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SPACE
INVADERS
Valery
Koshlyakov (Russia),
Dan Perjovschi (Romania), Garrett Phelan
(Ireland),
Nedko Solakov (Bulgaria)
January 11 - February 9,
2007
You are kindly invited to
attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, January
11th at 8 p.m.
The idea for the Space
Invaders exhibition is based on the illustration of the
"story" about gallery space in connection with its
activities and programme. The main idea of the project was
that gallery space is not a white cube where art works are 'hung'
or 'put'. The gallery walls should constitute
an active part of the art piece. This exhibition aims
to move away from the premise that the
wall is (only) a functional part of the gallery,
thereby approaching the
concept that walls and space are a priori a
functional part of an exhibition and exhibited work. In this
context the created works become unique, as they cannot be
physically moved to a new exhibition space after the end of
the exhibition or, if this is possible, one cannot avoid
having second thoughts about how and how much their context
changes. Mostly, only photographic material and sketches
remain.
The first artist we invited
was the Romanian Dan Perjovschi, who intervenes into gallery
and museum space with socially and politically engaged
drawings. If the latter are not included in the collections,
he records them in digital form in a documentary context,
thus making them accessible to the contemporary art market.
In the Space invaders
exhibition, the walls are the secondary supports of his work
– the artist created the drawings from October to the
exhibition opening and sporadically sent them to the gallery
fax number. This is a site specific installation
created in the period of three months, in which the physical
setting of the work does not need the artist, as the pieces
are set in space according to curator's concept.
The Irish artist Garrett
Phelan tackles the idea even more radically – he sends the
idea for a drawing, together with a fully graphical
presentation of content, via email. The material on the
basis of which he creates the drawing is a short text, which
provides the rationale of or guidelines for the project, and
pictures of the gallery space. The final product, a drawing
on the gallery floor, will be made by a third person
following the artist's instructions.
In addition to the physical
dimensions of gallery space, the exhibition also focuses on
the gallery's programme, which takes place in space as such.
In a dialogue with the Russian artist Valery Koshlyakov we
deal with commercialisation of contemporary art, which is
mostly limited to the West, but is ruthlessly entering
Eastern Europe. In most cases the capital prevails over the
content and quality of the production and mainly touches
upon aesthetic and quantitative criteria. In this context,
the activity of the Škuc Gallery proved an important
starting point for Koshlyakov, as it is a non-commercial
gallery, which is also commercially active.
In the context of the
exhibition, the work of the Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov
somewhat stands out. He presents four prints, where, upon
closer look, the observer can notice tiny details. With
minor interventions – drawings – the artist interferes with
a work and enriches the "immediately" visible content. Thus
Solakov usually directly intervenes in the exhibition space,
revives it with his unique art and shares his imaginary
world with the visitor. In Škuc Gallery, this approach was
not feasible, so the artist decided to exhibit his
Vitiligo People series.
Curated by Alenka Gregorič.
This
publication [communication] reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for
any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.
The project
has been carried out within the framework of
transform.eipcp.net and with the support of
the Culture 2000 programme
of the European Union.
The
programme of Škuc Gallery is supported
by Ministry of
Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
and
Cultural Department of the City of
Ljubljana.
For
further information contact Alenka
Gregorič, artistic director of the Škuc
Gallery on +386 1 251 65 40,
galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si.
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