Vesna Bukovec

Autobiography of a Project Space

Exhibition: Autobiography of a Project Space; exhibition intervention And yet I do bother
Venue: SCCA Project Room, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana, SI
Date: 16 January 2023, 7 pm

Curators: Urška Aplinc, Lara Reichmann

Vesna Bukovec, Cyclists are Coming, digitalna drawing, 2020, detail

About the project

From 2004 to 2019, SCCA-Ljubljana established a production and experimental space in the SCCA Project Room with the Studio 6 and No Nails, No Pedestals programmes, encouraging invited artists to prepare spatial, conceptual, visual and intermedia installations. The uncertainty of 2021, when all of us Metelkova 6 users received an appeal from the Ministry of Culture that we would have to leave M6, also influenced the programming of events in the SCCA Project Room, but at the same time, prompted us to reflect on past and present programmes. In light of the currently resolving issue of using public cultural infrastructure and the changing generations at SCCA-Ljubljana, we decided to look back in time and reflect on our activities.

With the exhibition and discursive event Autobiography of a Project Space, we want to discuss the effects of the SCCA Project Room – on the work of the institution, on Metelkova 6, on the management of public cultural infrastructures, on self-organisation in times of precarious production conditions and, last but not least, on the artistic practices of the former participating artists – with the former guest artists, heads and curators of the Studio 6 and No Nails, No Pedestals programmes.

Invited speakers Damijan Kracina, Barbara Borčić (heads of the programme No Nails, No Pedestals), Saša Nabergoj (head of Studio 6), Borut Savski (artist and member of Cirkulacija 2) and Ana Čigon (artist) will discuss how SCCA-Ljubljana has developed a discursive and supportive programme in culture. The discussion will be moderated by Dušan Dovč (former head of production).

The discussion will be accompanied by the exhibition intervention And yet I do bother, in which artist Vesna Bukovec will present the drawing Cyclists are Coming and a video exhibition of drawings And yet I do bother, created in the framework of the exhibition at the GONG Gallery (Nova Gorica, 2020-2021). The latter contains a selection of the artist’s production of drawings from the last few years, condensed into a video format. The selected series of drawings record the turbulent events around us and convey clear, direct activist messages to the viewer. The drawing Cyclists Are Coming depicts a crowd of women cyclists from the anti-government protests of 2020. The exhibition intervention thus responds to the pressing issues of our time. It outlines the various socio-political situations we face daily, from the all-encompassing neoliberal ideology, the current political climate in Slovenia and around the world, the role of women in contemporary society, the refugee crisis, etc. The artist’s intervention also relates to the exhibition of contemporary feminist art from Slovenia; Women are Coming!, which we hosted at the Project Room in 2009 and was curated by Ana Grobler.

More at the SCCA website

Production: SCCA-Ljubljana

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Photo: SCCA-Ljubljana archive