Vesna Bukovec

For Your Pleasure. Feminist Positions in Visual Art in and from Slovenia

Exhibition: For Your Pleasure. Feminist Positions in Visual Art in and from Slovenia
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, SI
Date: 27 October 2023 — 14 April 2024

Artists: Lina Akif, Zemira Alajbegović, Milijana Babić, Mirjana Batinić, Urban Belina, Saša Bezjak, Vanja Bućan Vesna Bukovec, Jasmina Cibic, Lea Culetto, Ana Čigon, Eclipse, Elena Fajt, Andreja Gomišček, Olja GrubiĆ, Marina Gržinić, Dejan Habicht, Đejmi Hadrović, Ida Hiršenfelder, Hiša na hribu, Maja Hodošček, Tjaša Kancler, Jasna Klančišar, Andrea Knezović, Tatiana Kocmur, Neven Korda, Mankica Kranjec, Anka Krašna, Rok Kravanja, Meta Krese, Tanja Lažetić, Agate Lielpētere, Aprilija Lužar, Dušan Mandič, Lela B. Njatin, Daniel Petković, Jovita Pristovšek, Tadej Pogačar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. muzej sodobne umetnosti, Urška Preis, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Maruša Sagadin, Duba Sambolec, Simona Semenič, Mojca Senegačnik, Zvonka T Simčič, Nataša Skušek, Maja Smrekar, Alenka Spacal, Saša Spačal, Zora Stančič, Aina Šmid, Ajda Tomazin, Jasmina Založnik, Lana Zdravković (KITCH), Nada Žgank

Curator: Martina Vovk
Assistant Curator: Kristjan Sedej

 
The exhibition presents artistic production focusing on gender and gender-related discrimination, on sexism and the inequality of women (and all who identify as women), with discrimination manifesting at the intersections of gender and other categories and circumstances, such as class, labor, race, nationality, sexual identity, and age.

The areas and topics of interest of the artists presented at the exhibition coincide with those of feminist theory, social movements, and political action. They emerge as universal feminist themes outlining numerous specific positions, personal iconographies, figurations, memories, investigations, performative actions, and individual artistic statements in the perspective of gender-based discrimination and through the prism of the intersection with other areas of discrimination, above all labor, class, race, nationality, and LGBTIQ+ identities.

Excerpts from curatorial text

More about the exhibition

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I am participating with two works, digital drawing Cyclists are Coming (2020) and series of seven drawings Local Racisms (2022).

Vesna Bukovec: Solidarity

Razstava: Solidarity
Lokacija: gallery raum AU, Partizanska pot 12, Slovenj Gradec, SI
Datum: 30 June – 30 August 2023
Opening: Friday, 30 June 2023, 7 pm

Curator: Jernej Kožar (KGLU)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition is part of the project Journey through Arte Utile (AU), organised by the public interest NGO raum AU in collaboration with the The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU) and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. The project aims to explore and update the collection and artistic practice of Pino Poggi and is conceived as a series of research residencies with invited artists. Last year, artists Tadej Pogačar and Tobias Putrih explored Arte Utile, and this year Vesna Bukovec started her journey.

“Researching the archive of Pino Poggi and his useful art Arte Utile, I was particularly drawn to the segment entitled AU process. Poggi’s method of active communication with the public involves a critical, social and pedagogical process that visually, verbally and dramaturgically manifests itself in the AU artwork. Identifying current social issues and seeking a dialogue with the wider public is an approach I have used several times in my past work and in various collaborations, e.g. in the KOLEKTIVA group (with Metka Zupanič and Lada Cerar) and with Ana Čigon and Tia Čiček.

Reflecting on current social problems and the less than positive outlook for the future, I wonder what is most lacking in our society today that could change the way we think and act? Rather than holding up a mirror to the pain and hopelessness, I try to think about changes and ways to work towards a better future. I also invite the audience to actively reflect and participate. In the exhibition we will answer questions such as: What does solidarity mean to us personally? Where do we see it? Do we practice it and how? Why is there not enough of it and why do we need it at all? How to learn it?”

As a proposal and reflection on the meaning of solidarity, the exhibition presents a new drawing Solidarity (2023). Alongside is a series of eleven drawings about the labour movement organization that shaped my family, Heritage (2022), and a drawing about young people’s protest demands for a better future, A Different World is Possible (2021).

arte-utile.net
 

Talk with the curator Jernej Kožar, recorded in July 2023
Production: raum AU, Slovene/English subtitles: Lana Praprotnik
 
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Photo: Urška Čerče, Vesna Bukovec, Urban Cerjak

Novel by Brina Svit

 
Writer Brina Svit invited me to make drawings for the cover of her new novel Uporni bicikli (Rebellious Bicycles), which was published by the Mladinska knjiga publishing house.

V-F-X Ljubljana Festival 2023

SCCA-Ljubljana/DIVA Station and Slovenian Cinematheque are organising 3rd editon of the International Festival of Experimental Audiovisual Practices V-F-X Ljubljana.
Festival Programme Team: Anja Banko, Vesna Bukovec, Peter Cerovšek, Matevž Jerman, Varja Močnik, Igor Prassel

>> VEČ

I’ve designed the festival’s visual image and curated the exhibition Analogue Diffractions #1 by Neža Knez at the SCCA Project Room.

Work in Progress. Utopian Rest

Exhibition: Work in Progress. Utopian Rest
Venue: GT22, Glavni trg 22, Maribor, SI
Date: Saturday, 18 March 2023, 4pm: auditory rest and exhibition opening
Exhibition on view till 7 April 2023

Participating: Vesna Bukovec, Tia Čiček, Ana Čigon

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition in GT22 and the implementation of the event as part of BREZODRA (Nagib), we are preparing a performative reading with the aim of taking a short rest during the whole day’s events. The English text was created according to our instructions with the help of artificial intelligence. It draws from selected passages of well-known fiction, especially science fiction literature and humanistic texts. Participants and female workers are invited to relax while listening to gentle, sometimes radical, thoughts about utopian worlds and communities that live beyond the capabilities of our environment and social arrangements.

Saturday, 18 March 2023 from noon onwards @venue network: Kulturni inkubator – studio and gallery, GT22 – lobby, library and blackbox, Kibla Portal, forest etc.

BREZODRA (Stageless) is a continuation of Nagib’s long-standing process of research, experimentation, reflection and performance beyond established spaces and production structures. This time, BREZODRA is designed as a multi-hour manifestation of various practices, formats of coexistence and co-creation, deliberations and discourses, aimed at finding and questioning new perspectives and performance strategies, which are created by considering the construction of (new) communities and ways of different presence, attention and action. It is an idea and a contribution to the development of new models of cultural production that depart from the established systems of producing and perceiving works of art. It is an experiment that invites the viewer to an experiential insight into creative methods, processes and (artistic) work in general.

COMMUNITY OF CREATORS: Tery Žeželj in Alicia Ocadiz, Anja Bornšek, Vesna Bukovec, Ana Čigon in Tia Čiček, Saška Rakef, Tina Kozin in Bojana Šaljić Podešva, All the children – Petja Golec Horvat, Lan Žiga Anderlič, Jerca Smrečnik in Simona Bobnar Radenković (z umetniško podporo Petje Labovića inToni Soprano Meneglejte), Andreja Kopač, Jaka Berger and Miha Šajina / Shekuza, etc.

More about BREZODRA (in Slovene)

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Ana Čigon, Izklop dela (Switch Off Work), 2022

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Long-term artistic and curatorial research on the topic of work, reflection on the conditions of knowledge exchange and the search for alternative social and organizational arrangements have their beginnings in the creating of the exhibition, which was first shown in November 2022 in the Škuc Gallery. Through cooperation, we are looking for answers to the questions: Where do we go from here? What kind of future can we imagine and plan for? How to establish and maintain a connected and solidary community? Do we know how to cooperate and how do we have to adapt and shape ourselves and society so that we can cooperate better? etc. In an effort to understand the current approach to work itself and the role it plays within the current social order, during the preparations for the exhibition we created a reading group with the aim of sharing knowledge and reading literature related to the theory of work, care, postcolonialism, labor movements, etc. We wanted to unlearn the hierarchy of values ​​that put the product above the process, and productivity and profit above the person. ^[1]

The desire to find alternative ways of working and living was soon replaced by the need to unlearn patterns of work and adopt other ways of receiving, sharing and constructing knowledge. Thus, our position of searching for ideal forms, which in itself indicates a neoliberal and above all inherent striving for “perfection”, was replaced by the principle of openness, adaptation and acceptance – in the final phase even recovery – which we understand as central on the way to restructuring a harmful value system.

Work in Progress is a fluid process that is created with the desire for a better understanding of one’s own relationship to work and community, as well as with an interest in other and/or different experiences, attitudes and practices. Through mutual cooperation, we want to highlight the precarious or dangerous social situation into which the modern worker is pushed. The exhibition of drawings opens up a space for reflection on the personal hardships of today’s precarious workers, the wishes and demands for a more tolerable life and a fairer social order. It also touches on past labor struggles and the achievements of local labor organizing, as well as the personal engagement of women in various protests for social change around the world.

As part of events and exhibitions, we establish libraries with diverse humanistic literature that support the process of unlearning unjust and harmful work structures and learning about alternatives. In the video trade unionist Tea Jarc (Youth Plus Trade Union), Svetlana Slapšak (retired professor, classical philologist, anthropologist and writer) and Jadranka Vesel (Rise, Research Institute for Social Economy) generously shared their views on work, the contemporary worker, community and the future.^[2]

As part of BREZODRA (Nagib) we are preparing a performative reading with the aim of resting during the day’s activities. The English text was created according to our instructions with the help of AI. It draws from selected passages of well-known fiction, especially science fiction literature and humanistic texts. Participants and workers are invited to relax while listening to gentle, sometimes radical, thoughts about utopian worlds and communities that live beyond the capabilities of our environment and social arrangements.^[3]

Work in Progress points to the need to rethink current forms of work and activity and to recognise, internalise and challenge certain patterns of behaviour and oppression. Ways of recovery and empowerment can be seen in knowledge sharing, community building and the creation of new living and working conditions. The dismantling of the existing hierarchy of values, which neglects the worker in favour of profit and false “progress”, can be seen as the key to creating a more just world.

Vesna Bukovec, Tia Čiček, Ana Čigon

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Thanks: Petra Hazabent, Miha Horvat, Stefan Alex, Marie Andrée-Pellerin, Petra Kolmančič, Peter Dobaj / Kulturni center Maribor, mag. Emica Antončič / založba Aristej, Knjižnica Tete Rosa / Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže, Amelia Kraigher in Alvina Žuraj / Založba /*cf, Tanja Velagić / Založba Sophia, dr. Maja Pen, Živa Kleindienst, Irena Borić, Klara Drnovšek Solina and to all other individuals who lent their books to the library.

Organization: Društvo za kulturno produkcijo in afirmacijo umetniških procesov NAGIB, GT22/Fundacija Sonda

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Utopian Rest (reading)
Photo: RTV SLO screen grab


 
Exhibition view (photo: Ana Čigon)