SCCA, CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS - LJUBLJANA
Pretty Dirty
Group exhibition by the SCCA Course for Curators of Contemporary Arts
24 June - 22 July, 2005
ŠKUC Gallery, Ljubljana
During the last eight years SCCA, the Center for Contemporary Arts - Ljubljana has been organizing the yearly programme of The World of Art, School for Contemporary Arts. The programme of The World of Art consists of the Course for Curators of Contemporary Arts with accompanying group exhibition, a series of public lectures, the Seminar on Writing about Contemporary Arts and "The World of Art Anthology" publication. Through the Course for Curator's programme - consisting of regular sessions with mentors, discussions with artists and curators, visiting exhibitions, studying theoretical literature and completing various research assignments - the course participants get aquainted with, primarily Slovene, contemporary art, as well as with theoretical and practical issues of curatorial work. Following a ten-month long and intensive research of contemporary art, this year's course will close with the exhibition at the ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana, which will be held from June 24 to July 22, 2005.
The course participants, i.e. the curators of the exhibition are: Ivana Bago, student of art history and English in Zagreb, Miha Colner, final year student of art history, Ida Hiršenfelder, final year student of sinology, Monika Ivančić, art historian and cultural sociologist, Mojca Manček, culturologist and Tanja Pavlič, art history student (in Ljubljana). They conceived the final exhibition on the basis of research of the Slovene art territory over the last ten years, followed by discussions, perfectioning, argumentation, agreement and contribution of their own views and attitudes, as a result of their different backgrounds and knowledge. Nevenka Šivavec, curator at the Celje Art Salon and Alen Ožbolt, artist and publicist, are the course mentors, guiding and supporting the whole process.
The title of this year's exhibition is Pretty Dirty. The title itself points
to ambiguities and paradoxes, indicated by the underlying concept of personal
hygiene.
"On the surface a simple concept, it becomes strongly suggestive, if we
consider it with greater attention. We are dealing with bodily, moral or mental
hygiene which resists cleansing and purification of the physical, spiritual
and social body. It is interesting to question the borders between the intimate
and sociocultural construction in relation to these various types of hygiene
and the norms governing them. Multi-layered is also the metaphorical power of
the words cleanliness and dirt. We wash our hands, our brains, we brush our
teeth, we delete our memories. We easily find that a great part of man's everyday
existence, as well as of philosophical reflection, is preoccupied with this
issue. It is, therefore, not unusual to find the exploration of the theme of
hygiene also in art, whether it is approached directly or in more subtle ways."
The reflections above represent some of the main starting points for young,
future curators of this exhibition.
The works by the following Slovene contemporary artists will be shown at the exhibition: .. The diversity of participating artists and works reflects the diversity of the relations towards cleanliness and dirt, our own bodies, other living creatures, natural, natural, cultural and political surroundings. The exhibtion opens on Friday, June 24, 2005, at 8 PM.
We thank you for your assistance in publishing this announcement. For further information please contact: Monika Ivančić: GSM: 041 904 616, E: monika.ivancic1@guest.arnes.si; Tanja Pavlič: GSM: 051 359 344, E. tanjica@inwind.it
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