Opening hours:
Monday - Friday:11am - 7pm
Monday - Friday:11am - 7pm
05 July 2017 > 28 July 2017
You are kindly invited to the opening of the exhibition “What’s Yours; Nothing’s Yours!”. The opening will take place on Wednesday, 5th July at 6pm at the Alkatraz Gallery, ACC Metelkova mesto.
Participating artists: Nevena Aleksovski, Ivana Bajec, Erik Mavrič, Miha Perne, Adrijan Praznik, Iva Tratnik.
Curators: Anabel Černohorski, Sebastian Krawczyk.
Kindly invited also to the guided tour of the exhibition on Wednesday 12th July 2017 at 6pmThe guided tour is CANCELLED.
Drawing Jam Session (Risarski jam session) is a project of a group of artists started in 2016. The majority of their meetings since last October took place in the Alkatraz Gallery, during that time not operating as a public exhibition space, but as an intimate-social space intended for socializing and creation. A simple co-operational frame was set up: regular meetings at the agreed location, employment of basic drawing utensils, attempt to combine and merge different artistic approaches within a singular drawing, all in the attempt to emphasize the artefact as the reason for the continuation of a dialogue and not as the final stop of the process. The project resulted in the What Is Yours; Nothing Is Yours! exhibition.
Group creation stems from the desire and urge of the artists to socialize, exchange skills, open up to new creative approaches, and also to develop one’s own, individual artistic language. Most of the artists involved regard the so modified creative process as the key element for their co-operation. Miha Perne, for example, mentions cases of his dissatisfaction with the work he has done, while in a collective process of creation of a drawing, another person lends a helping hand, resolving a particular problem of visual art. The artists, who, among other things, stress the psychological aspect of collective creation (e.g. inevitability to face otherness, willingness to shift one’s own position) and linking up. The project refrains from the consistently stated isolated process of artistic creation, which recalls the time of their schooling, when the artists would share their studio spaces, building their own artistic visual style through their interaction.
All the participating artists are already somewhat established, so the exhibited works enable the visitors to read their individual visual expressions. However, the products can still be seen as composite integrities. The drawings are, utmost, regarded as experiments that occasionally or for some develop and transcend into completed works; like with every creative process, these two categories alternate. Adrijan Praznik claims that each of the participants has assumed numerous new forms, and so succeeded to upgrade one’s own form of expression.
The title What is Yours; Nothing Is Yours! alludes to a renouncement of exclusive authorship of a drawing as well as to an attempt of co-habitation in a temporary community. Similar principles of co-operation at the same time relate to the rich tradition of Metelkova, of which part is the Alkatraz Gallery. During its occupation young artists would contribute to the formation of a new, genuine image of the autonomous zone, with their joint work. In this particular space, collaborations among them are something quite common, diverging from – in the art world – prevailing criteria. The questions of authorship and autonomy of an artwork are, as a rule, left in the background. The What Is Yours; Nothing Is Yours! project in praxis realizes Metelkovian ideals such as the concept of an artwork as a result of collective endeavours, art as a dialogue, as well as a dynamic way of exploration of otherness.
Such self-initiated and collective collaborations can possess a subversive charge. Today’s principles of being operational in every domain of art, such as market logic, demand a product and setting of tangible, achievable objectives. Several-month meetings, set as a fluid process counting on failure (i.e accounts for it as an inevitable part of the meetings’ logic), are not welcome in the practice of the nowadays’ logic of productivity. The development of mutual inter-relations and surpassing of individualistic tendencies may potentially transgress its visual artistic frames, as it is building a model of co-habitation, founded on solidarity, tolerance, and modesty. A subversive potential is also concealed in the self-instigation of the project. Namely, it is unfolding outside strict frames of the system, even though hosted by a gallery.
Anabel Černohorski, Sebastian Krawczyk
Ivana Bajec (1990, Pula) graduated in painting in 2012, under the mentorship of professor Marjan Gumilar, at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she is currently completing her post-graduate study with Žiga Kariž, M.A. and dr. Lev Kreft. She engages in drawing, print-making, and painting. She lives and works in Ljubljana. She has had several solo exhibitions: at Plac Boris, Tovarna Rog/Rog Factory, Ljubljana, 2015; Galerija P74, Ljubljana 2016; Kino Šiška, Ljubljana 2016; and has participated at several group exhibitions, among them: 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Kaj se je zgodilo?, 2013; Constantin Brancusi gallery, Bucharest, Rumania, 2014.
Miha Perne (1978, Ljubljana). In 1997 he completed his secondary education at the Secondary School for Design and Photography in Ljubljana, photography department. In 2004 he graduated in painting at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design. In 2005 he founded a painting group Beli sladoled/White Ice-Cream, together with Leon Zuodar. In 2011 they founded a publishing house, Beli sladoled books & zines, and for their work received the OHO group award. Recently, he presented his works at the group exhibition Zini!, Sodobna zinovska produkcija at the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), in 2017, as well as at the extensive solo exhibition Gužva, at the premises of the Medical chamber of Slovenia, in Ljubljana (2016). He is engaged in the fields of painting, print-making and comics.
Adrijan Praznik (1988) graduated in 2016 in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (ALUO), under the mentorship of Žiga Kariž, M.A. and co-mentorship of dr. Tomislav Vignjević. He received a grant of the Municipality of Ljubljana for gifted students and an ALUO award for distinguished artistic achievements in the academic year of 2011/2012. He has exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions in Slovenia and internationally (Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Italy, Germany) and also attended residences in Riga and in Berlin. In 2015 the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia awarded him with a scholarship for prospective young artists. His works are included in the collection of the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC) in Ljubljana. He lives and works in Ljubljana.
Erik Mavrič(1979, Koper) graduated in painting in 2004 and in 2008 obtained his M.A. at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. His works have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, among them at the House of Culture/Hiša kulture, Pivka, 2016; Galerija Dimenzija napredka, Nova Gorica, 2014; Galerija Krško, 2014; Project Room SCCA / Projektna soba SCCA, Ljubljana, 2012. Mavrič had participated at several group exhibitions in such venues as: P74, Ljubljana, Hiša kulture Pivka, Centre for Contemporary Arts/Center sodobnih umetnosti Celje, Galerija Velenje, City Gallery/Mestna galerija Nova Gorica, Galerija Simulaker, Novo mesto, Galerija Insula, Izola. In 2012 he was awarded a special acknowledgement of the expert jury at the 16th Slovene Sculpture Exhibition, and in 2002 he received a Prešeren Award for students.
Iva Tratnik (1980) In 2012 she obtained her M.A. at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She explores various artistic practices, among them textile collages, oil and acrylic canvas, sculpture, drawing, installation and other site-specific interventions. In collaboration with Marko Jakše she exhibited the Bojni ples za zbombardirano luno (War Dance for the Bombed Moon) project at the Galerija sodobne umetnosti / Gallery for Contemporary Art Celje, in Kibla, Maribor, and at the Ljubljana castle (2010-11). She has presented herself solo in the Galerija Plevnik-Kronkowska in Celje (2011, 2015), Likovni salon in Celje and at the Sarajevo Winter / Sarajevska zima (2013), Atelje Galerija in Ljubljana (2015), at the Slovene pavilion at the Milan Expo (2015), in Kino Šiška / Šiška Cinema (2016), Galerija sodobne umetnosti Celje (2017) and Nočna izložba Pešak gallery in Ljubljana (2017). She has participated at several group exhibitions; among them at the Galerija Equrna in Ljubljana (2011), UGM, Maribor (2012), at the Galerija Miklova hiša, Ribnica (2012), Galerija sodobne umetnosti Celje (2013), Kibla, Maribor (2013), the Celje version of Light Guerrilla/ Svetlobna gverila (2016) as well as at the Galerija Vžigalica, in Ljubljana (2016). She has illustrated for Kevdr, a literature blog. She has also taken part in performances and butoh – contemporary dance performances and has engaged in scenography and costume design.
Translation from Slovene: Lili Anamarija No.
Photographs (the opening & the exhibition): Nada Žgank.
Special thanks to: Bine Zagorc.
