Vesna Bukovec

Art in a Suitcase – Between Image and Mind

Project: Art in a Suitcase – Between Image and Mind. Curatorial project and exhibition
Venue: Museo D’arte Moderna Ugo Cara’ a Muggia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, IT
Date: February 22 – March 18, 2018
Opening: Thursday, 22 February at 6 pm

Curator: Vasja Nagy H.
Artists: Vesna Bukovec, Gani Llalloshi, Eva Petrič, Günther & Loredana Selichar, Astrid Sodomka, Franz Wassermann, Tilen Žbona

After the travel in Mexico the artworks from the suitcase will be presented closer to the place of origin.

About the project:

The exhibition is a selection of 8 established artists from Slovenia and Austria that have already achieved recognition by national and international art critics as well as appreciation by public. The artists belong to different generations and follow different approaches to artistic expression. It is a strong conscience about the bond between (re)presentation and single and collective mind in society that connects work of these artists. They share some kind of an activist attitude which they use in a delicate way; they are never aggressive or rude. They rather express themselves from a personal, sometimes directly from intimate space, and personally address spectator as a member of society or a single element in complexity of the universe.

Art in a Suitcase is a project and attitude of a curator who travels with artworks suitable for presentations in various forms. Sometimes they break rules of traditional aesthetic values but still follow the rules accepted by the contemporary art world in general. Artworks have in the history always been a medium for handing over some kind of message; some kind of containers, physical manifestations of ideas. The form of an artwork fits its content and technique in which it is executed is sometimes merely aesthetic issue, other times is a symbolic expression in a same way like other symbols like colours, shapes or compositions. Content can be sometimes easy to decipher but mostly is fully comprehensible only through a contemplation and study. The position of a curator between an artwork in the audience is to take care that the ideas move in both ways i.e. the artworks reach the audience and audience finds a place for artworks in their lives. A curator can offer a simple or complex explanation or present one possible interpretation that triggers the imagination to search for own way to unpack the artwork like would one unpack a suitcase to reach for its content.

Vasja Nagy

In collaboration with 12-14 Contemporary, Vienna.
Fb announcement

—

I am participating with series of drawings There is no society without spectacle and How to fail successfully.

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2017

Screening: The World Is Obliged To Live You (Selection form DIVA Station video archive, Scca-Ljubljana, by Anita Budimir), Chance Meeting (Selection from Ursula Blickle Video Archiv, by Claudia Slanar)
Venue: Slovenian Cinematheque, Miklošičeva 28, Ljubljana, SI
Date: October 27, 7pm and 9.30pm

Na-poti / In-On the Way exhibitions

Exhibition: In-On the Way. Migrations of Fear and Story Time
Venue: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU) and public places, Slovenj Gradec, SI
Date: October 12 – December 3, 2017
Opening: Thursday, October 12 2017, at 7 pm

Under the joint title NA-POTI (IN/ON THE WAY) two exhibitions Migrations of fear and Story Time will take place in Slovenj Gradec. Both are focused on the theme of migration, refugees, people’s personal stories and experiences as well as on their consequences for both the political and economic image of Europe and the mental framework of the people and the citizens of Europe.

www.glu-sg.si

STORY TIME
Curatros: Katarina Hergold Germ & Andreja Hribernik
Artists: Kim Albrecht, Nika Autor, Vesna Bukovec, Lana Čmajčanin, Nadine Kaadan, Jure Markota, Jalal Maghout, Škart

Story Time emphasises the significance of knowing the cultural histories of various nations and milieus, for it is precisely this knowledge that represents the first common point on the way towards understanding other cultures arriving in Europe with migratory flows. The invited artists will reinterpret cultural histories and cultural contexts from both European and Arabic worlds. They will emphasise questions related to postulates such as humanity, peace, war, good and evil, and, at the same time, they will interrogate the role of the individual and thus also the individual’s responsibility towards fellow human beings. The invited artists will convene workshops in pairs. In the workshops, they will use dialogue to develop new interpretations of traditional motifs in the light of the migrant crisis. Although some of the presented artworks touch upon global issues, most of the participating artists approach the topic from the individual’s position and experience of the present situation. At the residency the artists will present their working methods and the issues they have been tackling as well as the starting points for the newly conceived works, which will be included in the Story Time exhibition (12. 10., KGLU), which will be on display under the umbrella title of In/On the Way.

Exhibition Story Time is supported by Creative Europe programme.

—

MIGRATIONS OF FEAR
Curators: Ilina Koralova & Boris Konstadinov
Artists: Azra Akšamija, Nika Autor, Lana Čmajčanin, Plamen Dejanoff, Petja Dimitrova, Juliane Ebner, Dejan Kaludjerović, Luiza Margan, Emil Mirazchiev, Alban Muja, Oliver Ressler, Ute Richter, Kamen Stoyanov, Škart, Borjana Ventzislavova & Mladen Penev, Clara Wildberger

Fear is a basic, natural, defensive reaction to danger, which could reveal itself in acts of aggression, surrender, or retreat. However, in contrast to the inhabitants of Nature, fear has a much wider range of manifestations among human beings: from the mere physical annihilation of the bearer of the alleged danger to the more subtle ways of expression, such as hatred, prejudices, intolerance. Human fear could be justified, but also illusory, a symptom of a mental disorder or a result of some kind of manipulation, exerted on an individual by other individuals. It is not only psychological, but also social phenomenon, and, as such, it belongs to human history and society.
The 21st century, marked by the events of 9/11, gave worldwide rise to an ever-growing fear and anxiety, that were unknown to some extent to the western societies at the time, and that have recently taken unprecedented proportions, due to the terrorist attacks in Europe, the refugee wave and the subsequent humanitarian crisis. Various researches have shown that migration and terrorism are what the Europeans now fear most. However, fears of unemployment, of the deepening social inequality, of personal failure or financial ruin have been lurking in the old, as well as in the newly-born, capitalist societies for decades. The refugee wave only gave one last powerful impulse, which unlocked what has already been suppressed, more or less, for some time. Instability and constant threat gave impetus to the nationalist and far-right movements. The scepticism about the concept for a united Europe has intensified among the population of the EU member-states.
This is where the project Migrations Of Fear takes its starting point. It evolves around the real, phantom, individual or common fears in general, which have surfaced in the last few years. Those fears, and above all the ways the contemporary (European) society could find in order to defeat them, are the spheres, which the project intends to explore.

International Multidisciplinary Cooperation Project Graz – Plovdiv – Slovenj Gradec – Leipzig.

—

At the exhibition Story Time I am participating with a new series of drawings Birthmark (2017) which will be exhibited in public space.

—

Photo: Nika Hölzl Praper, Vesna Bukovec

—

Exhibition opening, photo: Nika Hölzl Praper

more photos

Visual identity of the 23rd City of Women – International Festival of Contemporary Arts

Second year of the cooperation with the City of Women team.
Design of the visual identity of the 23rd edition of the festival, graphic design of the festival booklet and promotional material.

www.cityofwomen.org
booklet (pdf)
visual identity of the 22nd edition of City of Women festival

In/On the Way: Story Time

Project: In/On the Way: Story Time.
Venue: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU), Slovenj Gradec, SI
Date: September 13-27, 2017

Artists: Nadine Kaadan, Vesna Bukovec, Jure Markota, Jalal Maghout, Nika Autor and duo ŠKART

Under the joint title of IN/ON THE WAY / NA-POTI, several activities will take place this September and October at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU); the activities are focused on the theme of migration, refugees, people’s personal stories and experiences as well as on their consequences for both the political and economic image of Europe and the mental framework of the people and the citizens of Europe.

Story Time emphasises the significance of knowing the cultural histories of various nations and milieus, for it is precisely this knowledge that represents the first common point on the way towards understanding other cultures arriving in Europe with migratory flows. The invited artists will reinterpret cultural histories and cultural contexts from both European and Arabic worlds. They will emphasise questions related to postulates such as humanity, peace, war, good and evil, and, at the same time, they will interrogate the role of the individual and thus also the individual’s responsibility towards fellow human beings. The invited artists will convene workshops in pairs. In the workshops, they will use dialogue to develop new interpretations of traditional motifs in the light of the migrant crisis. Although some of the presented artworks touch upon global issues, most of the participating artists approach the topic from the individual’s position and experience of the present situation. The artists will present their working methods and the issues they have been tackling as well as the starting points for the newly conceived works, which will be included in the Story Time exhibition (12. 10., KGLU), which will be on display under the umbrella title of In/On the Way.

More info

—

Artist Talk:
Vesna Bukovec, Nadine Kaadan, Jalal Maghout, Jure Markota
September 14 at 6 pm, Čajnica PEČ, in case of bad weather: KGLU

Presentation and conversation with the artists participating in the residencies as part of the Story Time project.

—

Nadine Kaadan & Vesna Bukovec – Herbs Without Borders
Planting Herbs and Picking Stories (workshop)
September 14 at 7 pm, KGLU

Workshop about herbs, designed as an opportunity for socializing and collecting personal stories and memories about herbs. The workshop aims to develop a dialogue and a cultural exchange through looking at various culinary herbs.

In cooperation with Ecological Society of Slovenj Gradec.

Stories about herbs planted at the workshop are collected on a blog.

Photo: Špela Peruš
More photos

Artist Talk

—

Herbs Without Borders workshop
Photo: Špela Peruš, Vesna Bukovec