#Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana

[hkpeng]

Adrijan Praznik: WHO CAN BE SURE OF ANYTHING* 5 – 26 May 2023 Opening: 5 May, at 7 pm Curator: Mojca Grmek Adrijan Praznik is a painter of the middle generation, who is already well recognised on the Slovenian art scene and has also exhibited abroad. In his paintings, he uses a variety of materials and processes, which he combines and interweaves within single paintings so that different themes also appear simultaneously in his works. His working method is therefore clearly collage-like, which the artist sees as a reflection of the times we live in and especially the way we experience our everyday lives. In this exhibition, he presents his latest works, which focus on layering fabrics with different textures and patterns, applications of paint and various other materials such as nets, papers, found texts, images and so on. The artist applies the materials in several layers, creating a relief on the surface of the painting, which is sometimes further animated by pasty layers of paint in a chosen colour, usually black and white, or a limited colour palette. Finally, he covers the surface with varnish to emphasise the drawing of light created in the relief. He often inserts texts into his paintings that also serve as titles, or he clearly outlines individual motifs that function as symbols (e.g. a carnation or a skull). The resulting works are characterised by a play of contrasts that takes place on various levels – between the colourful textile collage and the predominantly monochrome areas of colour, between the orderly treatment of the lower layers and the loose applications of paint over them, between the relief and smooth surfaces and the highlighted and shaded areas, and not least between the stark directness of the central field and the hints that arise from the accents on the edges. The method of consciously combining and interweaving different materials and processes, with which the artist creates an infinite play of contrasts in his paintings, is also conditioned by the process of their interpretation – it is determined by a constant transition between associations, memories, experiences, thoughts, feelings and the skipping between the conscious and the unconscious, which means that nothing definitive can be said about them. * The title of the exhibition WHO CAN BE SURE OF ANYTHING is a visual quotation or transcription of the picture-text from one of the works in the exhibition. ──────────── Adrijan Praznik (1988) completed his studies in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He has presented his works in several solo exhibitions, including at Simulaker Gallery in Novo mesto (2016), Hiša kulture in Pivka (2017), Alkatraz Gallery (2021), GalerijaGallery (2021) and Švicarija (2022) in Ljubljana. His work has been featured in many presentations at home and abroad, including in the exhibition A time without innocence at Moderna galerija (2019) and The next 21 days will be crucial at Škuc Gallery (2021) in Ljubljana. He also works as a curator and producer. In 2017–2018, he attended the School of Curatorial Practice and Critical Writing, World of Art. Since 2020, he has been the artistic director and curator of Simulaker Gallery in Novo mesto. As a curator and producer, he has co-created the konSequence exhibition in Ljubljana's Cukrarna gallery (2023) as part of the konS project. He lives and works in Ljubljana. instagr.am/adrijan_praznik Special thanks: Goran Bertok, Simon Gmajner, Lara Malec, Lenart Merlin, Jan Pogorelec, Miha Perne, Bernarda Praznik, Katja Vidovič, Jure Zrimšek and the institutes Projekt Atol, Kersnikova and LokalPatriot, as well as ŠKUC Association.

[tkwc]

The Kids Want Communism | Part 3 -- And the re-opening of the Ben Ari Museum

Opening of the third and final installment and the re-opening of the Ben Ari Museum after its renovation is Thursday 22 June, 8pm!

"The Kids Want Communism” is a yearlong exhibitions project at MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam that is held in conjunction with a number of different artists and institutions around the world, including exhibitions, lectures, exhibits, screenings, and publications throughout the year of 2016-2017. Partner institutions include the Tranzit Prague, VCRC Kiev, Free / Slow University of Warsaw, State of Concept in Athens, Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana, Westspace in Melbourne, and MoBY. As part of the third round of “The Kids Want Communism”, the entrance exhibits the paintings by the artist Toy Boy, who was born in Luanda, and grew up as a street kid in Angola after the Cuban war against South Africa and the United States. The unique story of this unknown war, which led to the fall of the Apartheid, is being told through the artist’s experiences. 

Beside him, is the installation of Hila Laviv and Dana Yoeli, ‘In the Corner This Morning’, an installation poster inspired by the utopian rooms designed by the Soviet artist El Lissitzky (1890-1941). The visitors are invited to take with them a poster with a paper self-preparation model and are encouraged to touch, cut, fold, paint, and decorate in handicrafts tradition of DIY (Do it Yourself). In this way the painting becomes an object.

On the second floor, the large-scale installation of Max Epstein “Dacha", which was created especially for the exhibition, restores not only the traditional Russian wooden summer house, but also provides the uncanny features it involved. Tamar Nissim presents "I am Simha Sabari", which tells the fascinating story of Sabari (1913-2004).

Mati Lahat exhibits “Titans", an installation created especially for the exhibition and composed of original frescoes created by Shraga Weil and Shmuel Katz in the communal dining hall of Kibbutz Ein Hamefratz in 1954. Lahat rescued the frescoes before the dining hall wall was destroyed. At MoBY he presents them against graphite drawings of the Liquidators monument in the Ukraine. These volunteers sacrificed their lives to seal the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl with concrete in 1986 in order to prevent further leakage of radioactive radiation.

Tal Gafny's installation "Atidim" was also created especially for the exhibition. In its center is the image of Alyssa Carson, an American girl who has been practicing for the last nine years in order to participate in the first manned expedition to Mars planned by NASA for 2033. The work represents a summary of the first chapter of the project which will accompany Alyssa on her departure to Mars in 17 years. "Structure for Rest," a formation of beds for daydreaming by Ohad Meromi, is moving in the second floor to construct new constellations between the exhibits. In addition, the mural by Jonathan Gold showing people standing in line has been completed during the year and is now presented in its final form. The exhibition "Notes on Division,” curated by iLiana Fokianaki of State of Concept in Athens, one of the international partners of "The Kids Want Communism" activities, focuses on a return to the Greek civil war of 1946-1949 and the political discourse surrounding the current economic crisis in the country. The exhibition will host six major artists from the art scene in Athens, including: Konstantinos Kotsis, Yota Ioannidou, Antonis Pittas, Yorgos Sapountzis, and Vangelis Vlahos.

“The Kids Want Communism” is an annual exhibitions project at MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, and is held in conjunction with a number of different artists and institutions around the world throughout 2016. The Kids Want Communism is organized by iLiana Fokianaki, Vladimir Vidmar, Oleksiy Radynski, Vit Havranek, Kuba Szreder, and Joshua Simon.

moby.org.il

Please find more information on the Facebook event page here. 

[drinaazarov-blog]

masked art

[deus-0-ex-0-machina]

// Alban Muja (born 1980 in Mitrovica) is a Kosovo based visual artist. He completed his BA and MA at Academy of Fine Arts at University of Prishtina.

His works cover a wide range of media including video installation, short film, documentary film, drawings, paintings, photographs and performance which have been exhibited extensively in various  group and solo exhibitions including Museum Of Contemporary Art Skopje, MeetFactory, Prague, Kumu Art Museum, Tallin, Estonia; Guangdong Museum of Art, China; Forum Stadpark, Graz Austria; James Gallery New York; Museum of Fine Art, Split, Croatia;  Trieste Contemporanea, Italy; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rijeka Croatia; Zacheta National Gallery of Art Warsaw Poland; Austrian Cultural Forum, New York;  Škuc Gallery Ljubljan Slovenia; The National Gallery of Kosovo; Myymala2 Gallery Helsinki; Center for Contemporary Art ‘Stacion’, Prishtina, Kosovo ; Nicodim Gallery, Buchares/Los Angelos; Ludwing Museum, Budepest; Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills; ‘Mardin Biennle’ Turkey ; Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany;  ‘2nd Biennial of Contemporary Art in the Atomic shelter in Konjic, BH;  28th Ljubljana Graphic Biennale Slovenia; Slovak National Gallery; Museum of Contemporary art of Vojvodina; Sebia;  Berlinale ’60; Mestna Gallery, Ljubljana Slovenia; Vitrine Gallery. London UK; NGBK, Berlin; Brot Kunsthalle, Vienna; Göteborg Museum of Art; Cetinje Biennale 5 Montenegro; Nova Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, ect.

He attended various residencies and received number of fellowships in, among others, ‘Cite Internationale des Arts’, Paris, ‘ Q21’ Residency, Museum Quarier, Vienna, Artist-in-residence in Tobacna Center/ City Museum, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ‘Backyard International Artist Residency’, Kuda-Center for New Media”Novi Sad, Serbia, ‘Young visual art award at ISCP’ Residency, New York, ‘ARTSLINK’ Residency New York, International Artist and Writer Residency, Santa Fe Art Institute, USA, ‘KulturKontakt’ Residency, Vienna ‘Apartment Project’ Istanbul,  Artist Residency, ‘Braziers Park’, OxfordShire, England/ He lives and works in Pristina, Kosovo.

Artist Statement

Influenced primarily by the social, political and economic transformation processes in the wider surrounding region, he investigates history and socio-political themes and links them to his position in Kosovo today.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Slovenian Biennial that Breaks the Mold

Jelsen Lee Innocent, “As If Our Bodies Were Built To House Your Bullets” (2017) digital print installation (photo by Peter Rauch)

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — This summer has seen a European procession of art behemoths — Art Basel, Venice Biennale, Documenta and Sculpture Projects Münster — a mammoth confluence that happens only once a decade. Challenging the selection protocols of the art system behind these emporia is the satisfyingly lean, poetically charged, curatorially radical, and venerable (it was founded in 1955) 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion, in Ljubljana (pronounced: loo-be-yana) Slovenia. There, I came upon a heterogeneous assortment of gripping graphic art frequently focused on identity politics as auto-curated by diverse artists whose work thematically deals with issues of multiplicity. This organization and theme is the result of an interesting curatorial experiment spearheaded by chief-curator Nevenka Šivavec.

More than two-thirds of the work is by North and South Americans, and most of this focuses on identity politics and autobiography, which runs the risk of falling into self-involved parochialisms. Worse, such default identity fixations may even be used to fortify those opposed to the ideal of a world without division: bigoted far-right xenophobes and rabid nationalists. But here in EU-member Slovenia, within the continental climes of folkloric Ljubljana (a petite municipality near Venice on an alluvial plain dating to the Quaternary era), the Americans’ art took on oddly gallant, almost fairy tale qualities of transcontinental value.

Performance still from Meta Grgurevič’s “Silenzio: Eternal loopholes and braided lines” (2017) MGLC (photo by Urska Boljkovac)

Certainly, heroic risk is evident in the Slovenian organization of this biennial, which goes so far as to adopt the chance-based cadavre exquis (exquisite cadaver) as a model. Nevenka Šivavec and her eight curatorial team members (Irena Borić, Miklavž Komelj, Yasmín Martín Vodopivec, Breda Škrjanec, Lili Šturm, Vladimir Vidmar, Asta Vrečko and Božidar Zrinski) were bold enough to reconsider and change the generic protocols of curating a typical biennial. Instead of centralizing choice of participation by having one person (The Curator) determining the process for the realization of the exhibition, this collective functioned as a catalyst: setting up a curatorial mechanism that intertwined with the philosophical concept of the rhizome as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (itself based on the botanical rhizome). The biennial collective thus embarked upon an uncertain and uneasy path where the only foundation was its determination to follow the initial convictions.

The collective kicked off the selection process by inviting five previous biennial awardees to name the first five participating artists, thus launching a generative structure in which further selected artists also become selectors. This ideal of flowing concatenation was formally emphasized in the lush, demanding opening dance performance: Meta Grgurevič’s “Silenzio: Eternal Loopholes and Braided Lines.” The piece interlinked electronic and ritualistic live music and chant with a stringed mechanical kinetic apparatus and mesmerizing dance choreographed by Sanja Nešković Peršin that blended ballet and contact improvisation.

Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses, published 1680 by J. W. Valvasor, (photo by the author)

The main exhibition, entitled Criterion as Birth, consists of 27 artists in spaces they largely chose for themselves at the MGLC Tivoli Mansion and at the newly renovated Švicarija Creative Centre. Setting the historic-conceptual-poetic context for the work of these 27 artists is a small but important show at Škuc Gallery entitled This Is Not a Name. Key referential works here include a beautiful rare book of Publius Ovidius Naso’s Metamorphoses published by J. W. Valvasor in 1680, Karel Destovnik Kajuh’s cyclostyle-printed Poem (1943) from the Slovene National Archive, a copy of Tomaž Šalamun’s first edition poem “Namen Pelerine” (Purpose of a Cape) from 1968, and an anonymous sculpture of the head of Achelous, a man-faced bull god, from 37–68 AD courtesy of the Museum of Ljubljana. This robust Greek mythological god of rivers and marshlands is often depicted as a mature bearded man with horns. In his battle with Hercules over a nymph, he is transformed into a bull (to no avail, alas). Figures of Achelous are often found in Roman settlements near rivers and marshes, such as Emona, the Roman town which preceded today’s Ljubljana on the same site.

For Birth as Criterion, the recipients of the Grand Prize of the past five Biennial editions — Jeon Joonho (2007), Justseeds (2009), Regina José Galindo (2011), María Elena González (2013) and Ištvan Išt Huzjan (2015) — were invited to each propose one artist to participate in this year’s event. The resulting five artists were then invited to nominate the next five. The process consisted of several rounds, a procedure that transformed not only the art content but also the biennial’s structure, resulting in a 57% male to 43% female participation ratio. Šivavec seemed pleased with the results of these shared contacts, but told me this year’s venture did not signal a permanent change in curatorial practise for the Biennial of Graphic Arts going forward.

Jess X Snow “Unstoppable by Borders” (2017) digital print wallpaper on wall (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

This year’s non-hierarchical sharing of power is also echoed in its title Birth as Criterion, which alludes to the poem of modernist twentieth-century Slovene poet Jure Detela that was provided to each artist. As I understand it, Detela’s anti-anthropomorphic poetic philosophy is a predecessor of the recent speculative realism turn in continental philosophy and aesthetics that defines itself loosely by its stance against the dominant forms of post-Kantian philosophy a.k.a. correlationism. So even as the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts rejected the framework of a thematic exhibition, it clings to an important (if vaguely defined) philosophic-poetic attitude that questions the anthropomorphic polarity of human vs. non-human by offering a multitude of potential connections and interactions as a means of rearticulating the question of the conditions of humanist-centric art. Speculative realism, like Detels’s poem, attempts to consider art, politics, nature, and thought beyond the confines of human finitude.

Just a few of my favorite individual contributions to this media-diverse show include Christopher Myer’s “Detritus of Dreams” (2016), an installation of delicately hung embroideries that traffic in the surreal turns of phrases found in contemporary hip-hop music, made in collaboration with a group of Vietnamese embroiderers.

Christopher Myers, “Agriculture” in “Detritus of Dreams” (2016) fabric & thread (courtesy of the artist)

Wild whimsy is also apparent in Kaitlynn Redell’s installation of works from her series Supporting as Herself in which she explores how film stills of Anna May Wong (the 1920s Chinese-American actress) carry a sense of historical weight for her, and serve as a contested foundation for Chinese American identity politics. As she explained to me, “the manipulated representation of Wong’s public image, the stereotypical roles she played, and my proximity to her birthplace in Chinatown, Los Angeles,” compelled Redell to view and interpret Wong “as a lynch pin for what it means to be both American and foreign ‘othered’ simultaneously.” This serious matter is transmitted through joyful (almost dizzying) baroque figurative collages and drawings that depict twists and turns of flotsam and jetsam: fragments of Wong’s hair, muscle fragments and/or body-hugging clothing. The rendering is meticulous and realistic, but ambiguous, in a liberating way.

Kaitlynn Redell “Supporting as Herself (Unknown 1)” (2013), courtesy of the artist

Japanese-American artist Asuka Ohsawa’s installation “Inventory of a Life in Progress” (2017) was grid-oriented: made up of a bevy of colorful, charming screen-print and letterpress cards that visitors may take away with them in exchange for leaving a note on what makes their lives worth living. Grappling with grief over the loss of her father to cancer in 2016, Ohsawa drew inspiration for the vibrant grid from the last letter her father had written. The pop images on the postcards were gleaned from travel to Ohsawa’s childhood home in Japan where she dug through boxes of remnants from her past. Her exchange project’s emphasis on time and worth and gladness made for a joyful and thoughtful pause, complimented by a chair where one may rest one’s feet.

Asuka Ohsawa, “Inventory of a Life in Progress” (2017) (detail) screen-print & letterpress (courtesy of the artist)

Norwegian artist Johanne Teigen’s installation “Light not Heat” (2017) filled a room with huge, shinny digital prints on fabric. She loosely bunched some of them on the wall in an informal manner that brought back memories of my artist friend Steve Parrino’s work. Alberto Rodríguez Collía’s “Jus ad Bellum” room installation (2015–17) was also good, mixing the virtual with the actual by sculpting flat, silver gun images that had been plucked from a first-person-shooter video game, sprinkling them around the room. Jess X. Snow, a self-identified queer Asian-American artist, filmmaker and poet, astonished me with a digital wallpaper mural called “Unstoppable by Borders” (2017) of flat fleeing immigrants integrated into a flock of birds. It is stunning, well makes the point of the artificiality of national borders, and made me want to see her poetic animation work “Migration Is Natural” (2017). The other wonderful wall-mural here was made by Ebecho Muslimova. It clownishly depicts an auto-erotic masturbation machine powered by the sun and rain pleasuring her corpulent alter-ego FatEbe. By jumping into the wacky pataphysical tradition of drawn Rube Goldberg machines, the comic, exceedingly complex devices that perform simple tasks in very indirect and convoluted ways, it nicely picks up the generative automatism at the heart of this biennal. The mural’s title comes from a line of Jure Detela’s hermetic poem: “How the Sensuality in Me Scatters” (2017) even though it appeared to me that sensuality was being collected. It is monumentally naughty and I loved it.

Ebecho Muslimova, “How the Sensuality in Me Scatters” (2017) sketch for wall mural, (courtesy of the artist)

Jelsen Lee Innocent’s powerful installation “Pickets of Purpose for The People of Perpetual Protest II” (2017) imagines a stark tradition where elder black Americans have handed down their picket signs from generation to generation as a rite of passage and a sign of ethical stagnation. It makes a pertinent and necessary point, but his delicately constructed piece on police brutality “As If Our Bodies Were Built To House Your Bullets” (2017) is even more emotionally devastating. The numerous round graphic puncture holes that riddle the two images of magnified dark human skin (produced by the artist by photocopying the back of his hand and scaling it up to the pixelated realm) hanging loose over an elegant metal structure that makes them look like beach towels, are a punch to the gut. It effectively mixes violence with delicacy — and thus encourages empathy. It could be a defining work of art of our current time where Black Lives Matters still very much matters. (On the night of the opening a Latino Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, was acquitted of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black motorist, shot dead seconds after informing Yanez that he was carrying a gun.)

Also founded in a history of blackness in the US was the performance and resultant expressionistic paintings by Jarrett Key. He creates them by flamboyantly dancing against a hung canvas with black tempera paint soaked into his robust (brush-like) ponytail straightened with a hot comb. Imagine Bob Fosse choreographing an homage to Nam June Paik’s “Performing La Monte Young’s ‘Composition 1960 No. 10’ to Bob Morris (Zen for Head)” (1962). But Key told me that the work “examines tensions found at the intersection of the four pillars of his identity: blackness, queerness, southern-ness, and family.” It does so in a highly entertaining and deeply personal way that exudes love and respect for his Georgia grandmother Ruth Mae “Poke-A-Dot” “Ma’Dear” Giles.

Jarrett Key performing “Hair Painting 15” (2017) (MGLC photo by Urska Boljkovac)

Another successful homage, this time to artist Dieter Roth, is Jennifer Schmidt’s poetry monotype print installation “Reviewing the Review, Everything for Review” (2017) that uses offset printing on newspaper and was executed at Seydisfjordur, Iceland using Dieter Roth’s own etching press. As she explained to me, “the word play of the titles refers to the work of Dieter Roth, and his inclusive publication Review for Everything where every artist submission was accepted without jury.” Schmidt drew the monotype multiples using her finger in black ink and ran the plates through Roth’s old press to refer to his collaborative artistic process involving his friends and children and questioning the role of the singular artist. She also spent a lot of time in Roth’s Icelandic studio holding and studying original copies of his artist books while dwelling on the concept of analogy. Indeed, her resultant poetry prints are analogies, invoking relationships between things, allowing reflection on how meaning is produced by comparing and understanding relationships between things.

At the Ljubljana City Art Museum, I also took in the quirky, body-based work of Ištvan Išt Huzjan, the winner of the Grand Prize of the 31st Biennial, in his show Measures, smartly curated by Alenka Gregorič. Gregorič first lays out various

Maria Bonomi, “Ballad of Terror” (1975) woodcut, MGLC (photo by Željko Stevanić, IFP)

projects tied to the artist walking, a constant in Huzjan’s questioning of social systems, historical facts, and relationships between individuals. Exhibited on the second floor are objects made in the artist’s studio, where we see the enjoyable play with basic physical things and properties enhanced by the fragility of materials used.

Nearby, and also of major interest to me, was Brazilian Maria Bonomi’s impressive print retrospective Printmaking for Ever at the Jakopič Gallery. I vividly recall the rugged feel of clasping the hard-working artisanal hand of Bonomi upon meeting her. Her woodblock prints are large, abstract, and powerfully expressive — yet they convey the feeling of fragility. In masterful woodcut prints, such as “Ballad of Terror” (1975), she contrasts bold, abstract (but symbolic) images with pale, thin, rice paper so that nervy color inks may filter through. This sizeable blood-hot print, made the same year that Bonomi was jailed for two days for suspicion of insurgency, expresses the pain of torture one of Bonomi’s friends experienced under Brazilian dictatorship in the 1970s.

Leja Jurišić, “The Most Beautiful Moments are the Shortest” (2017), (photo by the author)

I also took in the dramatic moment when Leja Jurišić kicked away the chair in her “The Most Beautiful Moments are the Shortest” (2017) presentation at the Ministry of Culture building, leaving herself, angelic-like, taped to the wall. With this work she accomplished an appropriation-transgression of Maurizio Cattelan’s “A Perfect Day” (1999) piece by performing it as an anti-masochistic escape act; arduously working her way free of the self-imposed tape trap.

So as you might glean, there is a lot included here of worth, but not so much that it can’t be seen in a full day. On the other hand, the idea of challenging petrified art world hierarchies and protocols of exclusion with active contemplation never ends.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion continues in Ljubljana Slovenia till October 29th at the MGLC Tivoli Mansion, the Švicarija Creative Centre, Škuc Gallery, the Ljubljana City Art Museum and Jakopič Gallery.

Editor’s note: the author’s travel expenses and accommodations were paid for by the London public relations firm Rees & Company.

The post A Slovenian Biennial that Breaks the Mold appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[hkpeng]

Simon Kocjančič: Blank Realm 7 – 28 April 2023 Opening: 7 April, at 7 pm Exhibition curator: Mojca Grmek Simon Kocjančič works in the fields of painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, installation and art zines. His formal language moves on the border between different worlds: figuration and abstraction, warm and cool colours, round and angular forms, line and colour field, etc. On the level of content, too, his works constantly oscillate between the personal and the social, the inner and the outer world. In this exhibition, entitled Blank Realm, he presents his latest works in large formats, complemented by small paintings and prints. The central theme of the exhibition is the problem of the excess, oversaturation and exaggeration of contemporary society in general and the art system in particular, which is on the other hand accompanied by a lack of content and substance (in the immaterial sense of the word). What inflates this glittering balloon is an insatiable desire that knows no bounds and, in its greed for more and more, cannot even ask itself about its supposed meaning and purpose. The artist approaches this subject unencumbered and with a touch of humour. His characteristic skin pink mutates into scarlet and the otherwise serene blue becomes painfully greenish. Even his recognisable recurring motifs, most of which have no specific meaning, become communicative. One of them – a characteristic circular-square shape that has appeared regularly in the artist's work since 2017 – can appear in these paintings as a metaphor for the desire to build castles in the sky, and at the same time as a symbol of the alluring if uncertain seventh heaven. At the same time, it can also represent the opposite – a place where insatiable desire can come to rest. The motif of the brick wall, which has been an integral part of Kocjančič's paintings since 2017, also appears in various forms – from a simple grid drawing stretching across the background of the painting, to a three-dimensional but translucent wall, to a partially or fully constructed "living" house with a pair of sad eyes. In this context, the motif can be understood as an allusion to a meaningless construction, since the brick wall does not support, conceal or protect anything, or to an imaginary obstacle, a fixed idea that cannot be gotten rid of and blocks any forward movement. It has been written many times, and it holds true this time as well, that Simon Kocjančič's enigmatic visual language does not aim to please and appeal to our senses, but on the contrary; the multisensory motifs, indefinable shapes and impure colours stimulate ambivalent feelings, emotions and thoughts, and thus a discomfort that makes us think. ──────────── Simon Kocjančič (1979) graduated in Painting from the Arthouse College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. He has presented his work in several solo exhibitions, including Galerija P74 (2016) and Škuc Gallery (2022), as well as in numerous group presentations in Slovenia and abroad. He lives and works as a contemporary artist in Truške near Koper.

[hkpeng]

Tejka Pezdirc: The Eroding Passage December 6th – 27th, 2019 Opening night: December 6th at 7pm Exhibition curator: Mojca Grmek Sculptor Tejka Pezdirc investigates the question of identity through the concept of absence. In conceiving her works, she pays special attention to field research encompassing note taking, sketching, as well as collecting objects, photos, letters, and stories. Based on the found material, Pezdirc designs sculptural fragments which, in a gallery setting, she combines into a formal and thematic whole. She examines the evolution of subject matter during the process of construction of sculptures, how the individual vanishes and the universal remains. The theme of concurrent presence and absence also relates to fundamental existential questions such as passing, coming into existence, passage, and the discomfort hereof as the primary human sentiment. This is also the central topic of the exhibition entitled The Eroding Passage in which Pezdirc focuses on transitions in her own life as well as those in the cycle of life in general. The central motif marking the majority of the pieces is a bone. It is featured as a silent witness to a once living body indicating the transient nature of decline, decay and vanishing. As such, a bone evokes fear, anxiety, disgust, and consequently rejection, but essentially conveys beauty and truth. The contradiction between reluctance and allure in human attitude to bones is additionally accentuated through the artist’s deforming familiar osseous forms on the one hand and her choice of materials that evoke a desire to touch on the other. What Pezdirc enables a spectator to thus discern in the inevitability of passing is the beauty of something new coming into existence, in other words to experience the erosion of passage. ──────────── Tejka Pezdirc (1985) graduated in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO) in Ljubljana. In 2006/07 she participated in student exchange at Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche in Spain. In the academic year 2008/09, she was awarded the Special Achievement Award at ALUO. She has exhibited in several solo and group shows at home and abroad such as The Art of Daydreaming, Miklova Hiša Gallery, Ribnica, Slovenia (2012), 4.4, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2013), Bearers, Srečišče Gallery, Ljubljana (2014), The Silent House, Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana (2018), and The Third Triennial of Young Artists – Premiere 2015: Time, Mood, Identity, Celje Gallery of Contemporary Art (2015). She lives and works between Ljubljana and Bela Krajina.

[tkwc]

Solution Communism

A one day symposium organized by iLiana Fokianaki, Ingo Niermann and Joshua Simon    

21 January 2017, 11am-6pm

Location:

State of Concept, Athens

Tousa Botsari 19, 11742, Athens, Greece

---------

Solution Communism is a one-day symposium to be held at State of Concept Athens. This is the first gathering, meant to be followed by further exchanges towards a book, Solution 275 - ...: Communism (Sternberg Press), scheduled for late 2017.

The symposium and book are part of the constellation of activities titled The Kids Want Communism (TKWC), marking 99 years to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

We invite contributors to the symposium to provide new propositions for a concept that was supposed to be a solution, but in reality proved to be a problem: communism.

As the highest expression of social and political change ("the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," wrote Marx and Engels in the Manifesto), communism also represents the circumstances in which the exploration of just and equal societies fail (for example real-existing socialism in certain periods). Still, in our current reality of anti-communisms fighting each other all over the world (fundamentalists, neo-cons, neo-liberals, nationalists) the question of communism as a solution and how to solve communism becomes ever more pressing. More than any other word, “communism” expresses the opposite of a reality that champions and celebrates exploitation and inequality. But wherever capitalism goes, it brings communism with it, as a possibility for its radical negation. Yet communism is not contented with merely describing the power relations and resulting class division of “us versus them”, but offers an additional axis – one where we become the future. This axis has one guiding principle, that being-together precedes being, any being; biological, political, psychological, familial, social and so on. Under the doctrine of the End of History, we have experienced the future as simply "more of now". As history is reawakening, sometimes in the most horrific ways, in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, in the US and Britain, in Russia and Turkey, in Greece and Germany - the future will again suggest radically different realities, and with them communism will re-emerge.

The Kids Want Communism is an ongoing clandestine and public series of events (February 2016 - August 2017) marking ninety-nine years to the Bolshevik Revolution. A joint project of numerous individuals and organizations hosting exhibitions, screenings, discussions, seminars and publications throughout 2016, The Kids Want Communism takes place in a variety of locations. Among them tranzit, Prague, The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Free/Slow University Warsaw, State of Concept, Athens, Skuc gallery, Ljubljana, and MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam.

The The Kids Want Communism, Installment Three will open this spring 2017 due to a delay caused by weather conditions. More details on MoBY’s reopening to be announced soon!

We’re excited to share a recap of the widespread happenings with The Kids Want Communism project that have taken place thus far:

The Museums of Bat Yam - MoBY, Israel:

The Kids Want Communism, Installment One

The Kids Want Communism, Installment Two

Ekaterina Degot: Shockworkers of the Mobile Image

“The Future Is Ours,” Reunion of The Young Communist League of Israel

The 10th Marx Forum in Israel: “Imperialism Then and Now”

As Radical As Reality Itself 

The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine:

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 1

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 2

tranzit, Prague, Czech Republic:

First congress of the Union of Soviet Artists/ painting symposium and exhibition

Also see here. 

Škuc gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia:

Nikita Kadan: Above the pedestal the air condenses in a dark cloud

Also see here and here.

Free/Slow University Warsaw, Poland:

Summer camp hosted by the Free/Slow University of Warsaw

State of Concept, Athens, Greece:

Programme 11:00 Gathering and coffee 11:20 Introductions 11:30 Joshua Simon -- Communism: a solution to a problem that was supposed to be a solution 11:50 Angela Dimitrakaki -- Communism and the Enigma of Social Reproduction 12:20 Coffee break 12:50 Jonas Staal -- Assemblism 13:10 James Bridle -- The New Dark Age 13:40 Discussion 14:00 Lunch break 15:20 Ingo Niermann -- How could Marx forget about Sex and Love? 15:40 iLiana Fokianaki -- Neo-identitarianism as communism 16:00 Vincent van Gerven Oei -- Recycling communist Heritage 16:20 Coffee break 16:40 Irena Haiduk -- Aesthetoconomics 17:00 Kostis Stafylakis -- An antihumanist under the table part 2: The kids want communism and they will get it. 17:20 Round table discussion with participants 17:40 Discussion with audience and Conclusions

Λύση Κομμουνισμός

Ένα ολοήμερο συμπόσιο που οργανώνουν οι Ingo Niermann, Joshua Simon και Ηλιάνα Φωκιανάκη   21 Ιανουαρίου 2017, 11-6 μ.μ. Σ��ην State of Concept, Τούσα Μπότσαρη 19, Κουκάκι, Αθήνα --------- Το Λύση Κομμουνισμός είναι μία πρώτη συνάντηση μιας σειράς από συμπόσια τα οποία θα αποτελέσουν ένα βιβλίο που θα εκδοθεί στην σειρά Solution με τίτλο Solution 275 -...:Communism  από τον εκδοτικό οίκο Sternberg Press στα τέλη του 2017. Το συμπόσιο και το βιβλίο είναι κομμάτι της σειράς Τα παιδιά θέλουν κομμουνισμό (The Kids Want Communism TKWC), που μαρκάρει τα 99 χρόνια από την Ρωσική Οκτωβριανή επανάσταση του 1917. Προσκαλούμε τους συμμετέχοντες σε ένα συμπόσιο για να παραθέσουν νέες προτάσεις για μια ιδέα που συστάθηκε ως λύση, αλλά στην πραγματικότητα αποδείχτηκε πρόβλημα: τον κομμουνισμό. Ως η ύστατη έκφραση κοινωνικής και πολιτικής αλλαγής ("Η θεωρία των Κομμουνιστών μπορεί να ειπωθεί περιληπτικά σε μια πρόταση: Κατάργηση ατομικής περιουσίας" έγραφαν οι Μαρξ και Ένγκελς στο Μανιφέστο), ο Κομμουνισμός επίσης εκπροσωπεί τις συνθήκες μέσω των οποίων απέτυχε η διευρεύνηση των δίκαιων και εξισωτικών κοινωνιών (για παράδειγμα ο σοσιαλισμός συγκεκριμένων περιόδων). Παρ' όλα αυτά στην σημερινή πραγματικότητα όπου αντι-κομμουνισμοί  μάχονται ο ένας τον άλλον σε όλο τον κόσμο (φονταμενταλιστές, νεο-φιλελεύθεροι, εθνικιστές) το ερώτημα του κομμουνισμού ως λύση αλλά και το πως θα μπορούσε κανείς να λύσει τον ίδιο τον κομμουνισμό, παραμένει επίκαιρο. Περισσότερο από κάθε άλλη έννοια, ο κομμουνισμός εκφράζει το αντίθετο μιας πραγματικότητας που προωθεί την εκμετάλλευση και την ανισότητα. Όπου όμως βρίσκεται ο καπιταλισμός, "φέρνει" μαζί του και τον κομμουνισμό ως πιθανότητα για την ριζική του άρνηση. Παρ' όλα αυτά ο κομμουνισμός δεν ικανοποιείται με την απλή περιγραφή των σχέσεων εξουσίας ή των ταξικών διαχωρισμών του "εμείς" εναντίον "αυτών", αλλά προσφέρει έναν ακόμα άξονα - αυτόν όπου εμείς είμαστε το μέλλον. Αυτός ο άξονας τρέχει παράλληλα με εμάς και η βασική του αρχή είναι πως το ζω-μαζί, προηγείται του ζω, και του κάθε ζώντα: βιολογικά, πολιτικά, ψυχολογικά, κοινωνικά κτλ. Κάτω από την ομπρέλα του δόγρματος του "Τέλους της Ιστορίας" έχουμε βιώσει το μέλλον ως "Περισσότερο Τώρα". Καθώς η ιστορία ξυπνάει, κάποιες φορές με τον πιο τρομακτικό τρόπο στη Μέση Ανατολή και την Ανατολική Ευρώπη, τις ΗΠΑ και την Βρετανία, την Ρωσία και την Τουρκία, την Ελλάδα και την Γερμανία - το Μέλλον θα προτείνει ξανά ανατρεπτικές και διαφορετικές πραγματικότητες και με αυτές ο κομμουνισμός θα επανέλθει στο προσκήνιο. Τα παιδιά θέλουν Κομμουνισμό είναι μια λαθραία αλλά δημόσια σειρά από ενέργειες που μαρκάρουν τα 99 χρόνια της Ρωσικής Οκτωβριανής Επανάστασης. Ένα κοινό πρότζεκτ ανθρώπων και οργανισμών που οργανώνουν εκθέσεις, προβολές, συζητήσεις, σεμινάρια και εκδόσεις καθ΄όλη την διάρκειας του 2016 και λαμβάνει χώρα σε διάφορα μέρη και ιδρύματα μεταξύ των οποίων  tranzit, Πράγα, The Visual Culture Research Center, Κίεβο, Free/Slow University Βαρσοβία, State of Concept, Αθήνα, Skuc gallery, Λιουμπλάνα, και MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, Τελ Αβίβ. Πρόγραμμα 11:00 Καφές 11:20 Εισαγωγή 11:35 Joshua Simon -- Κομμουνισμός: Μια λύση σε ένα πρόβλημα που υποτίθεται οτι ήταν λύση. 12:00 Άντζελα Δημητρακάκη - Κομμουνισμός και το Αίνιγμα της Κοινωνικής Αναπαραγωγής 12:20 Διάλειμμα για καφέ 12:50 Jonas Staal -- Assemblism 13:10 James Bridle -- Η Νέα Σκοτεινή Εποχή 13:40 Discussion 14:00 Lunch break 15:20 Ingo Niermann -- Πως μπόρεσε ο Μαρξ να ξεχάσει το Σεξ και την Αγάπη; 15:40 iLiana Fokianaki -- Νέο-ταυτότητα ως Κομμουνισμός 16:00 Vincent van Gerven Oei -- Ανακυκλώνοντας Κομμουνιστικές Κληρονομιές 16:20 Διάλειμμα για καφέ 16:40 Irena Haiduk -- Aesthetoconomics 17:00 Kostis Stafylakis -- Ένας μισάνθρωπος κάτω από το τραπέζι Μέρος 2ο-- Τα παιδιά θέλουν κομμουνισμό και αυτό θα έχουν. 17:20 Συζήτηση με τους συμμετέχοντες 17:40 Συζήτηση με το κοινό -- Συμπεράσματα

Participants’ Biographies:

James Bridle is a British writer, artist, publisher and technologist currently based in Athens, Greece. His work covers the intersection of literature, culture and the network. Angela Dimitrakaki is a writer. Working across Marxism and feminism, her theory work, including books and articles, focuses on the impact of globalisation on Europe's art scenes and societies. Her novels, in her native Greek, have been shortlisted for a number of literary awards. She works at the University of Edinburgh. 

iLiana Fokianaki is a writer and curator based in Athens and Rotterdam. She is the founder and director of State of Concept Athens the first non profit gallery of Greece. She has lectured internationally and locally and her texts have appeared in Frieze, Art Papers, Monopol, Leap a.o. 

Irena Haiduk artist, founder of Yugoexport, an oral corporation whose primary goal is to demonstrate how to surround ourselves with things in the right way. Ingo Niermann is a writer of fiction and speculative non fiction and the editor of the Solution book series (Sternberg Press). His latest book is the novel "Solution 257: Complete Love". Joshua Simon is a writer and curator, and is the director and chief curator of MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam. He is the author of "Neomaterialism" (Sternberg Press, 2013), and editor of "Ruti Sela: For The Record" (Archive Books, 2015). Simon holds a PhD from Goldsmiths College. Kostis Stafylakis, Art theorist and visual artist, Dr in Political Science, Adjunct at University of Patras.

Jonas Staal is an artist and PhD researcher based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Staal’s work includes interventions in public space, exhibitions, theater plays, publications and lectures, focusing on the relationship between art, democracy and propaganda.

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei is a philologist and co-director of independent open access humanities publisher punctum books, where he also manages Dotawo, the imprint of the Union for Nubian Studies. 

[tkwc]

The Kids Want Communism Closing and Final Weekend ❤️  ☭

After the closing and final weekend of The Kids Want Communism at MoBY and at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien (curated by Joshua Simon), we would like to say thank you to everyone who has been involved and supported this project!

TKWC would not have been the same without the participation and collaboration with: Bini Admczak; Toy Boy; Diego Castro; Maya Elran, Efraim Davidi; Tamar Gozansky; Max Epstein; FAMU Prague program curated by Tereza Stejskalová: Nabil Maleh, Piyasiri Gunaratna, Krishma (Krishna) Viswanath, and Nosratollah Karimi; Tal Gafny; Nadya Bakuradze; Michal Helfman; Jacob Blumenfeld; Michael Jones McKean; Jonathan Gold; Nir Harel; Raanan Harlap; Micah Hesse; Ivonne Dippmann and Agnes Friedrich, The Israel Communist Party Archive (MAKI); Nikita Kadan; Jakob Koesten; Mati Lahat; Hila Laviv and Dana Yoeli; Ohad Meromi; Ian Svenonius; Stano Filko; Olaf Nicolai; Tamar Nissim; Ingo Niermann; Angela Dimitrakaki; Jonas Staal; James Bridle; Vincent van Gerven Oei; Irena Haiduk; Kostis Stafylakis; "Notes on Division" (curated by iLiana Fokianaki): Konstantinos Kotsis, Yota Ioannidou, Antonis Pittas, Yorgos Sapountzis, and Vangelis Vlaho; Praxis School archive curated by Vladimir Vidmar; Yuri Primenko; Katya Oicherman; Natalia Kopelanskaya; The New Barbizon: Zoya Cherkassky, Olga Kundina, Anna Lukashevsky, Asya Lukin, and Natalia Zourabova; Nicole Wermers; Noa Yafe; Ekaterina Degot.

It has been amazing to see TKWC evolve and grow together with institutions around the world throughout 2016 and 2017: tranzit, Prague; The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv; Free/Slow University Warsaw; State of Concept, Athens; Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana; West Space, Melbourne; Marx200; CCA Tel Aviv; The Young Communist League of Israel (BANKI); The Left Bank; SDAJ; ZHdK and Corner College; Northwestern University; Erev Rav; Artis Contemporary; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Israel Office; MoBY Museums of Bat Yam.

The Kids Want Communism was organized by iLiana Kokianaki, Vladimir Vidmar, Oleksiy Radynski, Vit Havranek, Patrice Sharkey, Kuba Szreder, and Joshua Simon.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this project happen and kept us going!! Naama Henkin, Meir Tati, Noa Tsaushu, Avi Bohbot, Ofir Finkelstein, Alina Yakirevitch, Nechama Winston, Michal Raz, Nufar Kaplan, Shulamit Bialy, George Choresh, Jonathan Goldstein, Moyu Honda, Ariel Blitz, Rani Rosenheim, Shimon Malka, Moran Paz, Layne Goldman, Jordan Selan, Michelle Paterok, Matthew Turell, Ofri Omer, Yafir Ido, Sassi Mazor, Danielle Kaganov, Yael Meromi, Tamir Davidov, Tali Konas, Tsafrir Cohen, Raffi Gueta, Stephane Bauer, Theres Laux, Esther Tusch, and many others.

We're excited for The Kids Want Communism book which will be published next year!

The book "Communists Anonymous," edited by Joshua Simon and Ingo Niermann, will be published by the end of the year in the Solution Series by Sternberg Press in Berlin. 

We would like to celebrate The Kids Want Communism with a recap of all the events, conversations, exhibitions, and conferences that have taken place in the last two years below. 

☭

The Museums of Bat Yam — MoBY, Israel:

The Kids Want Communism, Installment One

Also see here

Ekaterina Degot: Shockworkers of the Mobile Image

Also see here

Kuba Szreder: The Political Economy of Art and Beyond

The Kids Want Communism, Installment Two 

Also see here, here and here

Artist Talk: Nir Harel

“The Future Is Ours,” Reunion of The Young Communist League of Israel 

Also see here for stories from the history of The Young Communist League of Israel—BANKI

The 10th Marx Forum in Israel: “Imperialism Then and Now”

As Radical As Reality Itself

See more photos here

The Kids Want Communism, Installment Three / Final Installment 

Also see here, here and here

Artist Talk with Tamar Nissim and Tal Gafny

Artist Talk with Max Epstein and book launch of RESTRooM

2017 Marx Conference: 100 Years after the October Revolution

Finissage and party for the exhibition series The Kids Want Communism and 100 years to the October revolution

The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine:

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 1

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 2

tranzit, Prague, Czech Republic:

First congress of the Union of Soviet Artists/ painting symposium and exhibition

Also see here and here for an interview with the initiators of the First congress of the Union of Soviet Artists in Prague (Artalk magazine, September 6th, 2016)

Škuc gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia:

Nikita Kadan: Above the pedestal the air condenses in a dark cloud

Also see here and here

Free/Slow University Warsaw, Poland:

Summer camp hosted by the Free/Slow University of Warsaw

State of Concept, Athens, Greece:

Solution Communism, a one day symposium organized by iLiana Fokianaki, Ingo Niermann and Joshua Simon 

Also see here for video recordings of some of the talks, panel discussion and Q+A

See  “Assemblism” by artist Jonas Staal, in  e-flux journal issue #80. The text came out of a lecture presented at the conference Solution Communism

West Space, Melbourne, Australia:

The Kids Want Communism at West Space

ZHdK and Corner College, Zürich, Switzerland:

Guest lecture of the Postgraduate Programme in Curating CAS/ MAS ZHdK — Joshua Simon: Verschüttete Traditionen // The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communism and The Dividual

Northwestern University, Chicago, USA:

Visiting Artist Lecture, in collaboration with the Graham Foundation: Joshua Simon, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communism and The Dividual

CCA Tel Aviv, Israel:

The second gathering for Solution Communism on April 6, 2017

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Germany:

The Kids Want Communism in Berlin, to mark 100 years of the Bolshevik Revolution (also see here and here)

Also see here for an interview published online by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Israel with Joshua Simon

Photos from the Vernissage (also see here)

A celebration of 100 years of Soviet Revolution: Lecture & music

☭

❤️   +  a playlist