Tomislav Vignjević

Artistic director of Škuc Gallery from 1991 – 1992.

Tomislav Vignjević (1962, Jesenice) – after finishing Poljane High School and national service, he enrolled at the department of art history of the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 1982, graduating in 1988. Subsequently, he worked as a critic, editor-in-chief of the magazine M’ars (1990-1993) and artistic director of Škuc Gallery (1990-1992). Since July 1992 he has worked as a curator for medieval art at the National Museum of Art in Ljubljana.

With regard to the good name the Škuc Gallery acquired in the eighties, and with regard to the crisis in which it has found itself since, it was necessary to recreate a space which would prove to be promising through the quality and diversity it offered. I imagine the Škuc Gallery as a merging point of vital fine art ideas, and primarily as a space enabling communication between coming generations and those generations which have already proved their capabilities but have remained innovative enough to introduce new ideas with every exhibition.

The programme was determined by postmodern conditions in which all contemporary tendencies are equaled and there is a pluralism of individual orientation. It is essential in such circumstances for a programme selector to possess a sense of quality which is not bound to any trend but is marked by an innovative, new, contemporary way of thinking – a consistent apprehension of the relation between the artist and society. In my opinion, ŠKUC is a dynamic gallery with every prospect of remaining that way. Namely, this is the gallery of the Student Culture & Art Centre, and thus by definition dedicated to younger generations – those that are to come. The programme, designed in cooperation with Alenka Pirman, deliberately did not trace a particular trend but was composed as a survey of all that is topical. And this fact obliges the gallery to continue to prepare a topical, interesting and qualitative programme.

 

*Based on the interview with Tomislav Vignjević, respectively, put down on paper by Alenka Pirman.