Vesna Bukovec

Video What is Danger?

FemLink-Art invited me again to participate in the new international video collage on the topic of Danger.

How to speak about danger in the infamous year 2020 ? A short and intensive visual diary of the many dangers ranging from coronavirus pandemic to exploitation, violence, climate change and fake news.

Another Artworld: Manifestations and Conditions of Equity in Visual Arts

Artist and independent researcher Mirjana Batinić presented my work, together with Evelin Stermitz, Aleksandra Gruden, and Neli Ružić at the international conference Another Artworld: Manifestations and Conditions of Equity in Visual Arts which took place online on 3th and 4th December 2020.

The conference was organized by the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Policy and Management of the University of the Arts in Belgrade in cooperation with the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. The aim of the conference was to initiate discussion on principles of democratic governance and decision-making models in the field of visual arts, as a topic that has been neglected in the public and scientific discourse, with the desire to broaden knowledge and consider possibilities of its implementation.

The conference program is designed to open a discussion on the questions: what are the features of the essentially democratic functioning of the contemporary visual arts system? What would be the definition of art in such a system, and what would be the position of the artist? What would be principles to organize production, ie. what would be the decision-making methods and how would the division of labour be organized? What existing examples (historical and current) are contributing to the comprehensive decentralization and democratization of the visual arts field? How do the systems of contemporary visual arts vary within different socio-politically organized societies or smaller communities? What models of organization and management at the micro and macro levels (which will develop a horizontal, substantive democratic approach) could be applied in the future?

More:
anotherartworld.org
facebook.com/anotherartworldconference

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Presentation by Mirjana Batinić: Artistic and cultural practice: Q&A

Artistic and cultural practice: Q&A (abstract)

This paper addresses the theoretical and methodological questions related to artistic and cultural practice and will focus on case studies of several contemporary artists from Slovenia, Croatia and Austria who run art institutes, creative factories, art galleries, online television programming, or are also active as part of an art collective. These are: Lenka Đorojević (Montenegro/Slovenia); team Lenka Đorojević and Matej Stupica (Slovenia); Vesna Bukovec (Slovenia); art group KOLEKTIVA (Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar, Metka Zupanič) and Zavod Kolektiva (Kolektiva Institute; an NGO curating and producing international video exhibitions) (Slovenia); Neli Ružić (Croatia) who established Gallery Škola in Split and was its first leader; Andrea Knezović (Croatia) who is founder and creative director at Cultured Attitudes – a creative factory that curates ideas; Aleksandra Gruden (Slovenia) who run Video Evenings in Maribor; and Evelin Stermitz (Austria) who runs an online television programming presenting Art and Feminism – ArtFem.TV. These artists will be asked about the impact that different organizational models can have on the position of the artist, the value and function of the work of art, the development of artistic production, collective work, and self-organization in artistic and cultural practice.

Keywords: case study, artistic, cultural practice

Mirjana Batinić is engaged in post-media art, theory and philosophy of art. She studied at academies of fine arts in Split (Croatia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia). She gained a PhD from the field of philosophy and theory of visual culture. Her research interests are post-media art, film and video, aesthetics, theory of arts, and philosophy. She exhibited internationally at 22 solo and numerous group exhibitions and festivals, such as Ars Electronica, Gallery Kapelica Ljubljana, Prima Center Berlin, etc. She is an author of peer-reviewed scientific publications in the field of theory, philosophy and art history, and has participated at internationally established academic conferences (Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts Ljubljana; Sorbonne University Paris; University of Malta; University of Wroclaw; Mamuta Art & Media Center Jerusalem), and gave numerous theoreticallyreflective lectures and invited presentations (UMAS Arts Academy Split, Croatia; MCAST Art-Science-Technology College Malta).
cargocollective.com/mirjanabatinic

Vesna Bukovec: In vendar me briga / And yet I do bother

Exhibition: Vesna Bukovec: In vendar me briga / And yet I do bother
Venue: GONG Gallery, Nova Gorica, SI
Date: 1 December 2020 – 15 January 2021

Curator: Nataša Kovšca

Due to the current situation regarding the Covid-19 epidemic and the closure of cultural institutions, the exhibition of drawings is presented in adapted video format on a screen inside shop window under the gallery space at Kidričeva ulica 20 and online.

About the exhibition
Vesna Bukovec is one of the artists who critically respond to the burning issues of contemporary society. Her projects, complete in terms of content, deal with the consequences of neoliberal ideology, consumerist oriented society, socio-political reality in Slovenia, the role of women in contemporary society and the refugee crisis.

The exhibition consists of a series of drawings that – in terms of content – summarize a large part of the artists body of work. In the cycle Do you not want me, because I’m critical (2012) the artist exposes the stereotypical role of women in today’s society. In the cycle At whose expense (2015), she raises the questions of consumerism as the central cultural practice of modern times and its adverse impact on living organisms and the environment. The triptych of colour drawings entitled Not in my name (2016) deals in detail with the xenophobic relationship of wider Slovenian public and politics in relation to migrants who massively crossed Slovenian borders. Her latest cycle of drawings And yet I do bother (2019) is some kind of an answer to the passivity and lack of empathy of the wider society for the anguish of others. The central theme of her drawings is represented by images of brave women from the 20th century history and contemporary time who fought and are still fighting for social changes as well as against social, political and sexual inequalities, from the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to the Swedish activist for climatic changes Greta Thunberg. Images of women protesters that according to the artist became “a symbol of the fight against oppression” create hope that the world can be changed. Hope defines Vesna Bukovec’s newest work Cyclists are Coming (2020) – a homage to the sculpture of the female motorcyclist by Duba Sambolec from 1976 entitled Women are Coming – the first Slovenian feminist artwork.

Nataša Kovšca

Catalogue (pdf)
Full text

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Works at the exhibition:

• Cyclists are Coming, 2020
• In vendar me briga / And yet I do bother, 2019
• Not in my Name, 2016
• Na čigav račun / At whose expense, 2015
• As if, 2014
• Ali me nočete, ker sem kritična / Do you not want me, because I’m critical, 2012

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Galerija GONG
Kidričeva ulica 20
5000 Nova Gorica (SI)
www.facebook.com/galerijagong

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Photo: GONG Gallery archive

Project “I am a refugee” featured in the book Peripheral Europe

I am refugee, stories and illustrations made in collaboration with Ljubljana based Italian writer Widad Tamimi from 2015/2016 are featured in the book Peripheral Europe: On Transitology and Post-Crisis Discourses in Southeast Europe by Ksenija Vidmar Horvat, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020

With the project we wanted to cast a light on the suffering of people migrating along the Balkan route, which also crosses our country, and help neutralizing the negative image of refugees and xenophobia spreading across local mediascape and social networks. Stories were published weekly in online and print edition of Delo (newspaper in Slovene language) under the title ‘Begunec sem (I am a refugee)’ from January till April 2016.

About the book
This book looks at the financial (2007-2008) and the refugee (2015-present) crises and post-crisis development in the EU. The key argument here is that the (mis)management of these crises has been in part conditioned by the specific course of the Europeanisation which occurred during the integration of the post-socialist East. The enlargement processes ran on the premises of a shared European identity, in effect turning the social contract of the new Europe into a cultural contract. This has resulted in betraying the commitment to core values of democratic development, both East and West. The book specifically studies the impact of the “cultural turn” through the discourse of the transition in the Balkan periphery of the ex-Yugoslavian region. Based on rich theoretical and regionally specific empirical research, it will be of interest to scholars in the fields of EU integration, Eastern European studies, cultural studies, studies of post-socialism, and border studies.

About the author
Ksenija Vidmar Horvat is Full Professor of Sociology of Culture at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her research includes questions of cultural identity, EU integration, post-socialism, ex-Yugoslavian culture, nationalism and gender. She has authored and edited 10 books, including Imagined Mother: Gender and Nationalism in the 20th century (2015); Cosmopolitan Patriotism (2012), and In-between Europe: Essays on European Culture and Identity after the End of the Cold war (2009). She has also been on the editorial boards of several international journals and published over sixty book chapters and journal articles.

Visual identity of the 26th City of Women – International Festival of Contemporary Arts

Fifth year of the cooperation with the City of Women team (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).
Design of the visual identity of the 26th edition of the festival, design of the festival website and promotional material.

2020.cityofwomen.org