Vesna Bukovec

Vesna Bukovec: A Different World Is Possible (Galerija Domžale)

Exhibition: A Different World Is Possible (solo exhibition)
Venue: Galerija Domžale, Kulturni dom Franca Bernika, Domžale, SI
Date: 14 December 2023 — 4 January 2024
Opening: Thursday, 14 December 2023, 7 pm

Curator: Jurij Smole

More about the exhibition (in Slovene only):
https://www.kd-domzale.si/vesna-bukovec-drugacen-svet-je-mogoc-24-11-2023.html
http://www.vesna-bukovec.net/archives/5091

Works at the exhibition:

– A World Without Borders
– A different world is possible
– The Heritage
– In Search of Freedom (Ecce Homo) (selection)
– Local Racisms
– Solidarity
– anti-war appeals

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Exhibition view
Photo: 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 — 21 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).

Description of my works at the exhibition, written by Kristjan Sedej

Vesna Bukovec
Local Racisms, 2022
series of 7 drawings; ink on paper

Vesna Bukovec
Cyclists Are Coming, 2020
digital drawing

Made with the line and text only, Vesna Bukovec’s drawings are topical responses to political and social changes in the Slovenian context. In this visual form, the artist explores the positions and stories of marginalized and oppressed social groups adversely impacted by daily politics. Drawing from a variety of sources, most prominently statistical data and the news, Bukovec reveals the real image of our social reality and its protagonists. The motifs in her drawings thus constantly keep changing: Some are representations of the “erased” citizens, others of the Roma, and so on.

Represented in the Local Racisms series are a variety of subjects whose identities and positions the artist has recognized to be socially marginalized and treated unequally. As Bukovec points out: “Racism is discrimination based on the color of the skin or race, but it also underpins the logic of excluding entire groups that deviate from the norm.” Directly addressing the viewers, the represented figures invite them to reflect on social norms and their problematic aspects, because otherwise such practices of exclusion can lead to nationalism and racism becoming the norm. The drawings were made on the initiative of the City of Women for the poster campaign promoting the 28^th International Festival of Contemporary Arts – City of Women.

Unlike the series described above that aims to inspire viewers to action, Cyclists Are Coming depicts a moment of active rebellion against the political situation of the time. The drawing portrays the mass group of cyclists at the 2020 antigovernment protests during the pandemic, denouncing the mass violations of civil and human rights and the spreading of the politics of hate. Like Local Racisms, this work sustains an active dialogue with the present and a critical stand vis-à-vis current events, and both works are a call for solidarity in society. The bicycle, a symbol of women’s mobility and resistance against the restraining corset, and feminism, a mass movement against all forms of patriarchal exploitation, are here presented as unfailingly relevant forms of resistance.

Vesna Bukovec (1977, Ljubljana) is a visual artist, curator, and graphic designer. After obtaining her BA and MFA in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, she started working in a variety of media, especially drawing and video, as well as photography and installation. Stemming from her socially critical stand, her research, appropriation of images, and participatory practices reveal the extent of inequality in society. She is a member of the KOLEKTIVA art group. She works as a curator in collaboration with the SCCA-Ljubljana.

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Photo: Dejan Habicht/Modern Gallery, Ljubljana

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).

Exhibition info (pdf)
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

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)

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