dresscode

If the sixties were supposed to most directly and faithfully express true human essence, the late seventies and especially the eighties ushered in the concept of image, which implied the difference between a person and his or her image. It is possible to deliberately manipulate image in order to achieve a desired effect, but also in order to create an ironic distance from a kind of external identification with one’s desires. We might also regard the voluntary manipulation of a person’s image (or role) as a statement about that person’s relationship to the established authorities on various levels, to the system that forces the individual into specific roles and images. Image can pervert the notion of being trapped in social roles, and indeed allow a person to evade them. It can indicate a deceptive, ironic or cool attitude toward social roles. The new millennium has been characterized by the domination of media technology in which external image and identity are no longer determined by class and gender. More than ever before, image and identity have entered the domain of creativity and free choice. At this festival, we will present work that deals with the formal, aesthetic and socio-cultural aspects of the digital media and will critically debate key events at the intersection of fashion and new media technology. The selected media artworks have been chosen less for technological innovation than for what they say about the formulation of aesthetic methods of expression and about the wider field of art, and for what they articulate about the changing relations between people, appearances and media. We hope that the artists will understand this presentation of fashion and media technology and take it with a good measure of political and historical consciousness: in other words, with both a critical stance toward the socio-cultural meaning of dressing and with an awareness of the artistic and technological avant-garde.

Igor Španjol

Igor Španjol

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1972 in Senj, Croatia. After grammar-school he studied sociology of culture and art history at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia. From 1993 to 1995 he was member of the editorial of the Studia Humaitatis publishing house. From 1996 to 1997 he worked as librarian at the Institutum Studiorum Humaitatis – Faculty for postgraduate studies in humanities, Ljubljana. Since 1994 he is involved with video art. From 1995 to 1999 he has been collaborating on different media art projects at the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Ljubljana (Internet Portfolio – artists profiles on the web, Videospotting – video programme, Videodokument – documentation, archival and research project on video art in Slovenia). In 1998 he worked as programme coordinator at the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts-Ljubljana. Since 1999 he works as a curator in the Moderna galerija Ljubljana/Museum of Modern Art. He has lectured on media art in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Skopje, Gorizia, Paris and Kyiv. He has regularly been publishing articles, essays and texts on contemporary art in magazines (Texte zur Kunst, M'Ars, Zivot umjetosti,…) and annual catalogues of the Skuc Gallery. He is contributng editor of the weekly magazine on art and cultural events Deloskop.

Responsibilities at the Moderna galerija Ljubljana:

  • exploration, development, preserving, documenting and archiving of the various forms of media art such as video, video installations, net and software based art in digital/interactive/network media and technology based performative arts practice,
  • curating of temporary exhibitions with emphasis on media art,
  • (co)curating of permanent display of secected works form the museum collection,
  • curating of the Archives on Loan series of monthly screenings/presentations of video artists at the Informative cetre of the Moderna galerija,
  • organising of conferences, lectures, panel discussions and study groups.
Title at the Moderna galerija Ljubljana: media art curator

Curated exhibitions:

  • This Art Is Recycled, Galerija Skuc, Ljubljana, 1997 (a part of the curatorial programe World of Art at the Skuc Gallery, concept of recyclation in contemporary slovene art, catalogue editor)
  • Lujo Vodopivec, Parcours, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 1999 (a retrospective, sculpture, catalogue editor)
  • Aspects/Positions - 50 Years of Art in Central Europe 1049-1999, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 2000 (curatorial assistant for Slovenia)
  • Reality Check - Recent developments in British Photography and Video, Moderna galerija Ljubljana 2002 (curatorial adviser)
  • Slovene Art 1975-85, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 2003 (together with Igor Zabel, historical survey, catalogue editor)
  • Mercury Falling, Miha Vipotnik, Galerija Skuc, 2003 (solo exhibition, video art)
  • Siete gia li – L'arte contemporanea in Slovenia, Genova, Loggia della Mercanzia, 2003
  • No rest for Magna Purga, Kostja Gatnik, Moderna galerija, 2004 ( a retrospective, catalogue editor)
  • Slovene Art 1985-95, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 2004 (together with Igor Zabel, historical survey, catalogue editor)

Publications:

  • Videodokument : video umetnost v slovenskem prostoru 1969-1998 = video art in Slovenia 1969-1998., Ljubljana: Open Society Institute - Slovenia, 1999
  • Parcours: pregledna razstava, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 1999
  • Konceptualna umetnost 60-ih in 70-ih let. This art is recycled, Ljubljana: Galerija ŠKUC, 1997
  • Mestomorfoze, Ljubljana: Založba /*cf., Sorosov center za sodobne umetnosti, 1999
  • Umetnina: kaj je to?, Ljubljana: Založba /*cf., Sorosov center za sodobne umetnosti, 1999
  • Rabe fotografije, Ljubljana: Založba /*cf. , Sorosov center za bsodobne umetnosti, 1999 Vulgata, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2000
  • Andy Warhol - življenje in delo (1928-1987, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2001
  • Reality check: nova dogajanja v britanski fotografiji in videu, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2002 Do roba in naprej : slovenska umetnost 1975-1985, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2003

Selected articles:

  • Apolonija v kontekstu prostora / Apolonija in the context of space, M'ars, No. 3-4, 1999
  • Busheva Amerika: od puča do vojne, Ljubljana: UMco, 2001
  • Neznosna lahkost fotografiranja, Fotografija. No. 12, 2001
  • Senčna slika, Likovne besede, No. 55-56, 2001
  • Parcours Luja Vodopivca, Likovne besede, No. 59-60, 2002
  • Net.curator?, M'ars, No.3-4, 2001
  • Megabajti v galeriji: pogovor, Delo, No. 86, 13. april 2004 (interview)
  • Veliki pok: multimedijska umetnost in alternativna scena v prvi polovici osemdesetih let, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2003
  • Kaj sodobna umetnost zahteva od svojih institucij?, Umetnostna kronika, No. 1, 2003

Presentations and lectures:

  • Film Video Monitor, Cinema atelier, Gorizia (Italy), 2000
  • media.art.theory.week, Lamparna, Labin (Croatia), 2000
  • net.culture club mama, Zagreb (Croatia), 2001
  • Dreamcatcher video festival, Kieff (Ukraine), 2001
  • Sculpture Time, Skopje (Macedonia), 2002
  • Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, 2003
  • Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, 2003
  • International festival of computer arts, Maribor (Slovenia), 2004

Other professional activities:

  • Terminal, TV Slovenija, 2001 (editor, TV programme on art)
  • member of the jury of the Radoslav Putar Award for young artists from Croatia (2002-2003)
  • artistic director of the Ljubljana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (since 2002)
  • Field of interests: contemporary art, history of media art, television, film and moving images

Additional information:

www.mg-lj.si
www.ljudmila.org/scca/publicat.htm
desk.org:8080/ASU2/a.network.doc
vi.potnik.siol.com/info.htm