The Schengen Women

Tanja Ostojić, "Looking for a Husband with EU Passport", interactive web project/ media art installation, 2000-2005, photo: Borut Krajnc, courtesy /copyright: Tanja Ostojić, www.cac.org.mk/capital /projects/tanja

1 February - 28 February 2008
Galerija Škuc, Stari trg 21, Ljubljana

You are kindly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Friday, January 1st at 8 p.m. at Galerija Škuc.
The event is part of the action entitled »Hosting Moderna galerija!«.

Maja Bajević (Bosnia and Hercegovina), Danica Dakić & Sandra Sterle (Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia), Vlasta Delimar (Croatia), Sanja Iveković (Croatia), Šejla Kamerić (Bosnia and Hercegovina), Zofia Kulik (Poland), Andreja Kulunčić (Croatia), Tanja Ostojić (Serbia), Tadej Pogačar and the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art (Slovenia), Marija Mojca Pungerčar (Slovenia).
Curator: Zdenka Badovinac

The exhibition will present the works of several women artists and one male artist who problematize the ideas and stereotypes about Eastern European women. It will focus on the art and fates of women on the wrong side of the border, historically and now once again. In the past, their otherness was defined by the Iron Curtain; today, it is defined by the Schengen Treaty, which excludes them from the 'Europe without borders'.

The Schengen Treaty redefines the boundaries of Europe yet again. At a time when it is again being decided who is a European, there is a real danger that the otherness of Europe beyond the border becomes even more explicit.

In the collective consciousness of Europeans, European identity relates primarily to Western culture and male creativity. Undeniably we still know less about European women artists than we do about their male counterparts; and when it comes to Eastern European women artists, this is true twofold.

Unfamiliarity with otherness inevitably leads people to form ideas and stereotypes.
Both historically and currently there are many Eastern European women artists who have problematized the various ideas about and stereotypical images of Eastern European women, from the androgynous partisan and communist to the poor woman who does not match up to the western media images, and in the time of the transition, to the refugee and prostitute.
The view of the other often treats the Eastern European woman merely as an object, formerly a victim of the regime, currently, a victim of unbridled capitalism.

The exhibition will stress the significance of the Eastern European women artists' self-defining, which - unlike the view from the outside, which looks for passive otherness - offers active otherness. By revealing the actual circumstances under which Eastern European women live today and by calling attention to their status and role in the past, women artists today aim to actively bring about a change in their position, often by making provocative gestures.

The Schengen Women exhibition will be one in a series of events entitled Hosting Moderna galerija!, organized by a number of galleries in Ljubljana during the time the Moderna galerija building is closed for renovation works.
Two of the works presented are part of the Arteast Collection 2000+. The other works Moderna galerija would wish to purchase providing it can find sponsors for this.

The programme of Škuc Gallery is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana - Department of Culture.

→  Hosting MG! Archive