Vesna Bukovec

E-motion to cohabit

Exhibition: E-motion to cohabit
Locations: Galleria d’Arte Moderna Palazzo Forti, Verona
Date: October 9 – November 28, 2010
Opening: Friday, October 8, 2010 at 12.00

Curators: Aurora Fonda, Radmila Iva Janković

Artists: BridA (SI), Vesna Bukovec (SI), Lada Cerar (SI), Marijan Crtalić (HR), Igor Eškinja (HR), KOLEKTIVA (SI), Andreja Kulunčić (HR), Vlado Martek (HR), Marjetica Potrč (SI), Marijana Vukić (HR), Metka Zupanič (SI)

About the exhibition:

This year we are continuing to exchange ideas with the contemporary art world in the countries of East Europe. After the last edition, focussed on Bosnia-Herzegovina, this year Aurora Fonda from the Centro Espositivo Pubblico Sloveno, Venice, and Radmila Iva Janković, from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, will present a selection of works by twelve artists from Slovenia and Croatia.

We will be presenting a part of that fragmentary culture which in the past century was known as Mitteleuropa or Middle Europe: a geographical mass considered as a paradigm for western post-modern culture and characterized by the eclecticism and fluidity of its values and by its opposition to the two East/West monolithic blocks.

Ever since antiquity mankind has felt the need to build and delimit areas so as to help his perception of the surrounding world. Effectively, confines do not exist in nature apart from various insurmountable natural barriers. So it is obvious that the human mind cannot imagine a world without physical and mental structures which, in some way, impose limits on our actions and, in exchange, offer us a sense of security.

Art too is an example of this contradiction; in fact, the physical structure of works of art create a space within a space, whether they are installations or simple pictures: these, paradoxically, claim to go open the viewers’ mind to a wider awareness by expanding beyond the exhibition space itself.

Starting from these concepts, we have aimed at constructing a show that, taking into account the emblematic situation of the Italian Northeast which is hosting it, turns its attention to the contemporary art scene in two bordering countries: Slovenia and Croatia.

Here we are faced with a series of economic, social, cultural, and linguistic differences and limits which coalesce to create a fluid situation that can be grasped by observing the works on show.

From a creative point of view, noting the differences and the dialogue between them means becoming aware of the concept of limits seen from a new perspective: that of artists who can display a fascinating discovery to us, one where a single individual’s language can become the spokesman for the specifics of his origins. That kind of tension which, instead of being a defect, can actually be a strong point which is manifested in the differences in the interpretation of a subject that these artists have to face every day: the body, communications, the territory, space, and social concerns.

This exhibition has been made possible by the collaboration between ArtVerona, the City of Verona’s cultural office, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Palazzo Forti, the A+A gallery, and the Gallerie Costiere, Piran; it has been sponsored by the Slovenian Ministry for Culture, the Consulate of the Slovenian Republic in Trieste, and Zagreb City Council.

Aurora Fonda

www.palazzoforti.it

The exhibiton is part of the accompanying program of ArtVerona 2010.

I am participating with series of drawings Positive Illusion and video It Will Be OK.

KOLEKTIVA (Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar, Metka Zupanič) is participating with a new sculpture Lost in Translation.

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Photos from the opening: