Vesna Bukovec

Facing the Artwork

Exhibition: Facing the Artwork, Video Art and Short Film Fest
Location: Werkleitz–centre for media art, Halle (Saale) / ZAZIE kino & bar, Kleine Ulrichstrasse 22, 06108 Halle (Saale), DE
Date: June 9-12, 2011

Curators: Virág Bottlik, Eike Berg, Radmila Joksimović

Artists: Yuri A (CH), Dávid Adamkó (HU), Adrian Alecu (RO), Marta Azparren (ES), Sebastian Blank (DE), Neno Belchev (BG), Dorota Buczkowska (PL), Vesna Bukovec (SLO), Inez de Coo (NL), DOPLGENGER (Isidora Ilić & Boško Prostran) (SRB), Petko Dourmana (BG), Laura Garbštiene (LT), Déborah Ghisu (FR), Florian Graf & Fabrizio Fracassi (CH/DE), Hanna Haaslahti (FI), Anne Hartog (NL), Christian Hornung (DE), Janne Höltermann (DE), Jirí Janda (CZ), Hacer Kiroglu (TR), Vanessa Nica Mueller (DE), Jeroen Nelemans (NL), Christian Niccoli (IT), Kika Nicolela (BR), Vladimir Nikolić (SRB), Laurence Payot & Juan Morard (FR), Johanna Reich (DE), Urssa Severa (RU), Malthe Stigaard (DK), Eszter Szabó (HU), Zoran Todorović (SRB), Julia Willms (DE), Pál Zolnay (HU)

By his particular position in society an artist is always an artist – even while walking down the street or performing other daily activities. Public, viewer or audience on the other hand one can only become while perceiving, receiving art. The public does not exist outside the context of art – but can the context of art exist without recipients? Is the applause in the theater necessary to call the performance complete? Could the orchestra play a concert just for itself? Or to turn the question around: to what extent does the artist let the idea of an audience influence the conception and execution of his work?

A compilation from over 400 entries from all over Europe illustrates the different aspects of art reception. The works, selected by an international jury, are shown in thematic blocks, accompanied by other curated works and talks with the artists.

More info:
http://werkleitz.de/en/facingtheartwork.html
http://werkleitz.de/
Program flyer

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I am participating with the video Lecture (Contemporary Art for Parents)

Program for Saturday, June 11
21:00 Screening and afterwards artist’s discussion
ME? / ICH?

The title could also be emphasized with an exclamation mark, because the programme asks for self reflection. However, the question of the (artistic) Me mostly generates a thoughtful search, no matter how humourous or experimental it might be. The question of the self enables the spectator not merely to be a voyeur.

Introduction to the programme: Eike

• What Do You Think Of Me? – Kika Nicolela, 2009 BR, 16 min
• Dresden Hand – Neno Belchev, 2010 BG, 8 min
• Maria – Eszter Szabó, 2010 HU, 2 min
• Lecture (Contemporary Art for Parents) – Vesna Bukovec, 2002 SLO, 8 min
• Film about Unknown Artist – Laura Garbštiene, 2009 LT, 11 min

Cinéma Féministe – Love / L’Amour / LJUBEZEN

Exhibition: Cinéma Féministe – Love / L’ Amour / LJUBEZEN
Location: Cinema Zavod Udarnik, Maribor (SI)
Date: May 5 & 19, 2011

Curator: Evelin Stermitz

Artists: Signe Baumane, Vesna Bukovec, Lynn Estomin, Nikola Jeremic & Iskra Bela, Lemeh42, Kika Nicolela, Elena Skoko, Cat Tyc

From the data base of the video programming online platform ArtFem.TV, a monthly selection of works is screened at the cinema Udarnik in Maribor, Slovenia. The selection of works is chosen each month on an issue of contexts in the feminist field by Evelin Stermitz.

Love / L’Amour / LJUBEZEN

The selected video works circle around “Love”, one age-old central theme of various film genres, but while subverting this and viewing aspects of “Love” in a different perspective. It comes to a feminist critique of “Love” as a binary societal phenomena when facing its suppressive and destructive aspects, expressed in articulating the “side effects” of “Love” within male power structures and dependency. Beneath the emphasis on critical video works, other depict “Love” as universal but individual experience, and some show desperate aspects of “Love” with humour and irony.

http://zavodudarnik.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/love-lamour-ljubezen/

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I am participating with the video It Will Be OK

DIVA Station at LUX (London)

Exhibition: DIVA Station at LUX (London)
Location: LUX, 3rd Floor, Shacklewell Studios, 18 Shacklewell Lane, E8 2EZ, London, UK
Date: April 28, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Curator: Barbara Borčić, Miha Colner, Ida Hiršenfelder

Artists: Zemira Alajbegović, Vesna Bukovec, Neven Korda, Marko Kovačič, Ema Kugler, Andrej Lupinc, Marjan Osole – Max, Sašo Podgoršek, Zvonka Simčič, Mirko Simič, Robertina Šebjanič, Nika Špan, Miha Vipotnik, Tanja Vujinović, ZANK (Zemira Alajbegović and Neven Korda) & Borghesia

Presentation of video art in Slovenia and video screening of DIVA Station_Presents (2009) program.

More info:
www.scca-ljubljana.si/news-en_11-18.htm
www.lux.org.uk/blog/lux-salon-returns

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I am participating with the video Important News, 2003.

Contextual Face

Exhibition: Video večer / Video Evening #03: Contextual Face
Location: Photon Gallery, Ljubljana
Date: February 22, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Curator: Evelin Stermitz (A/SI)

Artists: Dominique Buchtala (DE), Vesna Bukovec (SI), Ana Grobler (SI), Guerrilla Girls (US), Michelle Handelman (US), Kika Nicolela (BR), Grace Graupe Pillard (US), Angelika Rinnhofer (DE/US), Duba Sambolec (SI/NO), Evelin Stermitz (AT/SI), Alison Williams (ZA), Liana Zanfrisco (IT)

Duba Sambolec, NoHomeVideos© Code II, 2000, 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.
For the third Video Evening KOLEKTIVA invited artist and curator Evelin Stermitz to prepare a curated selection from ArtFem.TV, her online television programming presenting art and feminism.

More info:
www.kolektiva.org/producing/video-vecer-video-evening/contextual-face
Descriptions & images of videos & artists’ CVs
www.artfem.tv

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I am participating with the video Endless Game, 2006.

Another Marriage?

Exhibition: Another Marriage? Between the Narrative and the Abstract
Location: Private View – app-platform for contemporary arts and experiments, Berlin
Date: February 4 – 14, 2011 (by appointmet)
Opening view: Friday, February 4th 2011, between 6 and 10 p.m.

Curator: Maja Škerbot (SI/D)

Artists: Nándor Angstenberger (D), Claudia Barthoi (D), Vesna Bukovec (SI), Peter Tomaž Dobrila (SI), Barbara Caveng (D/CH), Mitja Ficko (SI), Jule Ja (D/SI), Ilona Kálnoky (AT/D), Matej Košir (SI), Dieter Lutsch (D), Iztok Maroh (SI), Arjan Pregl (SI), Iris Schieferstein (D), Konstantin Schneider (D), Katja Sudec (SI), Kei Takemura (JP), Lotta Weigl (D), Sinta Werner (D), Markus Wüste (D)

To think relations constituting contemporary art (system) and to experience the story about the attraction, obstacles and tensions, and definitely about the existence of the real love.

Private View – app-platform for contemporary arts and experiments
Joachimstr. 11a/a1, HH, 3.OG, 10119 Berlin-Mitte
www.privateview.org

Invititation (pdf)

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I am participating with two videos: I trust in the Process of Life, 2010 and Personal Advice, 2010.

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Images from the opening

More photos

Video from www.berlinerkunstkontakter.de

Lost in Communication

Exhibition: Lost in Communication, solo exhibition by KOLEKTIVA, Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar and Metka Zupanič
Location: A+A Gallery, San Marco, Venice
Date: January 18 – February 8, 2011

Curator: Aurora Fonda

Artists: KOLEKTIVA, Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar, Metka Zupanič

KOLEKTIVA, Lost in Communication, 2010, installation view

Lost in Communication is an exhibition that assembles three Slovenian artists born in the seventies and belonging to the same generation – three artists who individually pursue their own practice while working together in the group KOLEKTIVA.

A collective project of KOLEKTIVA, Lost in Communication (2010) features interweaving coloured tubes that chaotically invade their surrounding environment. Using modular drainpipes that can be reconstructed depending on the exhibition site, the structure can change from day to day, and in some contexts presents an audible component that emanates into the outer space from within the tubes. The drainpipe’s grey, metal surface is covered up with vibrant and cheerful colours. The installation is often accompanied by wall pieces that offer thumbnail views of alternate configurations for the drainpipes, always highlighted by their bright colours. KOLEKTIVA’s projects vary in nature, ranging from artistic production to curatorial endeavours, organizing art events characterized by their great inventiveness and realized through simple means. Initiatives have involved a vast number of artists and other participants, who have directly collaborated on projects such as Visions (2006), Special Place in the City (2004–) and Secret Heart (2010). Additionally, se¬veral projects began with open calls for proposals and submissions, allowing general public and artists to actively participate. The group has been very productive, particularly in the past year. Numerous projects have been developed contemporarily in various exhibition venues, giving rise to a widespread and networking presence that is constantly evolving.

In addition to KOLEKTIVA, each artist partakes in independent practice. For some years, Vesna Bukovec has engaged herself with artistic interventions that directly involve citizens. Her work invites them to express views on issues related to community, demonstrating how the arts can interact with heterogeneous situations. Recent project, Positive Illusion (2009) probes the stock images archives on the web produced by apt designers and marketing professionals, which were conceived to represent our notions of certainty and increase our feelings of security. With a simple, black line Bukovec outlines figures, situations and settings. Details or aspects are isolated to later be transformed into representations incongruent to their original form. The procedure is opposite to the work of designers, who eliminate any traces of ideas that disrupt our notions of comfort. Bukovec, on the other hand, uses this is her point of departure, eroding the positive illusions with which we surround ourselves. These images are juxtaposed with psychological tests, typically found in insipid magazines, which assess levels of satisfaction, happiness and other values sought after by consumer society. Unlike the copy in these magazines, which tend to avoid direct questions, Bukovec poses queries that can only have a single, concrete answer.

Excerpt from the text by Aurora Fonda

• Invitation card (pdf)
• Catalogue (pdf)

Curated by: Aurora Fonda
Artists: KOLEKTIVA, Vesna Bukovec, Lada Cerar, Metka Zupanič
Production: Galeria A+A
Coproduction: Kolektiva Institute
Suported by: Ministry of culture RS, Obalne galerije Piran

Galeria A+A
San Marco, Calle Malipiero 3073
30124 Venezia
tel & fax: +39 041 2770466
www.aplusa.it
info@aplusa.it

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I am participating with the drawing series Positive Illusion, 2009 and video It Will Be OK, 2009.

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Photos of the exhibition