"Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia" – Greetings from Celje
Match Gallery, Ljubljana
GROUP EXHIBITION, January 31. 2017 - March 12. 2017
Artists: Andreja Džakušič, Maja Hodošček, Bojana Križanec, Ana Straže, Mia Špindler, Iva Tratnik, Manja Vadla, Hana Vodeb
Exhibition Curators: Jani Pirnat, Matija Plevnik
"Ljubljana se klanja Sloveniji" – Pozdravi iz Celja, Galerija Vžigalica, Ljubljana
The first exhibition from the cycle "Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia", with which we are trying to surpass the centre – periphery divisions, presents female artists from Celje and the specifics of the art environment in this Slovenian city.
"Ljubljana Bows to Slovenia" Shaping the exhibition programme of the Match Gallery, we seek to form ties with Slovenian art producers and to surpass the centre – periphery divisions. We are interested in a selection of works and artists coming from independent circles and informally organised art associations from around Slovenia. Artists living and working outside Ljubljana often feel unconnected to the art scene and opportunities of our city. On the other hand, the people of Ljubljana who are interested in art only rarely opt to visit galleries or explore the art scenes elsewhere in Slovenia. Each regional centre boasts one or more art scenes, which, however, fail to attract our curiosity often enough. By starting this series, we have provided an opportunity for such artists to have a go before the Ljubljana audience. It is the homeliness and inflexibility of always the same cultural milieus that often leads authors into vicious circles of local self-sufficiency and in turn into an insufficient and narrow reflection of their creativity and ambition. The exhibition series title is a paraphrase of the name of the painting by famous Slovenian women painter Ivana Kobilca, titled Slovenia Bows to Ljubljana, which she painted in 1903 for the Ljubljana City Hall and was first big public ordered artwork done by a woman in a region of nowadays Slovenia.
Jani Pirnat Greetings from Celje The exhibition is an attempt at presenting a view of current Celje-related contemporary art production. Personal and limited by nature, the project seeks to utilise the selection of works to present as broadly as possible the diverse manifestations of art practises in the city, thus indirectly illuminating a wider circle of artists. This is the reason for its title Greetings from Celje, which reminds us of cliché postcard slogans. Accordingly, the exhibition concept is based on the postcard, divided into various fields of artistic approaches, which are combined to form a network of female artists of various generations. The selection is deliberately limited only to female artists. They are the motor that helps shape the Celje art scene, both independent and institutional trough strong self initiatives. Next reason is their superior utilisation of the possibilities offered by various media in the field of contemporary artistic practises, which makes them more susceptible to experiment in various artistic fields. And last but not least, they are less represented in the public and in exhibition spaces, possibly because of the gender. The exhibition shows diverse social positions of Celje female artists and their tactics in addressing the audience focusing on: political (Maja Hodošček), social (Manja Vadla, Bojana Križanec), historical and domestic (Hana Vodeb, IVAN – Iva Tratnik, Andreja Džakušič) as well as personal (Ana Straže, Mia Špindler), thus serving as an attempt to present the local specifics of the Celje art scene. Nonetheless women network approach is also used to display their contribution for the beginnings of the first art squat in Celje, which later continued in the art atelier creative zone in the city centre – the Art Quarter (today’s U4).
Matija Plevnik
Slo tekst:
Kritika razstave, Miha Colner, Dnevnik, 14. 02. 2017
CONTEMPORARY ART / SODOBNA UMETNOST
Interview with the curator Jani Pirnat:
