| Inke Arns on Mon, 14 Aug 2000 14:14:48 +0200 |
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| Syndicate: Skuc Gallery - Press Release. WHAT AM I DOING HERE? |
From: "galerija.skuc" <galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si> Subject: Skuc Gallery - Press Release Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 09:42:16 +0200 MSE-projects Sarajevo-exhibition WHAT AM I DOING HERE? Skuc Gallery, 17 August - 10 September 2000 You are kindly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, 17 August at 9 p.m. at Skuc Gallery Ljubljana. Featuring the artists: Maja Bajevic, Danica Dakic, Sejla Kameric, Damir Niksic, Rachel Rossner, Nebojsa Seric Soba. Curated by Lejla Hodzic, Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Arts. The exhibition, "What Am I Doing Here?" was conceived over the past few months, through conversations with artists, as a work in progress. The works that originated during this time are concerned with various dilemmas that confront the artists. The basic question, which each participant poses in his/her own way, is succinctly expressed by Damir Niksic: "What am I doing here?" The questions of one's own position, perspective and place and one's connection with the problem of identity, language, nationality and country are especially highlighted in the aftermath of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Damir Niksic confronted chance passers-by with the question, "What am I doing here" during SCCA's Second Annual Exhibition "Beyond the Mirror," in Sarajevo in 1998. Just as now, the visitor, upon his entrance into the Skuc Gallery in Ljubljana, activates sensors and is confronted with that same question, which appears on a blank wall. The visitor has a choice: to exit the gallery (unsure of what he is really doing there) or to remain in the gallery and go into the next rooms and see the other works. Damir Niksic also poses the same question to himself: what is he, an artist, doing in the gallery. In the video installation "I love -- I don't love" Maja Bajevic and Danica Dakic examine language as an element of identity, of belonging. Maja Bajevic in Sarajevo recites ten sentences in Bosnian to Maja Bajevic in Paris, who “answers” her with the same, only negative, sentences in French. Danica Dakic does the same, but in German and Bosnian. Although the sentences in the second language (German, French) and those spoken in Bosnian, the “mother” tongue, are opposite in meaning, they do not disprove one another, rather they are true in the places in which they are spoken—they are connected to the country. Rachel Rossner is an American who has been living in Europe for a number of years and in Sarajevo for the past three. She says, “I know where I am, addresses make this very clear—street and number, city and country—but the real question remains: Do I know who I am?” The address at which she can receive mail is a stabilizing element in her life. For one year now, she has been sending herself transparent envelopes containing her sketches, drawings and notes, sending them to her own address (which she constantly changes). Some of the contents of the letters are visible, while other items remain hidden, as in life, which is always divided into the private and public. The letters travel via the postal system with the risk of being lost. When she moves, Rachel Rossner puts all these unopened letters in a big envelope and sends them to herself at her new address. The title of her work is her recent address, "Zagrebacka 43/III, Sarajevo". Sejla Kameric confronts reality with imagination in her video installation, which consists of two works. The first video "Here" deals with a confrontation with the environment that surrounds Sejla in Sarajevo, pointing out reality. A reflection of the existing situation in BiH is visible in the media, especially on television stations., which are mainly founded for political reasons and which are unfortunately in competition for the worst program. Recording the everyday program of one independent station, which mainly broadcasts a live picture of a quiet intersection in Sarajevo, Sejla Kameric communicates a part of Sarajevan reality. The picture of the intersection is the same day after day. The only changes are in the weather and the time of day. Passers-by are not aware of the camera that records them, even though they have a chance to see this picture every day over the airwaves. No matter what happens to Sejla or anyone else in Sarajevo, the general picture remains the same, inexorably unchanging. A picture that drives everyone to ask, "What am I doing here?" The second video, "American Dream," was taped during Sejla's study residency in Washington, D.C., USA. In fact, it is a fake video letter to her family and friends at home. The video contains all the elements typical to letters of guest workers and immigrants-status symbols of a new, "better" life: a house, an automobile, house pets, new friends, etc. The word "gap" metaphorically and literally describes the art of Nebojsa Seric Soba as well as his position in the contemporary art scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, Nebojsa Seric Soba is himself caught up in various fissures: professional (between the "eternal student" and the artist), generational (between the young generation just now about to prove itself and the generation of artists who made their reputations before the war) and geographical (between BiH and abroad). Soba, who spent the entire war in BiH, has since the beginning of 2000 been living in Amsterdam, where he is taking his postgraduate studies at Rijks Academy. This time, he presents the gap in which he lives and works via photographs of his apartments in Amsterdam and in Sarajevo—here and there. The tittle of his work is "Home is where the Home is." WHAT AM I DOING HERE? is an exhibition in the framework of MSE-projects (see gallery's homepage). Contact person: Gregor Podnar, phone: +386 1 12 13 140. MSE-projects supported by: Swiss Arts Council PRO HELVETIA, department Reseaux-Est-Ouest , SCCA Multimedia lab pro.ba Sarajevo, MOL - Oddelek za kulturo; Art and Culture Network Programme Link Programme (Open Society Institute - Slovenia, Open Society Institute - Croatia, Open Society Found - Bosna & Hercegovina, Fund for an Open Society – Yugoslavia, Soros Foundation - Hungary); European Cultural Foundation; Ministrstvo za zunanje zadeve, Slovenija - Pakt stabilnosti za juzno vzhodno Europo; Ministrstvo RS za kulturo; Kultur Kontakt; Avstrijsko veleposlanistvo - Oddelek za kulturo; .Kunst, Bundeskanzleramt, Austria; National Cultural Found & Ministry of National Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Hungary; Oesterreichisches Ost-und Suedosteuropa Institut, Budapest; Public Fund for Modern Art, Dunaujvaros; Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia; Cultural Department of the City Zagreb; Italian Cultural Institute in Slovenia; PCX computers, Mit Loid oder co. Graz. Skuc Gallery, Stari trg 21, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, phone/fax: +386 1 2516 540, e-mail: galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si , http://www.galerija.skuc-drustvo.si ------Syndicate mailinglist-------------------- Syndicate network for media culture and media art information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at> in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress