Simon Hudolin (SBD), Milan Ketiš, Voranc Kumar, Ana Legčević, Timotej Prosen, Anže Sever. Exhibition of works by students of the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design
At the moment we find ourselves answerless in the face of circumstances we are incapable of confronting, we tend to make demands of others. One must make something of oneself malgré tout, find a niche, territory yet unconquered, that will define them and become their place in the sun. To equip oneself and become independent, live self-reliantly and maintain themselves. Be independent. Be unique. Be economically self-reliant. Be an artist? In the sea of conflicting information, opposing institutional and other paradigms of art and its mediation, in the age of total disintegration of all reference points that until recently defined our reality, we cynically turn the table: why have young artists no answer to it?
Nevertheless, a walk through the studios of the Ljubljana Academy of fine arts and design is time and time again an experience of encountering the will for experiment, reflection and transgressing borders. It is, I grant, a protected environment, a sort of a laboratory for the free flow of ideas, slowly crystallizing and finding output. It is an environment of daily rituals, somewhat distanced from the art system, but by no means detached from the pressing social issues of today. It seems that in these setting time functions as the primary currency around which all social interaction arises and revolves: time which the professors dedicate to the communication with the students, time that the students pass in the exchange of ideas and friendship, but most of all time that stretches before them and needs to be defined, made into something.
Thus time injects itself into the work of the presented artists in very diverse ways. Ana Legčević’s work Counting/smoking measures time through the repetitive daily ritual of smoking. This gesture was motivated by a tremendous Event in her life which changed the perception of time, which nevertheless passes on as it always had. But the chronicles of cigarette boxes’ serial numbers express a new awareness of temporality, which calls for different ways of thinking and recording. Similarly, Timotej Prosen takes on a reflection of free time — a category long associated with the realm of freedom, but in which the paradigm of neoliberal capitalism recognizes endless potential for economic exploitation. Timotej in his mapping of banal everyday leisure rituals thus subtly warns against the overwhelming instrumentalization of a human being for blatant market ends. Voranc Kumar deals with the category of time in a more direct and site specific way. First coffee is a video installation through which Voranc reflects on the time the Academy students spend together, thus producing a community. Congregated around the daily ritual of the morning coffee, filmed from three different perspectives, each of which provides the viewer with a different set of information, the students offer an insight into the structuring of time through the interpersonal relations in a community. Temporality is less directly tackled in the works of Simon Hudolin (SBD) and Anže Sever. Although both primarily explore the limits of a medium and its potential in transmitting reality, both record a certain aspect of temporality: Simon through the intentionally antiquary appearance of his animations made with a computer programme ill-suited for the film medium, Anže with a minimal play with elementary laws of physics. Anže Sever’s Lenses establish a livestream of light which evokes the idea of simultaneity, while Hudolin’s Celavi_2.ppt in Celavi_3.ppt with their perpetual loop transcend the dimension of time in the manner of their subject matter, yoga exercises.
Finally, the work of Milan Ketiš reflects on time with a performance of a repetitive execution of a trivial activity, which through its ritualistic form and by accepting its banality receives a poetic, aesthetic dimension, highly cognisant of the local romantic conceptualist tradition.
One thing is clear, the young generation of Slovene artists has more than enough time, time to live, think and define. But it is nevertheless the right time for them to slowly leave the shelter of their institution and enter the broad field of their future work. Hence the exhibition entitled On time does not strive to legitimize their work by placing it in the classic medium of the curated theme show and its discourse, but rather tries to lend our ear to the issues that determine their work. I believe it is the right time for that.
Vladimir Vidmar
In collaboration with:
Accompanying events
You are kindly invited to a talk with the artists on Thursday, 22nd May, at 6 pm.
We would also like to invite you to the first lecture in the frame of the Artwork series, which will take place on Wednesday, 28th May, at 6 pm. The lecture will be held by professor Sergej Kapus.
Acknowledgements:
red. prof. mag. Jože Barši, mag. Emina Djukić, red. prof. mag. Srečo Dragan, doc. mag. Žiga Kariž, doc. Peter Koštrun, izr. prof. Zmago Lenárdič, izr. prof. Alen Ožbolt,
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The programme of Škuc Gallery is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana.