Rdeče zore 6
Alenka Spacal / razstava avtoportretov

08 March 2005 > 02 April 2005 Self-portraits, 2003-2005, Oil on kitchen cloths

The exhibition of Alenka Spacal’s painted self-portraits will be opened with a performance, in which the author will hang her works on a washing-line. Through self-ironising the palette of various representations of own image, which she paints with oil colours on kitchen cloths, by an imitation of a household environment of hanging the washing inside the space of a gallery, the artist raises questions about the relation between the private and the public, that is, personal and political. By way of her painted self-portraits, that is, an autobiographical method of sorts, the author establishes her own subjectivity, thus opposing the objectification of the clichéd role of the woman as “other”. On the contrary, her ambition is to constitute herself as an active artistic subject. Through her own visual representations, she emphasises her own personal position of subjectivity, and, along the way, makes visible the different marginal identities which, above all, touch upon the concept of gender, and also refer to sex, sexuality, race and religion. In her feminist questionings, Alenka Spacal doesn’t remain enclosed within the binary oppositions of sex and gender. Through different motives, she plays with the multitude of possible presentations of queer identities, whereby she strives to overcome the traditional binary divisions to male and female sex / gender, which is especially manifest in her androgynous self-portraits. All the while, with the help of her own representations, she positions herself opposite the patriarchal and heterosexist social order.

About the artist:

Alenka Spacal was born in 1975 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She received her BA in Philosophy (2001) and her MA in Aesthetics (2004) from the University of Ljubljana. She is PhD Student of Feminist Theory and Visual Culture. She works as visual artist, theorist and fine-art critic. She is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the  University of Ljubljana, currently teaching Sociology of Fine Art.

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

2003 - »Self-portraits«, Art Exhibition at the 5th European Feminist Research Conference: »Gender and Power in the New Europe«; organized by the Centre for Gender Studies, Lund University.August 20 –24, 2003, Lund, Sweden.
2004 – »Self-portraits«, Art Exhibition at NOISE Summer School 2004; organized by the Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, Fakulteta za podiplomski humanistični študij, Ljubljana. September 8, 2004, Club Jazzbina, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2005 – »Avtoportreti / Self-portraits«, Art Exhibition at Women's Festival »Rdeče zore 6«; March 8 - April 2, 2005, Gallery Alkatraz, AKC Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
http://www.metelkova.org/rdece/2005/2005/zore/alenka_spacal.htm
2005 – »Self-portraits«, Art Exhibition at Beograd Queer Festival »Susreti«, May 3 - 7, 2005, BIGZ, Beograd, Serbia and Montenegro.
2005 – »Self-portraits 2003 – 2005«, Art Exhibition atTransgressing Gender Conference: »Two is not enough for gender (e)quality«, organized by Women's Room, CESI, Organization Q, DEVE. October 7 - 9, 2005, SC, Zagreb, Croatia.

2006 - »Hanging about«: Performance with self-portraits on kitchen cloths; May, 19th 2006, Art Radionica Lazareti (ART), Dubrovnik, Croatia; organized by the Ženska Infoteka for the Seminar Women and Politics.
2007 - »Hanging About«: Performance with self-portraits on kitchen cloths; May 16 – 20, 2007, Ladyfest Vienna, Austria.
http://plone.ladyfestwien.org/program/alenka-spacal-201changing-about201d/
2007 - »Obešenka« / »Hanging about«: Performance with self-portraits on kitchen cloths; May, 22th 2007, Lesbian Club Monokel, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
http://www.klubmonokel.com/o_klubu.html

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005 - »]Woman and Migration«, Art Exhibition at the VI. Women's Interenational Conference 2005. April 14 – 24, 2005, Künstlerhaus, Graz, Austria.
http://www.womens-international-conference.com/index.html
2005 - »Čisto umazano / Pretty Dirty«;World of Art, School for Contemporary Arts: the final exhibition of the course for curators 2004/2005, organized by SCCA, Center for Contemporary Arts – Ljubljana. June 24 – July 22, 2005, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia. http://www.worldofart.gro/prettydirty/info_slo.htm

Rdeče zore 6