View of the Slovenian E! exhibition in Ljubljana
The theme of the Eksperimenta! exposition is “Space.” Slovenian theme was The Space we are living in. We focused on the present time and contemporary social issues. How to present them critically and interpret them in students own way? The basic principle was “Being absolutely in present!”. Reflecting interconnection in global world, combining local and a global perspective. The Contemporary art is the art of today and that is our main understanding of Contemporary art. Concepts can be or traditional, using traditional tools and traditional media, or more recent as installations and performances. Besides, there can be also concepts relying on the use of new media and latest technology (audio, video, information technology, the internet, virtual reality…).
Not many secondary schools in Slovenia study, understand and practice contemporary art. Among this several schools I have chosen the school which have had an interesting and fruitful approach to it in the last years.
Various authors. Dedicated to MA. Photo: Natasha Ilec
It is my firm belief that only a broad range of various students activities on contemporary art can yield results, thus reflecting the multitude of currently established approaches in contemporary art. Eventually I decided on just one school, Gymnasia Poljane from Ljubljana, the one that has one of the most diverse approaches to contemporary art. They promote it in many ways: from lectures on such art to visiting contemporary art exhibitions and discussing them, from creating video works and performances to carrying out conceptual art projects. Of course they try to familiarize their students also with traditional painting and sculpture.
At the chosen school all students were invited to get involved in the Experimenta!. At first about 50 students signed up for the project. In a lecture we presented the project and its context. We tried to provoke an engaged response of students to contemporary social issues. Until our next meeting the students were invited to brainstorm and come forward with their own ideas. Then, they were guided through a process of selection and elaboration of ideas. Some students have dropped out but those who remained showed eagerness to present their view on problems of their own choice. It took us all several months to finalise the works which are on display at this exhibition.
Izidor Ostan Ozbolt. Play
Juvenile art is specific because it reflects again and again the attitude of their creators towards the same issues which seem eternal and typical of each rising generation. It is a fact that every generation of young people is faced with the basic existential problems (who am I, what do I wish to become, what kind of society do I live in, where are the boundaries of my freedom, who sets the boundaries and who guides me, what can I change and how can I revolt, what should I do to make the world a better place to live in, what should I do not to follow in the footsteps of my parents?). Since adolescents are preoccupied with these issues, the person who works with them and hopes to preserve and to point out their sincerity and the power of their expression cannot set the curatorial concept of the exhibition in advance. The concept must derive from them, their contribution. Therefore it is never uniform because each work of art must speak for itself.
Jus Zidar. Youth Suicide
Consequently I conceived the exhibition as an open studio, as a kind of laboratory, which showcases different approaches to art. Youth art is and must be engaged; let it deal with very intimate or public affairs. Adolescents see art on one hand as a space of democracy and equality, a space of active resistance to globalisation and capitalist omnipresence, media oversaturation and manipulation and on the other hand a space of very intimate personal declaration.
NINA OSTAN
Curator of Eksperimenta! Slovenian exposition and co-mentor
