Communication Networks (Art institutions and New Publics)

Communication Networks (Art institutions and New Publics)

Opening: Thursday, March 11 at 7 pm at the Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana

Concept by Alenka Gregoric & Bojana Piskur

Visual Notes by

A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro

P74 Center and Gallery, Ljubljana

Center for Visual Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

ICA, Sofia

MGML / Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana

Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana

Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

Open Space - Zentrum fuer Kunstprojekte, Vienna

The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon

Artists

Botner and Pedro / Guga Ferraz / Laura Lima / Ernesto Neto / Alexandre Vogler

Vesna Bukovec

Mina Petrovic & Vera Backovic / Bik Van der Pol / Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber / Aleksandar Dimitrijevic / Dubravka Sekulic & Dunja Predic & Davor Ereš /

Sanja Jovovic / Jakob Kolding / Stefan Romer / Dusan Saponja & Dusan Cavic / Mark Terkessidis / Milica Lapcevic & Vladimir Sojat

Kalin Serapionov

Boštjan Bugaric, Domen Grogl

Apolonija Sustersic

Peter Mortenbock & Helge Mooshammmer

Avi Mograbi / Haim Ben Shitrit / Erzen Shkololli / Boaz Arad / Fikret Atay

Close up

At the present, when virtually all institutions operating in the sphere of culture are primarily concerned with statistics about the numbers of their visitors, the strategies and marketing tactics to increase these numbers and attract more and more sponsors at the same time, it has become almost obsolete to speak of the “subjects” who make up these numbers, that is, the visitors to the various cultural and artistic events - the museum public.

Until recently, focus was placed on the progressive idea that an art institution should relate to its broader social sphere. This concept was largely based on the humanist-positivist notion of society as multicultural, where the differences between people disappear or are “neutralized” precisely in the so-called open spaces. Such strategies included, on the one hand, participatory and socially engaged projects, various practices of opening the museums and galleries to the “other publics” (marginalized groups, the underprivileged, minorities, etc.), and on the other hand, programs that focused primarily on entertainment and similar themes. The idea was therefore to create new publics, some kind of “cloakroom communities,” which would, through these kinds of art projects, create, for the duration of the spectacle, the idea of a temporary community. This related to both the idea of opening up the museum spaces and the demand for increasing the number of visitors.

One of the “missions” of a progressive art institution today is therefore to create new communication networks, both within its local environment and in a broader sphere, with other networks in what is called “transversal linkage.” This takes no predetermined form, but is constituted on the basis of events, various alliances or associations and temporary organizations, and relates, in its underlying idea, to the production of other subjectivities.

For this reason we are interested in the following:

What kind of strategies and dynamics of work involving several situations, institutions, and discourses are not identified by or subject to these spaces? How can networking be set up in environments that are very specific? How can a new art institution establish itself in a given space? How can long-term associations with the local environment be established? How can the traps of multicultural exoticism be avoided?

The Program:

Friday, March 12

12. 00

Guided tour of the exhibition with guest artists and curators.

14.00 – 15.30

Presentations:

Tadej Pogacar - P74 Center and Gallery, Ljubljana

Eyal Danon - The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon

Marcio Botner, Guga Ferraz, Laura Lima, Alexandre Vogler - A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro

Iara Boubnova - ICA, Sofia

Gulsen Bal - Open Space - Zentrum fuer Kunstprojekte, Vienna

moderated by Alenka Gregoric

15.30

Coffee break

16.00 – 17.00

Presentations:

Zoran Eric - Center for visual culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Adela Zeleznik - Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana

Ana Janevski - Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

Alenka Gregoric – MGML, Mestna galerija Ljubljana

moderated by Bojana Piskur

17.00 – 18.00

Round table discussion

Guided tour, presentations and discussions will be held in English

Thursday, April 8

18.00

Public talk with Barbara Golicnik Marusic: Behavioral maps

19.00

Public talk with Bostjan Bugaric: Mental behaviour for understanding the City