Vesna Bukovec

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.

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