Opening hours:
Monday - Friday:11am - 7pm
Monday - Friday:11am - 7pm
21 November 2022 > 02 December 2022 Kindly invited to the opening of the exhibition "Pita Project: Pite, jejte, pite, jejte", by Nina Goropečnik and Rea Vogrinčič, on Monday, 21 November at 7 p.m. at Alkatraz Gallery, ACC Metelkova mesto.
Event schedule:
24. 11. 2022 20.00 - 21.30: Pitanje (Informal discussion about the Pita Project and strategies of merging in to the art system. In the Slovenian language "Pitanje" means feeding and in the Croatian language it means asking questions.)
Pre-registering for the event at goropecnik.nina@gmail.com is necessary.
2. 12. 2022 19.00 Pitanje - closing event
Nina Goropečnik and Rea Vogrinčič present themselves at the Alkatraz Gallery with their work Pita Project. The project was created under the auspices of the sculpture department of The Faculty of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (ALOU) as an open exhibition space intended to explore one's own artistic practices as well as an open space that would enable other ALUO students to do so. They produced exhibitions themselves, without additional support or funding, with the aim of exploring the exhibition process, which, in addition to placing the artwork in a space, includes several other processes, such as promotion, organisation and the establishment of related collaborations. After completing their studies, the artists decided to upgrade the conceptual design of the Pita Project.
The authors address the exhibition project at the Alkatraz Gallery through a meta perspective: they see it as an opportunity to advance their position in the art world, while, at the same time, trying to examine in detail the components of the exhibition process. Reflection on both led them to question their own position – the position of young artists who are trying to situate themselves within the established art system – and to consider how to realise this goal, what roles to take on and, what is especially important, how to connect with other people who work within the art system. For the artists, the establishment of collaborations is crucial, as in this way they gain support for the implementation of their artistic practice. With this aim, they explore the very format of an exhibition, wonder what is necessary for the performance to be marked successful by professional public, and what legitimises it and makes it referential. During this search, they thus focus on the exploration of personal artistic expression as well as on the examination of the relationships between individual elements within the art system and the interpersonal dynamics between those involved in its preservation.
The exhibition project in the Alkatraz Gallery consists of several individual units – three exhibitions and four accompanying events. In one month, first the exhibition of Rea Vogrinčič, then the exhibition of Nina Goropečnik will take place, whereas the third exhibition will be their joint work, Pita Project. For the solo exhibitions, they invited Lara Reichmann and Anita Wach to collaborate as curators. The conscious decision regarding the content that is also pragmatic was supported by the fact that professional ties are woven through collaborations, which can have a beneficial effect on future activities, and that the inclusion of various curators gives the project greater visibility. With this, Nina Goropečnik and Rea Vogrinčič are creating a space for new dialogues that contribute to the further development and expansion of the Pita Project.
The discursive program accompanying the exhibition will consist of various types of events, such as workshops, a performative lecture, a round table (so-called fattening) with invited guests on the topic of various action strategies within the concrete project and art system. It has to be emphasized that the accompanying program is not only a supporting element of the exhibition or exhibitions, but rather that the changing exhibition layout and its accompanying program are equivalent elements that co-create the whole. The carefully planned structure of the project reveals the desire for the authors to take full advantage of the opportunity that opens up to them with the possibility of exhibiting in the locally recognized space of the Alkatraz Gallery. For these reasons, they switch between the roles of the artist, curator, spokesperson, moderator and organizer-coordinator. The fluidity of the roles of those involved is characteristic of the entire exhibition project, and it reflects the ways of working in the artistic system. Due to the positioning of the artists, our curatorial role as gallery managers is different than usual: in this project, we are not just curators or managers who invite an external author to the gallery to prepare an exhibition project. In addition to the delivered text accompanying their tandem exhibition, this time we share the roles of the organizers with the artists in a democratic and complex process of creating the exhibition. The same applies for the performative artist, a member of Via Negativa art council, Anita Wach, and a visual artist and curator Lara Reichman, as Nina Goropečnik and Rea Vogrinčič themselves carefully put together the concept of building and linking the content of the three exhibitions into a rounded exhibition program within the annual exhibition program of the Alkatraz Gallery.
The project elaborately illustrates the reality of work of a young artist who is finishing their studies and trying to establish themself as an artist. In the vast majority of cases, they are forced into precarious work, constantly moving between different roles and adapting to institutional and interpersonal relationships as well as various environments. All of these are extremely demanding and burdensome conditions for young people who are leaving the environment of higher education, where they had a studio and apparent security, status and professional help from professors. Despite this, the artists use their position in a creative way with the aim of de- and, ultimately, re-contextualisation. We could say that they study and test the artistic system, as they understand and experience it, according to the principle of phenomenological method, with the aim of ultimately creating their own space in it.
Sebastian Krawczyk, Ana Grobler
