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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: galerija.skuc <galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si>
An: Undisclosed.Recipients@guest.arnes.si <Undisclosed.Recipients@guest.arnes.si>
Datum: Montag, 11. September 2000 11:37
Betreff: Press Release

MSE-projects

Zagreb - exhibition

 

A Small Country for a Big Vacation

(advertising message used in Croatian tourist campaign in the middle of the 90-s)

Skuc Gallery, September 14 – October 8, 2000

You are kindly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, September 14 at 8 p.m. at Skuc Gallery Ljubljana. Featuring the artists: Sandro Dukic, Alen Floricic, Aleksandar Battista Ilic, Andreja Kuluncic, Renata Poljak, Sandra Sterle and Slaven Tolj. Curated by Ana Devic and Natasa Ilic. The exhibition presenting Croatian art scene deals with the subject of tourism, gathering works by seven Croatian artists.

In a broader context, the exhibition project aims to explore the phenomenon of contemporary tourism, as well as the aesthetics and iconography of travelling. During the last decades, contemporary art has been recognised as an important and unavoidable factor of tourist offer. Economy, tourism and culture are closely related parts that form the definition of national identity. Croatia belongs to the circle of countries whose external identity has been based - more or less successfully - on tourism. During the 1960’, Croatia initiated large investments in the tourist infrastructure and offer. During the 1990s, the identity of tourist country has failed and acquired slightly paradoxical air. Not only high level of risk, war damages and economic crisis, but also the strong centralisation, has been imposing unfavourable economic terms for further initiatives. The phenomenon of travelling, and various advertising strategies that go with it, is being explored from various perspectives. Travelling as a process, transition, a state in between; it is multi-layered, we see it as a symbolic and private experience, but also as something banal, as consumption and mass entertainment. Art works questions this theme from different positions.

“Enjoy the Beach” by Andreja Kuluncic is conceived as the project that questions the possibility of personal “environmental” responsibility in relation to more than obvious global problems with collecting and disposing of garbage, with special emphasis on the gap between large number of tourists and insufficient tourist infrastructure and natural resources.

The video by Alen Floricic consists of repetition of several simple frames. Autobiographical record of attempt to climb out of the sea, that turn out to be impossible act, points toward specific “discontent in tourism” that seriously questions the possibility of organised enjoyment and resting as the way to escape the stress of everyday life

The series of photographs “The Travel Around the World in 100 Days” by Sandro Dukic and web project by Sandra Sterle (http://sterle.org/holiday) deal with virtual travelling and the tension between questionable authenticity of travelling experience and the break of non-places in the reality of consumption

Project “Weekend Art: Hallelujah the Hill” (performed by Ivana Keser, Tomislav Gotovac and Aleksandar Ilic) by Aleksandar Battista Ilic is permanent performance that started in 1996 on the Medvednica mountain in Zagreb. Series of photos taken on Sundays reveals complex relations between nature and urban life, work and leisure, especially artistic work and its position at the labour market. Although the images are often idyllic, the dominant impression is that of disillusionment.

Video by Renata Poljak is based on repetition that reveals the arbitrariness of taking the decision, while at the same time touches upon gender clichés. Similar cleft between authentic experience and prescribed behavioural forms directs the enjoyment in tourism.

The title of ambient installation of Slaven Tolj “So beautiful, so empty” is ironic inversion of actual advertising message used in Czech Republic to advertise summer vacation in Croatia. The ambient is about typical emptiness of Croatian summer resorts in the years following the end of the war. It is about distances; distance of the view and its reach; about overlapping of two different images: one promised and one experienced.

 

A SMALL COUNTRY FOR A BIG VACATION 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: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia; Cultural Department of the City Zagreb; Moderna galerija Zagreb; 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; 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

 

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