DIVA Station & Videospotting
Barbara Borčić: Ljubljana Alternative Scene
Presentation & screening

Thursday, November 14, at 7 pm
Künstlerhaus. Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz

In frame of the exhibition … Was ist Kunst? … Resuming Fragmented Histories, Sept. 22– Nov. 21, 2013

The presentation will focus on the cultural/artistic practices of the Ljubljana Alternative Scene in the eighties, a conglomerate of artistic and cultural protagonists and new social and theoretical movements (peace, ecologist, feminist, gay and lesbian; New Left, Post-Structuralism and Lacanianism) which eventually constituted a civil society. While video and multimedia practices formed its constitutive part as well as its (media) effect, the Škuc Gallery as an important protagonist of the scene introduced the concept of expanded visual arts and was actually the space where Raša Todosijević presented his work/poster Was ist Kunst (Marinela Koželj) in 1981 and produced a strong impact on Slovene artists and their artistic practices.

Some video works from the Alternative Scene in the 80s have already been presented in frame of the exhibition … Was ist Kunst? … Resuming Fragmented Histories: videos by the group Meje kontrole št. 4 (Limits of control no. 4) – which Barbara Borčić was also a member of –, and a controversial video by Laibach group named it XY – Unsolved.

SCREENING:

Zemira Alajbegović: Tereza
FV Video / ŠKD Forum, Ljubljana 1983, 4’ 26’’

A collage of representations of socialistic victories and funerals, melodramatic films and family TV shows, accompanied with singing of a popular Yugoslav singer, Tereza Kesovija.

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Neven Korda / Borghesia: Discipline (The Triumph of Desire)
FV Video / ŠKD Forum, Ljubljana 1989, 3′46”

The video is referring to the political situation in Yugoslavia in its last years through the juxtaposition of an image of public space and the portrayed private space and music by Borghesia.

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Marko Kovačič: American Dream
Brut, Ljubljana 1986, 6’ 43’’

An ambivalent deconstruction of fantasies about the promised land and faith in art.

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Zemira Alajbegović & Neven Korda: The Old and the New
V.S. Video / Forum Ljubljana, VPK & TV Slovenia, Ljubljana 1997, 66 min

Documentary video presents the lively Ljubljana alternative/sub-cultural scene in the 1980s from the personal point of view and on basis of the documentary recordings by FV Video from the time, featuring also FV Disco and Škuc Gallery.

MORE:

• Barbara Borčić: Ljubljana Alternative Scene
• … Was ist Kunst? … Resuming Fragmented Histories

[Published November 12, 2013]