Multimedia Practices and Venues of Production
The Eighties through the Prism of Events, Exhibitions, and Discourses – Part 2
Curators: Barbara Borčić, Igor Španjol
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, +MSUM
5 April – 11 June 2017
At the turn of the 1980s, the proliferation of contemporary international cultural movements and the opening of urban centers of culture for the young brought new ideas and a search for other channels of political and cultural work and forms of artistic production. It was a time of “the alternative scene”, the largest mass cultural movement in Slovenia to date. The theoretical writings of the New Left, the poststructuralist movement, and the Lacanian circle all made important contributions to the formation of such developments. Common to all of this heterogeneous production was a revolt against the cultural hegemony of the time; the political system, on the other hand, allowed such critique to project an image of tolerance.
The exhibition shows how expanded the field of art was in the 1980s, with practices characterized by multimedia, self-organization, interdisciplinarity, trans-generational work, and collective authorship. The display concept foregrounds the typical venues and events, putting additional emphasis on selected artistic installations. The multimedia theme is approached from two curatorial angles: via the alternative and/or subculture venues and via the institutionally and technologically supported practices. Together they reveal a media field constituted by the interrelations between production and presentation, concept and context, television and video. Individual instant media, e.g. photography, video, and Xerox, are not presented in their specific forms, but in the way they related to other media.
In presenting the venues of production and presentation, their key attributes are highlighted, derived from individuals or society: their specific aesthetics, narratives, forms and contents, and the modes, relations, means, and conditions of production. Although based on actual spaces and activities, they are described with generic names reflecting the most important practices: disco, gallery, studio, festival, other television, viewing room, reading room, cinema, and exit. To illustrate the synergy between different practices, the venues feature projects and documents, archival material, and projections of sound and text, images and light. A selection of reconstructed artistic projects is included as a constitutive part of multimedia venues and practices. The projects that have been selected – often early works and works characteristic of the artist’s multimedia practice – had an important role in determining the contexts of the venues. The exhibition aims to bring multimedia practices closer to the visitors through specific works, through atmospheric staging, and a display of documents and archives intertwining history and the narrative. The intersections of art and other cultural movements serve to arouse our curiosity, trigger further research, and enable us to encounter them also at the level of experience and pleasure in viewing. LONGER TEXT >>>
A large part of the exhibition is staged at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), but a number of other venues feature equally compelling programs: the Škuc Gallery with film screenings, TV Slovenia with the themed program Platforma, Moderna galerija’s website with additional archival documents, and the DIVA digital video archive by SCCA-Ljubljana.
Authors of selected installations: Abbildungen Variete, Neven Korda / Borghesia, Marko Kovačič, Laibach, Andrej Lupinc – Keller, Dušan Mandič, Davorin Marc, Emil Memon, Miha Vipotnik
Special thanks: Meta Kordiš, Neven Korda, Davorin Marc, Drago Mislej, Bogdan Lešnik, Brane Mozetič / Škuc Magnus, Dušan Dovč / SCCA-Ljubljana, Iva Rada Janković / MSU Zagreb, Boris Bradač, Marko Ornik, Nuša Lasič, Vlasta Bratož Štokelj, Breda Škrjanec / MGLC, Mitja Sosič, Marija Memon, Matjaž Pegam, Borut Pelko, Monika Skaberne / Založba FV, Nika Grabar, Mateja Podlesnik / Mestna galerija, Saša Šavel Burkart, Jožica Leskovar, Zdravko Erjavec / TV Slovenija, Eva Rohrman / Forum Ljubljana, Tatjana Rezec Stibilj / Filmski arhiv, Kornelija Rorman/Cankarjev dom, Vladimir Vidmar / Galerija Škuc, Ana Grobler, Mojca Dobnikar / Škuc Lilit, Vita Activa/spol.si, Igor Vidmar / Škuc R.O.P.O.T., Olga Rems, Marko Cotič, Andreja Borin, Simona Šuc / UGM, Kaja and Sava Kosmač, all the artists/authors.
The exhibition is part of the larger project THE EIGHTIES.
Supporting Institutions:
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Škuc Gallery, Center for Contemporary Arts SCCA-Ljubljana, Slovene Film Archives, Kinodvor, Forum Ljubljana, ŠKUC-Magnus, Lilit, Cankarjev dom, TV Slovenija, Art Gallery Maribor, MGLC - International Centre of Graphic Arts
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1. ŠKUC Gallery, photo Barbara Borčić
2. Homosexuality and Culture, 1984, poster for the festival, designed by Aldo Ivančić
3. Video Box Bar, ŠKUC Gallery, 1984-85
4. Miha Vipotnik, Videogram 4, 1979
5. Galerija ŠKUC Izdaja, 1981-87, audio tapes, photo Dejan Habicht
