Vesna Bukovec

“I’ll always be there. Always.”

Exhibition: “I’ll always be there. Always.” Media representations of characters, pop and contemporary art
Venue: Gallery of Contemporary Art, Celje, SI
Date: July 21 – October 1, 2017
Opening: Friday, July 21 2017, at 7 pm

Curator: Maja Antončič

Participating artists: Vesna Bukovec, Jure Cvitan, Tomaž Črnej, Gašper Kunšič, Tomaž Tomažin, Nika Oblak in Primož Novak, Iza Pavlina, Mark Požlep, Adrijan Praznik, Arjan Pregl, Oliver Pilić, Andrej Škufca, Manja Vadla, Mladina magazine (covers 2016, 2017)*

I’ll always be there. Always. It’s not the powers. Not the cape. It’s about standing up for justice. For truth. As long as people like you are out there, I’ll be there. Always.” – Superman (Action Comics, #840)

A good sixty years have passed since the glittering images of advertising ads, star icons and film entered the field of art for the first time. The exhibition at hand attempts to show just how skilfully the references of media content and similar culturally interesting phenomena of everyday contemporaneity are being abbreviated by artists today. However, in contrast to the presentations of “pop art”, which would relate to this specific direction of art particularly through historical connotation or association both in terms of form and content, it is the character, as the bearer of the popularization of cultural content and mass consumption that stands in the forefront of the exhibited projects. The emphasis is on using the well-known language of the mass media, which presents various semantic challenges, supported by the chosen character in the artwork. The character is in this case the player who already blurred the borders between reality and fiction in his original existence, but now constructs additional messages and creates a field of reflection or criticism within the context of contemporary art. Thirteen artists draw from an extensive dictionary of media images, online social networks, from the narratives of film and advertising, as well as the marketing apparatus. They speak of the “heroes” of contemporary society that fill our everyday zone of the visible and the perceptive. They are joined by a selection of covers of the Mladina magazine, whose authors – along with some other artists in the exhibition – satirically change the “heroes” into “anti-heroes”, and less frequently the other way round.

Excerpt of the curatorial text by Maja Antončič

Full text

*MLADINA – design: Damjan Ilić, Tomaž Lavrič, Ivian Kan Mujezinović, Fabrika Sarajevo – photography: Uroš Abram, Borut Krajnc, Matjaž Rušt

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I am participating with videos from the series White Performances / Positive Affirmations (2010) and video Moje sanje, lepo stanovanje / The Happiest Apartment in the World (2010)

Photo: Ana Straže
More photos from the opening

DIVA Station Presents IV

Screening: DIVA Station Presents III
Venue: Blickle Kino / 21er Haus, Quartier Belvedere, Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Schweizergarten, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Wien, AT
Date: Wednesday, June 7 2017 at 7pm

Synoptic video program was curated by Barbara Borčić, program advisor at SCCA-Ljubljana, head of video programs and video archive DIVA Station. Selection presents 17 video works which are divided into three parts:

From analogue to digital
Miha Vipotnik: Space 2, 1986, 1’53’’
Ana Čigon: One More Kick, 2009, 4’35’’
Sašo Sedlaček: Veliki izklop / The Big Switch Off, 2011, 1’48’’
Luka Dekleva: Singing Bridges, 2008, 4’14’’
Vesna Bukovec: Important News, 2003, 54’’
Nika Špan: How to Socialise the Blues?, 2007, 1’58’’

From memory to fiction
Ema Kugler: Taiga, 1996, 8’22’’
Damijan Kracina and Vladimir Leben: Galapagos, 2005, 5’39’’
Marko A. Kovačič: Naprej v preteklost / Forth into the Past, 1995, 9’30’’
Valerie Wolf Gang: Distant Memory, 2014, 2’43’’

From impression to digression
Nataša Prosenc Stearns: The Noise Factor, 2012, 3’15’’
Urška Djukić: Persistence 2, 2014, 1’22’’
Neven Korda: Jesensko tihožitje / An Autumnal Still Life, 2002, 4’05’’
Zvonka T Simčič: Broken h-h-h…egg, 2000, 1’
Jasna Hribernik: Tense Present: Šum fotonov / Tense Present: Photon Noise, 2015, 1’18’’
Andrej Lupinc: V 8. minutah okoli sveta / In Eight Minutes Around the World, 1990-2000, 9’35’’

More:
www.scca-ljubljana.si
www.videospotting.org
www.ursulablicklevideoarchiv.com

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DIVA Station is a compendium of projects that seek to explore, preserve and disseminate Slovenian video/new-media art. It is being developed since 2005 at SCCA-Ljubljana with documentation and archive as well as research and curated programs that are accessible on-line and are open for cooperation. Today DIVA Station includes archive and mediateque with over 1000 video works by local and international artists, documents of events and works from European media archives.
We constantly add newly acquired works to the archive and promote an overall understanding of artistic oeuvre and video/media practices by organising discussions, presentations and exhibitions.
More: DIVA on-line

Afghanistan – Slovene Views

Exhibition: Afghanistan – Slovene Views
Venue: Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Metelkova ulica 2, Ljubljana, SI
Date: April 25, 2017 – March 30, 2018
Opening: April 25, 2017, at 6 pm

Curator: Mag. Ralf Čeplak Mencin

The exhibition opens up new views of the land of Afghanistan, its rich cultural history and heritage, although the decades of conflict that began in the late 1970s have dramatically reshaped its cultural landscape and affected its people. The exhibition has been prepared by Ralf Čeplak Mencin, MA, the curator for Asia, Oceania and Australia at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum.

More about the exhibition

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Part of the exhibition are three stories from the series I am a Refugee (text: Widad Tamimi, drawings: Vesna Bukovec). The three stories Pegasus, Haideri, An Afghan Man and 42 Family Members have their focus on Afghan refugees. They will be presented in Slovene and English language.

DIVA Station Presents III

Screening: DIVA Station Presents III
Venue: Slovenian Cinematheque, Miklošičeva 28, Ljubljana
Date: Tuesday, April 4 2017 at 8pm

Synoptic video program was curated by Barbara Borčić, program advisor at SCCA-Ljubljana, head of video programs and video archive DIVA Station. Selection presents 17 video works which are divided into three parts:

From analogue to digital
Miha Vipotnik: Space 2, 1986, 1’53’’
Ana Čigon: One More Kick, 2009, 4’35’’
Sašo Sedlaček: Veliki izklop / The Big Switch Off, 2011, 1’48’’
Luka Dekleva: Singing Bridges, 2008, 4’14’’
Vesna Bukovec: Important News, 2003, 54’’
Nika Špan: How to Socialise the Blues?, 2007, 1’58’’

From memory to fiction
Marko A. Kovačič: Naprej v preteklost / Forth into the Past, 1995, 9’30’’
Valerie Wolf Gang: Distant Memory, 2014, 2’43’’
Miha Vipotnik: Path of Crazy Wisdom, 1993, 9’58”

From impression to digression
Emil Memon: Schizophrenia / Blue movie, 1983/95, 5’37’’
Nataša Prosenc Stearns: The Noise Factor, 2012, 3’15’’
Urška Djukić: Persistence 2, 2014, 1’22’’
Neven Korda: Jesensko tihožitje / An Autumnal Still Life, 2002, 4’05’’
Zvonka T Simčič: Broken h-h-h…egg, 2000, 1’
Ana Čigon: Finger in U.S., 2010, 2’15’’
Jasna Hribernik: Tense Present: Šum fotonov / Tense Present: Photon Noise, 2015, 1’18’’
Andrej Lupinc: V 8. minutah okoli sveta / In Eight Minutes Around the World, 1990-2000, 9’35’’

More:
www.scca-ljubljana.si
www.videospotting.org

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DIVA Station is a compendium of projects that seek to explore, preserve and disseminate Slovenian video/new-media art. It is being developed since 2005 at SCCA-Ljubljana with documentation and archive as well as research and curated programs that are accessible on-line and are open for cooperation. Today DIVA Station includes archive and mediateque with over 1000 video works by local and international artists, documents of events and works from European media archives.
We constantly add newly acquired works to the archive and promote an overall understanding of artistic oeuvre and video/media practices by organising discussions, presentations and exhibitions.
More: DIVA on-line

La Fine del Nuovo / The End of the New

Exhibition: La Fine del Nuovo / The End of the New CAP. XIV Compra, Vendi, Compra, Vendi… / Buy, Sell, Buy, Sell…
Venue: Villa di Toppo Florio, Via Morpurgo 8, Buttrio/UD, IT
Date: April 1 – May 1, 2017
Opening: April 1, 2017, at 6 pm

Curator: Paolo Toffolutti
Artists: Vesna Bukovec, Maurizio Ciancia, Davide Grazioli, Zlatko Kopljar, Olson Lamaj, Antun Maračić, Bruno Morello, Petra Mrša, Pantani-Surace, Gioacchino Pontrelli, Oliver Ressler, Vivianne Van Singer, Jelena Vladušić, Regan Wheat

The project brings an itinerant exhibition of contemporary art with the title The End of the New that is going to be organized for a year in various Italian towns as well as in Ljubljana and Zagreb throughout the years of 2016-2017.

More about the exhibition (pdf, in Italian)
Press release (pdf, in Italian)
www.neoassociazione.org

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I have already participated in La Fine del Nuovo / The End of the New CAP. III edition.
At CAP. XIV I am participating with several video works:

• Why Do I Do This?, 2001
• Important News, 2003
• White Performances / Positive Affirmations, 2010