šele ob percepciji - iz stanja an-sich (na sebi), ko ga umetnik ustvari, in preide v komunikaciji z gledalcem z njegovo zaznavo v stanje für-sich (zase). Tako dobi pomen informacije, ki to postane šele takrat, ko jo prejemnik zabeleži. S tega vidika se torej zastavlja vprašanje, ali bi morali videe Gracianskega pogledati v celoti (skoraj tri ure), da bi njegovo delo dobilo pomen. Izkaže pa se, da deluje zaznava  pars pro toto : ko pogledamo nekaj minut, intuitivno zaznamo izpovednost cele postavitve, vprašanje je le, v kolikšni meri se ta kompleksnost izpovednosti poglablja z daljšo zaznavo.

Vanesa Cvahte
 

The Tale of Two Cities

The ambient installation by Georg Gracianski is composed of three formally different segments: two series of photographs, a dried-up tree, and three videos on three monitors.
The first series of photographs shows city details (entrances, portals, ground floors, advertisement hoardings, crossings, etc.), photographed at night. All the urban motifs are consistently devoid of people, the compositions of the photographic fragments of the urban are carefully considered, the surfaces function as sterile, the only things that give "life" to these photographs are the powerful neon lights which give them a somewhat grotesque, surrealist nature. The series on the opposite side of the room - the opposite series - depicts the private, intimate, invisible sphere of the metropolis. Ingenious, one could even say cinematic scenes of the emotionally tense situations of a certain couple, sometimes in combination with a third man, are enhanced by a dramatic illumination with coloured lights, and added texts. Here the author alludes to the tale of a city comprehended as an ambivalence: the distance of public urban spaces, and the intricacy of communication in private space. In both cases one can feel the artist's alienation which, however, is not necessarily pessimistic.
The passage into the media of moving pictures (video) vivifies the same city in all its possible meanings. Copenhagen is no longer a sterile mass of motifs, but the city of archaic facades, supermarkets (in which we can discern, among other things, the specialities of Danish fast-food), the city of incidental rubbish dumps, luxurious glass buildings, advertisements, etc.
Although the city comes alive in the video, the artist's emotional approach does not radically change. One can still feel his alienation, only that in this case the artist does not create scenes using the drama of light and the selection of motifs, but rather documentarily records various city ambiences. During his stroll through the city Gracianski is never separated from the camera; the camera's object lens becomes, as it were, his eye. The viewer sees everything that the artist's eye sees. Because of this reason, and because there is no editing (except for the occasional switching-off of the camera), this process is a shot of some particular reality of the continuous period of time, and thus it is the opposite of the momentary - the photographic fragment of reality.
The second video is a collage of shots from aeroplane and train, and it is in static-dynamic correspondence with the former. This video shows, among other things, a touching biographical story of the artist's mother who, after decades of living in America, returned to her homeland, Germany, and to the village where her fiance, a German soldier who had fallen during the Second World War, is buried. Here we are reminded of the primary importance of the human being, of the national parameter of identity which in the current, post-modern era of the dislocation of people - the fate of the artist Gracianski who was born in Germany, lived in America and finally in Denmark - acquires new dimensions.
On the third monitor we see a holy mass in an orthodox church in Copenhagen. The ambience during this mass - picture and sound - simultaneously influences the videos on the other monitors. The bustle of city profanity is replaced by peaceful sacredness - dynamism versus staticism, temporality versus eternity. This dualism is emphasised in the installation with somewhat decoratively functioning attributes, e.g. watches, incense, and a dried-up (heavenly) tree. When we connect everything into a whole, the result acquires a prophetic, rather apocalyptic content seen through autobiographical lenses. To reach this effect the author employs the grips of documenting, organising the reality, analysing, constructing, and foretelling - from the particular to the absolute.
Thus, the author did not reduce his impressions and notional connotations to give us an artistic surrogate, but has made a timely recording of these impressions for us, metaphorically structured them according to his frame of mind, and formed them - using several expressive means - into a site-specific installation (related to the place). And if I return to the reduction, or non-reduction, of impressions, characteristic especially of the videos which are all more then two hours long and which are shot in a way which is precisely as cursory as everyday human perception is cursory - which is more or less goal- oriented, or selective - then an interesting question can be posed here about the perception of this work. If we follow Hegel's thesis of a work of art (which, in its modified version, figures in every theory of aesthetics to date), then the work of art fulfills its purpose (becomes alive) only with the perception - from the state an-sich (by itself), when the artist creates it, the work of art passes to the state für-sich (for itself) only in communication with the viewer, with its perception, and thus acquires a meaning - as a piece of information, which only becomes a piece of information when the receiver records it. It is from this point of view that the question is raised as to whether the videos by Gracianski should be seen in their entirety (almost three hours), if his work is to acquire meaning. But it turns out that the thing functions part pro toto - when we see a few minutes of the videos, we intuitively perceive the expressiveness of the whole installation; the only question is to what degree this complexity of expressiveness increases with the duration of the perception.

Vanesa Cvahte

Zgodba o dveh mestih/ The tale of two cities, 1997
instalacija (fotografija, video, rože, tkanina, kadilo, drevo, papir, svinčnik, kasetofon)/ instalation (photography, video, flowers, tissue, incense, tree, paper, pencil, taperecorder)
 
 
 

KLAAS GUBBELS
Rojen leta 1934 v Rotterdamu; živi in dela v Arnhemu, Nizozemska./ Born 1934 in Rotterdam; lives and works in Arnhem, Netherland.
Razstave (izbor)/ Exhibitions (selection): 1957 Besiendershuys,Nijmegen;1959 t Venster, Rotterdam;1960 Galerie 207, Amsterdam; 1962 Stedlijk Museum het Prinsenhof, Delft;1963 Galerie Ursula Girardon, Paris; 1964 Galerie 20, Arnhem; Rotterdamse Kunststichting, Expositiezaal "Lijnaan", Rotterdam; 1965 Kunstzaal Fenna deVries, Delft; Galerie 20/d (ependance), Amsterdam; Musee d Art Moderne, Paris; 1966 Bols Taverne Amsterdam; 1967Kunstzaal Fenna de Vries, Delft; 1968 Galerie De Klosbeugel,Hertogenbosch; 1969 Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem; 1971 Stichting Beeldende Kunst Tentoonstellingen, Zalen Dejong-Berger, Maastricht; Galerie Espace Amsterdam; 1972 Pander Kunstcentrum, Den Haag; 1973 Rotterdamse Kunststichting, Expositiezaal De Doelen, Rotterdam; 1975 Kunstpalast - Erenhof, Důsseldorf; 1977 Chenil Galleries Chelsea, London; 1978 Galerie Im Winter, Bremen; Galerie Jean Briance, Paris; 1980 Pri