Participating artists: Nika Autor, Viktor Bernik, Eclipse, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Sanela Jahić, Žiga Kariž, Zvonka Simčič, Andrej Škufca, Tomaž Tomažin.
The exhibition is curated by: Petja Grafenauer.
The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Miklova Hiša Gallery in Ribnica.
For more information please visit the Alkatraz Gallery website.
“The exhibition entitled Interference was produced within the framework of the newer Alkatraz Gallery project Mentorship+, which supports the establishment of connections between artists and enables their continuous work over longer periods of time. It is not about mentorship per se, but rather about intergenerational collaboration on a non-hierarchical basis, a kind of mutual mentorship, so to say, where both parties can assume roles of an advisor, mentor, (co-)curator and creator in any given moment. In the context of the project, two persons, holding different positions inside the artistic system, are thus given the opportunity for collaborative partnership, in which their approaches meet in dialogue through the intertwinement of visions, perspectives, experiences, and artistic procedures. The project encourages a creative transfer of ideas among individuals outside of established channels, and is conceptualised with the purpose of encouraging intergenerational networking and cooperation. The exhibition presents a visual, physically tangible result of an annual work and a consequence of the establishment of a new platform for mutual learning and collaboration. Although the project asks numerous questions, it is up to the artists themselves to answer the questions of authorship, to design contents of a common project, and to find a way to confront the challenges of collective collaboration, encouraged by the gallery.
This time, we invited Maja Smrekar and Nika Erjavec to participate. During the working process, they decided to be dialogic partners in the process of the realisation of Nika Erjavec’s solo exhibition. The artists, though, already know one another, as Maja Smrekar was Nika Erjavec’s supervisor at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana. Their artistic works research and treat similar topics referring to the contemporarity, whereas in their artistic practices, the stress is on the in-depth exploration of theory, observation of social processes, agile adaptation to the circumstances, and processuality as a strategy. This is the reason why we found it meaningful to encourage them to further connect by participating in the project Mentorship+.” – galerijalkatraz.com
Intermedia artist Nika Erjavec (1994) graduated in applied arts in 2017 and is currently finishing her MA study in sculpture at Academy of Fine Art and Design in Ljubljana whit thesis titled Sensory perceptions in the intersection of art and science / (in)visible transformations of the environment (mentorship: Maja Smrekar, Alen Ožbolt and Uršula Berlot.) Her practice is a hybrid of experimental studio practice and wide interdisciplinary research. Since 2014 she participated in many intermedia projects, local and internationally curated exhibitions and festivals. She is also working as photographer, scenography and costume designer in national theatres and independent performative scene in Slovenia. She held different workshops addressing the themes of cultural accessibility and received several grants (MOL student grant, Urban Glass (New York)) and awards for her work (ALUO Prešern award, bronze medal from Photo association of Serbia).
You are kindly invited to the exhibition Interference by Nika Erjavec on 25 January from 11.00 am. The exhibition was created in collaboration with Maja Smrekar, as part of the Mentoring + project. The duration of the exhibition depends on government measures taken against the covid-19 epidemic.
On display: 25 January 2021 – 29 January 2021
On Monday, 29 June with the opening of exhibition “All Is Super” by Finnish designer Linda Söderholm at Night Display Gallery Pešak, a diverse cooperation between KUD Mreža and the second edition of Ljubljana Street Art Festival begins. Here.
For the next day we are inviting you to the walls of Metelkova to the opening of mural “Wild Things”, created between 9 and 13 March 2020 along Masarykova Street, made by Swedish comic artist Anna Ehrlemark with the help of painter Miha Perne. Here.
Carlo Galli, a Milan-based visual artist on residency, will be able to follow at the creation of a huge urban tapestry in one of the studios in Rog as part of Alternative tours from 1 July. Motive on the tapestry will be a portrait of the ancient Roman dictator Titus Lartius, which represents the artist’s critical response to the current dictatorial moves of the rulers, who took advantage of the pandemic to restrict the freedom of individuals. Here.
On July 4 in the exhibition center between the Alkatraz Gallery and the Klub Gromka, we are preparing a traditional Metelkova art fair – Bolhačfair. Among the masterpieces that can be seen and taken with you for a solid price will be the works of famous Metelkova craftsmen and poets, poets and poetesses, comics and comics, musicians. The offer will be exceptional, as many rare works of art will be found, as well as recently produced objects from Metelkova mesto. Come and choose a bargain! Here.
The fair will be followed by a charity auction organized by the Alkatraz Gallery. The auction at Metelkova has a long tradition – daring callers with their improvised inserts, witty comments and passing and interpretation of the unique characteristics of the participating artists provoke and entertain several generations of visitors to Metelkova. Get ready for a wide range of different creative approaches, expressions and media at affordable starting prices! Here.
Between the two events we will invite you for a guided walk through the Metelkova total work of art with a detailed insight into recent creations, a meeting with some authors, and peeking into the windows of the Pešak Night Display. “Metelkova style” is characterized by art recycling, which cultivates the awareness that artistic interventions in space are not limited to the field of art, but take into account the wider social environment. There have been over 150 individual urban art projects since 2004 which form a complete public spatial sculpture reminiscent of the famous Merzbau. Here.
FemLink-Art is a collective of visual artists, established by C. M. Judge (USA) and Veronique Sapin (France/Canada) in 2005. FemLink explores new forms of artistic networking and transnational collaboration; furthermore, its aim is to help artists with harder working conditions and less exhibiting opportunities. Until now, 145 artists from 63 countries, with over 300 works contributed to the creation of a collective piece of art, composed of video collages, thematising various concepts. The founders of FemLink-Art contend that ‘for a long time, the aesthetic criteria were characterized by forced limitations and dominated by principles of exclusion, legitimacy, and hierarchy;’ the project was founded as a political answer to challenge overlooked female artists and inequalities in the world of art, and to foster networking. It works in the way that the founders invite artists to contribute their own perspectives on a specific collage topic without any limitations, except for the temporal one – the video cannot be longer than two minutes. The Alkatraz Gallery shall confront two topics of video collages – Aggression and Wonder – created by 44 artists who were chosen by one of the collective’s founders, curator Veronique Sapin. Although the themes appear to be diametrically opposite, they – with the help of videos, harrowing and diverse in artistic approaches – question the reality, offer critical thought on the present, and reveal what is ordinarily overlooked.
Exhibiting artists: Evgenija Demnievska (Serbia), Vouvoula Skoura (Greece), Luzia Simons (Brazil), Viviana Berco (Argentina), Hiroko Okada (Japan), Sara Malinarich (Chile), Evelin Stermitz (Austria), Ingrida Pičukane (Latvia), Sabine Mooibroek (the Netherlands), Véronique Sapin (France), Maria Rosa Jijon (Ecuador), Tayeba Begum Lipi (Bangladesh), Amaranta Sanchez (Mexico), Eva Koch (Denmark), C. M. Judge (the USA), Alessandra Arno (Italy), Tanja Koistila (Finland), Maria Dominguez Alba (Spain), Ana Grobler (Slovenia), Elaine Frigon (Canada), Alena Kupčikova (Czech Republic), Seema Nusrat (Pakistan), Mesrure Melis Bilgin (Turkey), Anna Titovets (Russia), Ligia Bouton (Brazil), Dagmar Kase (Estonia), Laura García (Mexico), Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo (Cuba), Zuzanna Janin (Poland), Vesna Bukovec (Slovenia), Ayesha Sultana (Bangladesh), Maria Papacharalambous (Cyprus), Loes Heebink (the Netherlands), Amina Zoubir (Algeria), Cagdas Kahriman (Turkey), Patricija Gilyte (Latvia), Carolina Saquel (Chile/France), Angelika Rinnhofer (Germany), Itziar Barrio (Spain), Liang Wei (China), Diana Yun (Kazakhstan), Cecilia Vignolo (Uruguay), Jelena Mišković (Serbia), Chantal du Pont (Canada).
You are kindly invited to the group exhibition FemLink-Art: Agression and Wonder video collages by curator Veronique Sapin. The exhibition is on view from 27 May, Wednesday from 11.00 at Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana.
On display: 28 May 2020 – 19 June 2020
“For the 26th anniversary of Autonomous Cultural Centre Metelkova City (ACC Metelkova mesto), Arts and Culture Association Mreža (meaning ‘network) (KUD Mreža) connected with The Last Contemporary Art Museum, a worldly renowned institution, which is located in the settlement Logje, at the extreme west of Slovenia, in a building of venerable age.[1] The title of the museum stresses the fact that, nowadays, contemporary art has reached its edge. The museum stands in the middle of intact nature. With its activities, it questions the methodology, approaches and creations of contemporary art, which is a par excellence link with the versatile artist Damijan Kracina, who it exclusively represents. The museum also hosts the artist’s permanent and permanently changing exhibition. Damijan Kracina is an academic painter and multimedia artist. Since 2008 and until recently, he was using his artistic studio at Metelkova. In 2018, he applied for and won a studio place in Švicarija (meaning ‘Swiss/sweat) in Park Tivoli, Ljubljana. Despite this, Damijan Kracina is still very much present in Metelkova City, both with current projects he is executing or helping to conceptualise and with numerous placements in a public space, which leave a mark on Metelkova City.
In Alktraz Gallery, we regularly host retrospective exhibitions of Metelkova’s artists. For the 26th anniversary, we chose the exhibition of Damijan Kracina in order to mark the turning point in time, characterised by the leaving of this relevant artist from the working space. According to the agreement with The Last Contemporary Art Museum, we decided to follow a successful model of their permanent exhibition, and conceptualise our exhibition as a cabinet of curiosities. In fact, this principle is typical of the artist, who ‘constructs the cabinets of wonder anew again and again by including curiosities he runs into on his journey into his own mental landscape’, as Klavdija Figelj poetically contends at the opening of his exhibition, entitled Discomforting Meaning, on 8 June 2019 in Ciril Kosmač’s library in Tolmin, Slovenia.” – galerijalkatraz.org
Damijan Kracina (1970) completed his graduate studies in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Art and Design (ALOU) in 1996, where he also obtained his MA in Sculpture and Video Art in 1999. He was improving his knowledge in Graz, Austria, New York, at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, and at Santa Fe Art Institute in the USA. He was a co-founding member of the art group Provokart and a co-founder and, for a while, artistic director of the centre for art ARTilerija Kluže. Moreover, he is a co-founder of the art group The Domestic Research Society (DDR). Since 2010, he has been working as a professor at the Secondary School for Design and Photography. In 2015, he established The Last Contemporary Art Museum in Logje. He lives and works in Ljubljana.
You are kindly invited to the opening of the retrospective exhibition The Remains by Damijan Kracina on 2 September, Monday at 8 pm, at Alkatraz Gallery, and kindly invited also to the guided tour with the artist (in Slovene language) on 7 September, Saturday at 6 pm.
On display: 2 September 2019 – 20 September 2019