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The 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts is a multifaceted event
with a long tradition; it consists of a number of
exhibitions as well as other happenings. Once again, the
Biennial’s central exhibition, The Matrix: An Unstable
Reality, on view for two months in Ljubljana galleries,
will focus on contemporary graphic art in the broadest sense
of the term. At the invitation of the International Centre
of Graphic Arts, which proposed the theme of the main show,
this idea was further developed and shaped by Galerija
Alkatraz, Galerija Ganes Pratt, Galerija Jakopič, Galerija
Kapsula, and Galerija Škuc, which are also serving as venues
for the Biennial.
Alongside
the central exhibition, the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts
includes as well the Artist’s Book Salon, the
traditional exhibition for the winner of the Grand Prize
from the previous Biennial, and a number of accompanying
exhibi
The Matrix: An Unstable
Reality
The
exhibition responds to certain vital questions for society
and art raised by the cult movie trilogy The Matrix.
Does a medium stay the same once it incorporates new
technologies in its discourse? Does this increase the
audience for art? What is the social power of those who
possess the matrix? Is the possession of the matrix enough
to also justify exclusive reproduction rights? Can we create
a perfect world, whether real or virtual?
The
exhibition offers a selection of more than eighty
internationally established and emerging artists. Their work
extends from traditional and contemporary printmaking to
artist’s books and interventions in the public space, in the
mass media, and on computers.
Artists:
Afsoon, Vahram Aghasyan, Julieta Aranda, Nika
Autor, BAS/Bent, Viktor Bernik, Anita di Bianco, Sabine
Bitter & Helmut Weber, BridA
(Sendi
Mango, Jurij Pavlica, Tom Kerševan), Chto Delat (Dmitry
Vilensky),
Lee Chul Soo, Jørgen Craig Lello & Tobias Arnell, Ksenija
Čerče, Vuk Ćosić, Vesna Drnovšek, Igor Eškinja, Małgorzata
Etber Warlikowska, Jesper Fabricius, Jakup Ferri, Ivan
Fijolić, Ye Funa, Fernando García, Samuel Grajfoner, Ivan
Grubanov, Dejan Habicht, Bu Hua, Hungarian Double-tailed
Dog, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Space Invader, JustSeeds, Dejan
Kaludjerović, David Kareyan, Sameera Khan, Taiyo Kimura, Iva
Kovač, Jelena Kovačević, Matej Košir, Borut Krajnc, Ana
Lozica, Tanja Lažetić, Nicola López, M-City, Ján Mančuška,
La Más Bella, Ines Matijević Cakić, Eva & Franco Mattes,
Zhang Minjie, Tracey Moffatt, Ivan Moudov, Carlos Motta,
Alban Muja, Nika Oblak & Primož Novak, Ahmet Ögüt, Juan
Perez Agirregoikoa, Cesare Pietroiusti, Nada Prlja,
radioCona, Société Réaliste, Betsabeé Romero, Francesc Ruiz,
Adrian Sauer, Klaus Schafler, Nana Shiomi, Jelena Sredanović,
Katja Sudec, Therese Sunngren, Swoon, Miha Štrukelj, Marko
Tadić, Tomaž Tomažin, Nasan Tur, Ignacio Uriarte, Huiqin
Wang, Patrick Ward, Maria Alicia Zamora Noguera, Moises
Yagües Fernandez, Katarina Zdjelar
art
director: Božidar Zrinski
curators:
Gülsen Bal & Alenka Gregorič, Petja Grafenauer, Jadranka
Ljubičič, Tadej Pogačar
Venues:
International Centre of Graphic Arts, Tivoli
Mansion, Pod turnom 3; Alkatraz Gallery, Metelkova City,
Masarykova 24;
Ganes Pratt Gallery, Cankarjeva cesta 7;
Jakopič Gallery, Slovenska cesta 9; Kapsula Gallery,
Ajdovščina Underpass 1 (Sunday closed); Škuc Gallery, Stari
trg 21
also Europlakat billboards in Ljubljana, media spaces and
the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts catalogue
open: 4
September – 25 October 2009,
Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m. – 6 pm.
Venue:
Škuc Gallery:
In Every Respect
Curator: Alenka
Gregorič
Artists:
Vahram Aghasyan, BAS/Bent,
Vuk Ćosić, Taiyo Kimura, Ivan Moudov, Alban Muja, Ahmet Ögüt,
Nada Prlja, Miha Štrukelj, Nasan Tur, Ignacio Uriarte,
Patrick Ward and Katarina Zdjelar.
yes…but NO!
(curated project within the exhibition In
Every Respect)
Curator:
Gülsen Bal
Artists:
Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber, Ján Mančuška
and Klaus Schafler.
The
linking together of different exhibition venues, all
intended for the production, presentation, and
contextualization of contemporary art, has positive
indicators; nevertheless, it always elicits both approval (especially
from the cultural policy sector) and negative responses,
debates, and reservations from art professionals. What does
a participating site gain or lose when it decides on such a
move? And conversely, what does the organizer of the event
gain or lose? There are undoubtedly as many possible answers
to these questions as there are reservations, and to search
for the “right” answers offers no advantage when talking
about the message of such exhibition projects and their
accompanying events. Each segment in the graphic arts
biennial, tied as it is to the specific concerns and
subjective positions of the curators who work in the
galleries that have accepted the invitation to participate
in the event – an event of such importance for Ljubljana and
the wider international public – brings new messages, a new
viewpoint, and a new interpretation of the biennial’s chosen
theme. A brief explanation of the biennial’s concept served
as the basis for the personal interpretations of the theme
and the selection of artwork and projects that, in the
opinion of the individual curator, translate the topic each
in its own way in the context of the biennial, always of
course mindful that this remains an exhibition that takes
graphic art as its point of departure. But that matrix, too,
was left to the personal interpretation of the invited
curator. One would like to be able to assert that there were
no limitations placed on the curators, but if we are honest,
we must acknowledge that the set theme combined with the
fact that the biennial defines itself through a particular
medium of expression determined the direction of our
thinking in selecting the artwork. But since many
contemporary artists use a variety of techniques in the
production of their work, this did not prove to a huge
obstacle when it came to choosing projects by artists whose
work fit the topic in terms of content. As a result, each of
the works presented flirts in its own way with the theme of
the biennial and is a complete whole in and of itself; the
communication between the individual pieces is sometimes
more, sometimes less obvious, or rather, “legible.”
The
content, then, comes first, but the presented artists have
been chosen on the basis of years of following their work –
a fact that must be underscored today, when we see an
inundation of so-called Google exhibitions. The
participating artists, or rather, their works, are thus (intentionally)
in line with the programming policy of the Škuc Gallery – as
we were explicitly told, it was the programming policies of
the participating venues that led to our being invited to
collaborate on the graphic arts biennial. Within the context
of the its programming policy, an important segment of which
involves working with international curators, the Škuc
Gallery invited the collaboration of Gülsen Bal, an
internationally known curator and theoretician, who through
her exhibition within the exhibition also brings an external
perspective on the biennial’s theme, thus supplementing the
fundamental idea of the programmed exhibition project.
Artists
respond differently to the space and time in which they live,
the space they leave, and where they reside, for like every
other rational being on the planet, they cannot escape
social and political realities. Some of the works presented
in the exhibition allude to the inanities of today’s world
and/or convey in a subtle way their own viewpoint, usually
spiced with a good measure of cynicism and irony. We might
mention first of all the work of Ahmet Öğüt, whose canvas
bags, which are intended to be given to each visitor for
their long-term use, display printed sentences (prohibitions);
these inscriptions may not be associated with the local area,
but in the context of the work Clear Blue Sky vs.
Generous Earth, their provenance is not the most
important thing. What strikes the eye is the fact that we
live in a world of often quite absurd and senseless
prohibitions, whose content we do not question; instead, we
usually obey them and respect them faithfully. The artist
Nada Prlja approaches the topic by underscoring, and
deliberately warning us about, the power of the news media;
by censoring certain content in the newspaper in a unique
and graphically accomplished manner, she leads us to
realizations we may be conscious of deep inside ourselves
but rarely give voice to. The newspaper medium is also the
tool through which Nasan Tur presents his work Ljubljana
says… Here the artist strings together words or texts
from graffiti found on the streets of Ljubljana, which act
as a mirror of the city and its soul. The magazine medium is
the tool of artist Taiyo Kimura, who in a chosen magazine
cuts out the eyes in any photograph where a person or his
eyes is depicted. Entitled Feel Your Gravity, this
work, in which countless eyes watch us through layers and
layers of paper, sends chills up the spine, both in its
direct communication with the viewer and in the way it
translates the idea itself – namely, the medium’s gaze on
our reality, or perhaps our own distorted gaze on the media
as the messenger of the common truth.
Three
projects use the book as their medium. In Katarina Zdjelar’s
work, Another Publication, 164 books on the same
basic theme create a single whole, and although each one has
its own complete story in its text, the books acquire their
ultimate meaning in their joint installation, for each cover
is the work of a different artist. The artist-run space BAS
is also represented by books. They operate their own
publishing enterprise (Bent) and have an extraordinary
international collection of artist’s books, which is based
on voluntary donations from artists. The artists whose books
they have published and who are being presented at the
biennial have prepared micro-inserts for the exhibition
project to round out the whole presentation of the
collection. Vuk Ćosić, too is using the medium of the book,
or booklet, to present his well-known work Deep ASCII;
specifically, this is a “flip book.” In the spirit of the
Web, the medium for which the work was originally created,
this pocket-sized book aims at broader audiences; it is
available to anyone who, rather than clicking on the
computer, prefers to reach into the pocket in their coat or
pants and “read” the work in a somewhat different manner.
In
Black Oval, the artist Ignacio Uriarte uses
technologically simple means (a photocopy machine) to
address the problem of reproducibility and the potential
errors and inevitable deviations from the original idea that
come with it. The lengthy process that reveals the mistakes
that arise when you photocopy the same element over and over
is encapsulated in a “fast” animated video presentation –
especially welcome to those consumerist souls who don’t have
the time to watch the analogue demonstration (through a
presentation of the photocopies) of the initial element’s
mutation. Deviations from established matrices are also at
the center of artist Alban Muja’s work San Pellegrino
Made in Kosovo. By renaming of a universally known brand
of water, without, however, altering the visual identity of
the bottle or label, the artist draws attention to our all-too-frequent
pre-assessment of reality on the basis of a quick and
cursory glance at some identifying element, code, form, or
even personal I.D. Ivan Moudov’s project uses wine, a
beverage usually found at contemporary art openings, and
thus makes a witty contribution to the opening ceremony,
where wine will be served along with San Pellegrino water.
The artist produces and bottles wine himself (in
collaboration with professional vintners), and has thus
created his own registered label, Wine for Openings;
this wine he bottles in a predetermined edition in the
context of the art system.
In various
ways, the urban environment with its emphasis on the
architectural landscape influences the living habits, social
networks, and status of individuals in the ramified
structures of the world in which they move and live. This
topic is at the forefront of the works of the artist Miha
Štrukelj, who creates errors in photographs of urban
landscapes through electronic media, and then as he
translates them into the classic medium of the print,
deprives them even more of their actual appearance. The
artist Vahram Aghasyan focuses on architectural achievements
that flirt with the predefined social hinterland of those
who use particular structures. In Ruins of Our Time,
his focus is on suburban bus stops, which have become sad
monuments to their own past and a dark shadow of the future
thanks to changes in the political and social setting.
Patrick Ward’s concern, on the other hand, is to play with
the architecture of the gallery space itself – a space
intended for showing art. By relocating his art project
outside of the gallery, he makes us want to look for the
object and its significance. When we find it, however, it
places us before a stark message that speaks only of its own
existence: This is it!
Grand
Prize Award Jury of
the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts
Katia
Anguelova, Milano; Jota Castro, Brussels; Bassam El Baroni,
Alexandria; Valeriya Ibrayeva, Almaty; Kim Jyeong-Yeon,
Seoul; Eha Komissarov, Tallinn; Julia Moritz, Leipzig
The Catalogue of the 28th Biennial of Graphic
Arts
This large illustrated catalogue, in Slovene
and English, is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Zoran
Kržišnik, the founder of the Biennial and for many years its
director. The catalogue offers a complete overview of the
exhibiting artists with essays by the curators of the
Biennial exhibitions. In addition, the catalogue is itself
one of the venues for the show The Matrix: An Unstable
Reality.
price: 32.90 €
to order by telephone: 01 2413 808; by e-mail:
petra.klucar@mglc-lj.si
Tickets
The Matrix: An Unstable Reality*
and After Gogo: A New Era of Korean
Art
(one ticket covers both
exhibitions):
6 € – individual admission
3 € – groups, students, pensioners
free admission – holders of museum cards, pre-school
children, unemployed, press
* The ticket is needed for the exhibition
sites at the International Centre of Graphic Arts and the
Jakopič Gallery. Admission to the other exhibition sites for
The Matrix: An Unstable Reality is free.
Press
conference of the 28th Biennial of
Graphic Arts
Thursday, 3 September, 10 a.m., International
Centre of Graphic Arts
Participants: Lilijana Stepančič, International Centre
of Graphic Arts, producer of the 28th Biennial of Graphic
Arts; Uroš Grilc, City of Ljubljana; Katarina Klemenc
Dinjaški, Lek, a Sandoz company, main sponsor of the
Biennial; Božidar Zrinski, art director of the 28th Biennial
of Graphic Arts; Kim Jyeong-Yeon, curator of the exhibition
After Gogo: A New Era of Korean Art;
Breda Škrjanec, co-ordinator of the Artist’s Book Salon;
Viktorija Potočnik,
accompanying exhibition
Impressions;
Katerina Mirović,
accompanying exhibition
Greetings from Cartoonia;
Marjan Prevodnik,
accompanying exhibition
Motivation, Creativity and Innovation in
Prints by Children and Youth;
and the representative of the jury,
who will announce the Grand Prize Award of the 28th Biennial
of Graphic Arts.
Pre-opening days
Thursday and Friday, 3 and 4 September 2009
For press and guests only. Advance notice required:
lili.sturm@mglc-lj.s
or
karla.zeleznik@mglc-lj.si
Opening of
the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts
Friday, 4 September, 6.30 p.m., in front of International
Centre of Graphic Arts
Welcome
speeches
by: Majda Širca, Minister of Culture of the Republic of
Slovenia;
Zoran Janković, Mayor of the City of Ljubljana; Vojmir
Urlep, President of the Management Board of
Lek, a Sandoz company.
Followed by the opening party.
Openings
of the exhibition
The Matrix:
An Unstable Reality
and
After Gogo: A New Era of Korean Art
at other
venues:
12 noon Alkatraz Gallery, 1 p.m. Kapsula Gallery, 2 p.m.
Škuc Gallery, 3 p.m. Jakopič Gallery, 4 p.m. Cankarjev Dom
Gallery, 5 p.m. Ganes Pratt Gallery.
Information
Lili
Šturm: + 386 (0)1 2413 818,
lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si
Karla
Železnik: + 386 (0)1 2413 809,
karla.zeleznik@mglc-lj.si
Mednarodni
grafični likovni center / International Centre of Graphic
Arts
Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
t: + 386
(0)1 241 38 00, f: + 386 (0)1 241 38 21
www.mglc-lj.si
Producer
of the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts:
International Centre of Graphic Arts
Co-producers:
Cankarjev dom, Culture and Congress Centre,
Gallery Alkatraz, Gallery Ganes Pratt, Museum and Galleries
of Ljubljana, Gallery Kapsula, Gallery Škuc, Pionirski dom –
Art center, Stripburger/Forum Ljubljana, The National
Education Institute
Main
sponsor
of the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts: Lek, a
Sandoz company
Sponsors
of the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts: Gorenje,
Hyundai Avto Trade, d.o.o Ljubljana, Mercator, d. d. Petrol,
Slovenian Energy Company, d.d., Vileda
Media
sponsors
of the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts: Delo d.d.,
Europlakat, d.o.o.; Radio Center; Radio Študent
Supported
by:
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia; City of
Ljubljana; Arts Council Korea; Culture Programme
(2007-2013); Austrian Culture Forum of the Embassy of the
Republic of Austria in Ljubljana; Italian Culture Centre in
Ljubljana; México 2010, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes; Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia;
Mondriaan Foundation; Embassy of the Republic of Turkey;
Embassy of the United States of America; Statens Kunstraad –
Denmark; Ljubljana Tourist Board
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