Vesna Bukovec

Under the shade of a palm tree

Exhibition: Pod palmino senco: Eminenca Jože Slak in potenca Vesna Bukovec (Under the shade of a palm tree: Eminence Jože Slak and potence Vesna Bukovec)
Location: Mladinski, kulturni, socialni in multimedijski center (MKSMC), Gregorčičeva 4, Koper, Slovenia
Date: Jaunary 10 – February 7, 2012
Opening: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Curated by: Damir De Simone and Vasja Nagy

Vesna Bukovec, Positive Illlusion, 2009, drawing series

v Mladinskem, kulturnem, socialnem in multimedijskem centru (MKSMC) sredi starega mestnega jedra Kopra že dvajset let prizadevamo na “ogled postavljati” likovna dela tistih, ki nočejo in/ali ne morejo ustvarjati mimo sebe. “Pod Palmino senco” je sklop 4 razstav v katerih predstavimo po dva umetnika/umetnici hkrati. Gre za eno eminenco in eno potenco (eno uveljavljeno in eno mlado osebo).

V torek, 10.01.2011 ob 19h vas vabimo na otvoritev tretje razstave tega ciklusa “Eminenca Jože Slak in potenca Vesna Bukovec”. Vstop je prost.
Kustosa galerijske dejavnosti sta Damir De Simone in Vasja Nagy.

Vesna Bukovec – rojena v Ljubljani (1977) je leta 1999 obiskovala semestrski študij na Hogeschool vor de Kunsten, Utrecht, Nizozemska in 2002 diplomirala iz kiparstva na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani. Leto kasneje šteje pričetek skupnega delovanja z Lado Cerar in Metko Zupanič, od 2008 se skupina imenuje KOLEKTIVA. 2006 magistrira iz kiparstva na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani.

Jože Slak Đoka se je rodil leta 1951 v Jablanu pri Mirni peči na Dolenjskem. Na ALU v Ljubljani je študiral slikarstvo. Diplomiral je leta 1975 pri profesorju Gabrijelu Stupici. Potoval je po Ameriki, odšel na Tahiti in 1985 – 87 preživel na Japonskem v Kyotu na podiplomskem študiju. Nagrado Prešernovega sklada je prejel leta 2007 za razstavo Slike za slepe v Mali galeriji v Ljubljani. Jože Slak Đoka živi in dela na Dolenjskem, poleg slikarstva so njegovi interesi tudi vzhodnjaške veščine aikida ter astronomije (svoj zvezdo-gled je izdelal ročno).

Društvo prijateljev zmernega napredka / Associazione amici del progresso moderato
Mladinski, kulturni, socialni in multimedijski center / Centro giovanile, culturale, sociale e multimediale
Gregorčičeva 4, 6000 Koper-Capodistria
tel/fax: 00386(0)5 6271989, GSM 041 318245
e-mail: drustvo@dpzn.org
spletna stran: www.dodogovor.org
Odprto vsak dan: 12.15-16.15 in 19.00-23.00 ali po dogovoru (tel.: 041 318245)

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In Koper based MKSMC Marko Brecelj and DPZN (Association of the friends of moderate progress) organize an exhibition cycle of four eminences and four potencies entitled “Under the shade of a palm tree”. Four exhibitions will present a couple of artists at once – one eminence and one potence (a recognized and a young artist):

• Eminence Balint Szombaty and potence Matjaž Stražar, November 2011
• Eminence Imre Bukta and Vasja Vidmar Vasko, December 2011
• Eminence Jože Slak and potence Vesna Bukovec, January 2012
• Eminence Marko Jakše and potence Nina Koželj, February 2012

Artists were selected by Bela Mariaš, Vasja Nagy, Matej Kocjan and Marko Brecelj.

www.dodogovor.org

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I will present videoperformaces White Performances/Positive Affirmations (2010) and drawaings from the series Positive Illusion (2009).

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Images from the opening

Idi+Vidi 1.0

Exhibition: Idi+Vidi 1.0, Mini video festival
Location: Peek&Poke Museum, Ulica Ivana Grohovca 2, Rijeka, HR
Date: November 30 – December 1, 2011

Kolektiva Institute was invited by Lara Badurina from A3 association to present it’s screening programs in Rijeka, Croatia. We decided to prepare a mini video festival entitled Idi+Vidi 1.0 (Go+See 1.0). In the frame of this new festival Vesna Bukovec and Metka Zupanič from Kolektiva Institute will present three international video selections with a common theme of ‘performance for video’. The selections were part of Kolektiva Institute’s programs Video Evening and Video in Progress.

Mini festival Idi+Vidi is produced by A3 association (Lara Badurina, Tanja Golić i Nino Sorić) from Rijeka, Croatia.

Participating artists: Inger Alfnes (NO), Dominique Buchtala (DE), Ruth Buchanan (NZ), Vesna Bukovec (SI), Segundo de Chomón (ES), Chris Dupuis (CA), Jacqueline Forzelius (SE), Alexandra Gerbaulet (DE), Grace Graupe Pillard (US), Ana Grobler (SI), Aldo Giannotti (I/A) & Viktor Schaider (A), Guerrilla Girls (US), Michelle Handelman (US), Zeljko Jancic Zec (A), Ruth Legg (UK), Gerwin Luijendijk (NL), Luisa Mizzoni aka luxi lu & Emilio Corti (I), Louise Menzies (NZ), Kika Nicolela (BR), Maria Petschnig (A/USA), Angelika Rinnhofer (DE/US), Duba Sambolec (SI/NO), Joshua & Zachary Sandler (USA), Rajkumar Santoshi (IN), Evelin Stermitz (AT/SI), Martine Stig (NL), Attila Urbán (SE), Alison Williams (ZA), Liana Zanfrisco (IT)

Selected by: ADA Rotterdam (NL), Evelin Stermitz (AT/SI), KOLEKTIVA (Vesna Bukovec, Metka Zupanic, Lada Cerar)

Production: Udruga A3, Rijeka
Coproduction: Kolektiva Institute, Ljubljana

More information:
Festival program
www.peekpoke.hr

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I am participating with the video Endless Game, 2006.

Likovni kritiki izbirajo / Art Critics Select

Exhibition: Likovni kritiki izbirajo / Art Critics Select, November 2011: Vesna Bukovec (solo exhibition)
Location: Cankarjev dom, Foyer I, Ljubljana, SI
Date: 2 – 18 November 2011
Presentation: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1 pm

Curated by: Jernej Kožar

I am presenting new drawing series There is no society without spectacle.

Slovensko besedilo
Objava na spletni strani Cankarjevega doma

On Cankarjev dom’s web site

How far is near

In the drawing Game Spectators we can see a crowd of people arranged in rows; men wearing T-shirts, women with bare shoulders, some wearing glasses, others are also wearing hats. Despite their close proximity to one another, they are lonely. Only here and there we see an odd couple, everyone else is either staring into different directions or taking photographs. Judging by their faces, most of the male attendants are perfectly content, for they are a part of a privileged group, interested in sports events. At the edges, the spectators are roughly cut off, a feature that magnifies the effect of breathless anticipation. The grandstands are heaving with people, so the event must be important. There is only one vacant place amongst them.

Vesna Bukovec, from the series There is no society without spectacle, 2011

In today’s visual art we can observe a trend of returning to the starting point of visual creation – the drawing. To mention only the most prominent representatives of this tendency: Tracy Emin, Dan Perjovschi and David Shrigley. The drawing is, in comparison to other media, facing the world in a way that is friendlier to the observer. As it is considered as a classical visual art technique, it has the advantage that it can afford to be more radical with the message it is carrying.

In contrast with her previous works, Vesna Bukovec’s cycle of drawings There is no society without spectacle turns from the individual to the mass. She has exchanged her previously utilised continuous and smooth line of drawing without any illusionistic additions for a less fluent, sharper one. In her drawings, based on photographs found on the Internet, are protesters on Wall Street, spectators at Wimbledon, workers waiting to receive the news that they have lost their jobs, people queuing to buy an iPhone, rock concert visitors, praying children, people waiting to receive their food parcels. It was the most recent protests against banks in New York and elsewhere that encouraged Vesna Bukovec to think about the psychology of the crowd and the roles of individuals in it. She always uses a photograph for her intentionally schematic drawing, the message of which is by all means shocking and bites into the current reality. Any individual is but a part of the society and their behaviour is always submissive to the group. This is of course a completely normal occurrence, for a human is a social being, a socially defined animal. Subdued to these findings is the style of drawings that is close to the one we might recognise from a common user manual, or various warning signs, and is intentionally impersonal and conformed to the mass.

In these drawings, Vesna Bukovec summarises the current social affairs. She proves that social criticism is not completely void from the personal one. In the first three drawings we can see the luxury of today’s world and in the other three we see multitudes of those people who have not had the luck of being born into the world of wealth. One drawing is of a group of children with their hands pressed together on their chest, a gesture that suggests prayer. Despite the abundance and prosperity of the present era, people are increasingly unhappy nowadays – some of them for not having the latest iPhone, some for not being able to get a ticket for Wimbledon, others for not having food, and still others for not having a job. Part of the reason for all that is definitely religion, which has, in all its forms, supressed people and forced them to conform to the mass for thousands of years.

Jernej Kožar

Vesna Bukovec, from the series There is no society without spectacle, 2011

Organized by: Slovensko društvo likovnih kritikov (Slovenian assoication of art critics) and Cankarjev dom
Supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Zavod Kolektiva

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Photos of the presentation

Obstaja možnost, da boste napačno razumeli / I am aware of the possibility to be misunderstood

Exhibition: Vesna Bukovec, Obstaja možnost, da boste napačno razumeli / I am aware of the possibility to be misunderstood (solo exhibition)
Location: EX – garage, Gregorčičeva 56, Maribor, SI
Date: 8 – 22 September 2011
Opening: Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7 pm

Vesna Bukovec, from the series How to fail successfully, 2011

How to cope with failure? The fear of making wrong decisions can cause a sort of mental paralysis and can have a negative effect on our self-esteem. Vesna Bukovec is dealing with these issues in her new works How to fail successfully, I am aware of the possibility to be misunderstood and When I wake up, I am going to create something beautiful.

The DIY instructions of self-mutilation in drawings How to fail successfully humorously deal with the distress of an individual in the contemporary society driven by values such as success, health and happiness. In social psychology the term self-handicapping is used to describe the process by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting their self-esteem. If psychological case studies describe mild to severe self-destructive behaviors (self-pity, lack of sleep excuses, prescription and illegal drugs abuse), drawings of Vesna Bukovec offer instructions on various extreme self-handicapping with tools from the domestic environment.

Drawings I am aware of the possibility to be misunderstood depict self-doubt and self-esteem issues that are typical not only of artists but also of average person. In the style of comics the message of each drawing is mediated with the use of three panels containing a female silhouette and a text on her t-shirt. All messages are in English, which is used consistently in the work of Vesna Bukovec. Although herself a non-native speaker, she uses it as a language of global communication as well as an effective distancing effect (Verfremdungseffekt).

Video When I wake up, I am going to create something beautiful is a poetic statement of self-censorship and difficulties encountered in the search for new ideas.

Organized by: Fundacija son:DA
Supported by: MzK, MOM, EPK2012, Zavod Kolektiva, SONAL

EX – garage

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Photos of the exhibition
(ex-garage archive)

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Photos from the opening

Desired Restraints

Exhibition: Desired Restraints, Online Exhibition
Location: Artyčok.tv
Date: July 17 – August 17, 2011

Curator: Ida Hiršenfelder (SI)

Artists: Ana Čigon (SI) , Vesna Bukovec (SI) , Jasna Hribernik & Zmago Lenárdič (SI) , Tomaž Frulan (SI)

DESIRED RESTRAINTS
The question ‘What do you really truly want in life?’ seems like an advertisement for another product, another best selling self-help DVD video series promoting complete control for the disoriented subject. In lustrous and slick setting a soothing voice tames an individual and instructs it how to design one’s lifestyle or career to become free of all the doubts about one’s own identity. The analogy between choice and freedom, as philosopher Renata Salecl has disclosed in her analysis of choice, is one of the deepest delusions of the late capitalism. Limitless choices do not liberate us, but rather make us more than anything else constantly on the brink of a mental break down. The pressure of choosing everything puts unbearable pressure on an individual who should not have been taken responsible for the state she/he is in (e.g. social class).
A resonance of this theory echoes in numerous gestures of video artists – we present a selection of four video performances – that create absurd situations to express a deep psychological angst. The brilliant satire of their works lies in their clear and simplified narrative that hits the very core of the problem by portraying one small banality of fabricated ideals for a perfectly designed life.
The video performances are defined by constant repetitions which bring about a sense of gloomy discomfort and aggressive self-destructive and irrational behavior. The performing artists seem disoriented or numb and above all anxious, because there seems to be no space outside of their state of mind, they are unable to break free from the constrains.
There is no suggestion on how to untangle their unpleasant situation, no instant gratification, only compulsory repetitive behavior.

Ida Hiršenfelder

Artyčok.TV [international research, media and digital archive of the contemporary art] is a research institution focusing on the young and emerging contemporary art scene in the international context. Audiovisual features are published daily and freely accessible on the internet platform http://artycok.tv. The digital archive enables a quality driven analysis of local art scenes and provides an efficient understanding of varied local aspects and working methods.

More info:
Artyčok.tv, Online Exhibition: Desired Restraints

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I am participating with the video It Will Be OK, 2009.

Video večerja / Video Dinner

Exhibition: Video večer / Video Evening #06: Video večerja / Video Dinner
Location: Photon Gallery, Ljubljana
Date: June 28, 2011 at 8 p.m.

Curator: Aleksandra Saška Gruden (SI)

Artists: Mirjana Batinić (HR/SI), Vesna Bukovec (SI), Aleksandra Saška Gruden (SI), Vesna Krebs (SI), Marko Ornik (SI), Ana Pečar (SI), Borut Popenko (SI), Rene Rusjan (SI), Zoran Srdić Janežič (SI), Miha Vipotnik (SI)

Marko Ornik: Adaptive Mood, 2002, still

Kolektiva Institute is organizing Video Evenings every month in Photon Gallery. Video Evening is a an event in which we screen video selections prepared by various invited artists, curators, institutions, associations and festivals.
In the sixth Video Evening KOLEKTIVA is presenting a selection of videos from Cultural Incubator’s (Maribor, SI) monthly events that combine food and visual image. At the screening artist/curator Aleksandra Saška Gruden will prepare freshly mixed fruit & vegetable juices.

More info:
Video Evening #06: Video Dinner
Descriptions & images of videos & artists’ CVs

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I am participating with the video Everything I eat turns to health, beauty and love, 2010.