Non-central Domains

Tanja Vujinović, Extragram 1-2, 2007, Installation detail

27 February - 3 April 2008
Ganes Pratt Gallery, Gregorčičeva ul. 3, Ljubljana

Video art in Slovenia after 2000, curator Igor Španjol with Petja Grafenauer Krnc

The present exhibition is the first in a trilogy of projects included in the "Hosting Moderna galerija!" initiative. Presenting the main trends in Slovenian video art and related media and entitled Non-central Domains, the trilogy is a step toward a more synthetic and integral view of the development of media art over the last four decades, starting with the experimental and documentary video in the 1970s, the "alternative" video in the 1980s, the artistic production of the 1990s, and the most recent explorations involving the context of the social space. In this sense it represents an attempt to organize a non-linear retrospective view and to identify certain basic topics, issues and interrelations. The project is structured like a mosaic, being staged at a number of art venues and involving many protagonists. The works that the individual exhibitions focus on encompass hybrid spheres, "non-central" in terms of the media, genre, and technology, and intertwining visual, sound, space, and other elements.

The first exhibition presents a selective view of the most recent production, too recent to allow for any time distance or historical approach to be of help. With the works of six artists or artists' collectives it tries to sketch the dominant approaches and specific developments in the field of the creative use of video, research, and the interactive mix of different media technologies. It tries to define the main phenomena and trends of development in the video production of the new millennium. The main topic of the exhibition is the social change brought about by the modern "media revolutions," reflected in video poetics marked by a critical dialogue with the technocratic present.

Nika Špan's carefully conceived and concise works probe the mechanisms of the art system and the structures of scientific discourse by employing media technologies and elements from her everyday life. Her video works are structured as a discontinuous and fragmentary space resulting from the interaction between the artist, the viewers, and the environment.

Tanja Vujnović's projects are based on an expanded notion of sculpture that connects technologically objects, sound, and images. Her spatial interventions depend on radio waves, television frequencies, and algorithmic processing of sound and visual signals in public environments. She uses video to construct rhythmic images and sound-based micro-worlds.

Viktor Bernik is fascinated with contemporary urban spaces as scenes that produce the experience of media representations. He structures his visualizations of the environment on several levels, and uses the corresponding media technologies to interactively mix them. With associative editing of found or appropriated media footage he points to the degree to which our society is subject to the power of images.

Sašo Vrabič's work is derived from the history of the mass media technology and the anthropology of his private world. His audio-visual and printing-painterly experiments at the intersection of various media are marked by his fascination with the cinema, video games, television, commercial advertising, music, urban(ist) phenomena, and youth culture.

In Tomaž Tomažin's work the cinematic imagery manifests as a field of the projection of a media-mediated identity. His approach to exploring the issues of physical reality is performative: in his interventions and manipulations in the form of multiplication and virtualization he uses the classic video-editing technique of chroma key, replacing movie heroes with self-portraits.

A recognizable trait of the duo son:DA is their critical stand to the world of new media technologies. Firmly anchored in the high-tech environment, their work purposely utilizes slightly out-dated elements. son:DA interconnects different media, such as video, spatial installations, and performance art, and, when necessary, involves artists from various spheres.

Igor Španjol

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