CHRONOLOGY
Here we mention
the most important events, shifts, programmes and projects related to
the video medium in the Slovene cultural space, as well as those decisive
for the production and presentation of Slovene video art in the former
Yugoslavia. The events most frequently took place in Ljubljana; unless
otherwise stated, the event took place in Ljubljana.
Barbara
Borčić & Igor Španjol
1969
Belo mleko belih prsi/The White Milk of White Breasts, a static
black-and-white shot with changing inscriptions, was the first video in
Slovenia and Yugoslavia. At that time, the authors Nuša and Srečo Dragan
were working within the OHO conceptual art movement and led the Information
Centre for Film in Ljubljana.
In video's `pioneering' period in the early '70s, they considered and
used video - which enabled the immediate screening of images and direct
communication with the audience - as an element of their artistic meta-actions,
or as a means of documenting. They worked with the Akai and Ikegami equipment,
borrowed from the Avtotehna company (Open Reel 2''), or at international
video events, such as CAYC: International Open Encounter on Video in
Ferarra, Paris, and Barcelona.
The first experimental dance project for television - Odmevi/Echoes,
by Majna Sevnik Firšt - was important primarily from the viewpoint of
fine art interventions in the media, which continued in 1970 with the
Pet impresij/Five Impressions project.
1972
The first April Meetings of Extended Media (later Video Meetings)
was held in the SKC Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade, curated by Biljana
Tomić. Numerous foreign and Yugoslav video artists were presented in the
following years; Nuša and Srečo Dragan took part regularly.
A book entitled Televizija danas/Television Today and edited
by
Vera Horvat Pintarić was published in Zagreb, and included texts on the
first video experiments.
1973
A number of video artists, including Nuša and Srečo Dragan, created their
(first) video works at the Trigon '73 (Audiovisualle Botschaften)
exhibition in Graz. Nuša and Srečo Dragan founded the FAVIT Centre for
Film, Audio and Video Research TV and VT, where they created projects
until 1980. FAVIT was also a magazine made in collaboration with colleagues
from Zagreb (its first editor was Vladimir Petek), Belgrade, Sarajevo
and Novi Sad. It was released on micro-film and magnetic tape and viewed
by means of slide projector. Beside others, Braco Dimitrijević and Joseph
Beuys were among collaborators of the special international edition, realised
for the Eight Yugoslav Artists exhibition in Richard Demarco Gallery
in Edinburgh.
In Sinteza magazine, Stane Bernik defined video art as an experiment
and as a creative experience of contemporary fine art expression. This
marked the beginning of discussions about video as a new medium in texts.
1974
Nuša and Srečo Dragan created their seven-day project of collective communication
entitled Seven Nights and One Day to the Alpha-Theta Rhythm of the
Oral Tradition, at the 3rd April Meetings in Belgrade. It started
with an instruction: `This is a gesture which you must repeat and transmit
our gesture to another who will repeat... .' Video was used to provoke
the viewer's imagination and to neutralise the static and hermetic character
of the conceptual statement. Part of the project was a round table attended
by Bogdanka Poznanović (who would later become professor of video at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad), Braco Dimitrijević, Joseph Beuys and
others.
1975
The Video Heads group visited Ljubljana on its return from the April
Meetings. It fascinated everyone with a van full of video technology,
and with their works and a video version of the cult film Yellow Submarine
by Richard Lester, which was screened for a group of Ljubljana artists
in Tomaž Brejc and Taja Vidmar's apartment.
1976
Miha Vipotnik was the first student on the postgraduate course in video
art and television, and he argued for the establishment of a video department
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. As the first Slovene video-maker
he had the opportunity of working at the studios of TV Slovenia public
television, where he designed the opening credits for different commercial
and advertising programmes and editorials. He investigated the structure
and aesthetic effects of the electronic image; he `discovered' the feedback
effect and started to create video graphic works.
The first synthesis of video and theatre - the Šarada ali Darja/ Charades,
or Daria by the Glej Theatre - included a video by Nuša and Srečo
Dragan in two ways: as previously shot material presenting an actress
in an open-air setting, and as real-time footage of the stage events,
shot and screened during the performance.
1977
Ekran magazine published a historical overview of tendencies in
video, including a selected bibliography, edited by Brane Kovič.
1979
Miha Vipotnik completed his two-year multi-media project for Slovene public
television, entitled Videogram 4, which introduced the experimental
video genre focused on the manipulation and transformation of the image
and on editing. From material shot in a television studio, he made four
videotapes for the Multivizija/Multi-vision video installation;
the fifth, entitled Medijozonija/Media-sonia, was broadcast as
an experimental programme on television. It began with information and
a warning for viewers that `all disturbances and irregularities in the
picture and sound form part of the programme, and therefore they should
not try to adjust the picture on their TV sets'. In the years to follow
he directed, as an external collaborator of Slovene public television,
a number of programmes on culture and music, e.g. Jugorock/Yugo-rock
and Nova godba/New Music, and made the first music video clips
in Slovenia.
A screening of works by Miha Vipotnik, and a photo-documentation and screening
of works by Nuša and Srečo Dragan, were organised at ŠKUC Student Cultural
and Arts Centre (later ŠKUC Gallery) at Stari Trg 21, and a comprehensive
catalogue with texts by the artists and Tomaž Brejc was also published
for the occasion.
Bogdan Lešnik wrote in Ekran magazine about video technology and
procedures, and about video as `a medium whose specific conditions place
it in the sphere of art and thus deprive it of political alertness'.
1981
The FV 112/15 group (later FV), working within the framework of ŠKD Forum
Student Cultural Association, took over the organisation of the Student
Disco programme on Tuesdays, naming it FV Disco. They borrowed disused
portable video equipment (ADP - Automatic Data Processing) from the Faculty
of Arts (department of psychology) and shot on waste computer tapes. They
started to document concerts, projects and events at the FV Disco, which
operated until 1985, first in the Student Village in Rožna Dolina, then
in the Zgornja Šiška Youth Centre, and finally in the K4 Club.
Emil Memon shot an ambient video in the spirit of Warhol's films and the
Velvet Underground's music. By means of a special procedure, he later
transferred individual video shots onto canvases and presented his creations
at an exhibition in the ŠKUC Gallery.
A seminar about film - and later also about video techniques - was organised
by the Association of Cultural Organisations of Slovenia (ZKOS). The schedule
comprised practical work, but also theoretical lectures and screenings.
It was led by Peter Milovanovič Jarh.
1982
In spring a video section was founded within ŠKD Forum. It engaged in
the production, distribution and promotion of video art. In May it got
its first VHS video equipment, a gift from the Unior factory in Zreče.
Its founder and original head was Marijan Osole-Max, and his successors
were Irma Mežnarič, Radmila Pavlović, Božo Zadravec, and Eva Rohrman.
The FV Video group operated within the same organisation. It was led
by
Neven Korda and Zemira Alajbegović, with the collaboration of Dario Sereval,
Goran Devidé (†), Anita Lopojda and others. The video equipment was used
without interruption to document events and create the first art videos.
The Dišalo je po pomladi/It smelt of Spring performance by the
FV 112/15 group at the Spring Festival in Križanke was among the
first performances to be shot on video.
In December the Sunday Video Club commenced operation at the FV Disco.
The programme comprised music video, art video, computer animation and
film, e.g. The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle with the Sex Pistols and
Ikone glamourja - odmevi smrti/Icons of Glamour - Echoes of Death
by the Meje kontrole št. 4 group from Ljubljana (Barbara Borčić, Marina
Gržinić, Dušan Mandić, and Aina Šmid).
A presentation of video works by Richard Krieshe took place in Cankarjev
Dom, and the Media Provocation in the `80s exhibition of Yugoslav
video art was organised by Nuša and Srečo Dragan in the ZDSLU (Association
of Societies of Slovene Fine Artists) Gallery.
1983
This year saw the beginning of extensive video production as part of the
clubbing and multi-media activities of the `Ljubljana subcultural and
alternative scene', related both to mass culture and constructive theoretical
practice. In the `80s it went under the name of ŠKUC-Forum video production.
The central sites for productive and presentational activities were the
FV Disco (e.g. the presentation of The Kitchen from New York; video clips
by Laurie Anderson, Public Image Limited and the like) and the ŠKUC Gallery
(headed by Dušan Mandić, Marina Gržinić and Barbara Borčić). Countless
art, documentary and music videos were made that criticised social and
cultural policy, dealt with marginal and taboo themes, and disclosed the
ideological mechanisms of the state and the aesthetical effects of various
art practices.
VIDEO CD was the title of the international video biennial organised
byCankarjev Dom; there were four such biennials in total. The very first
event resulted in the introduction of video into Slovene institutions,
enabled links with guest artists and curators, and stimulated the gradual
assertion of Slovene video internationally. It presented foreign video
art and television creations, and enabled production within a video
workshop
at a temporary video studio. Miha Vipotnik, the director of the festival,
endeavoured - unsuccessfully - for several years to establish a permanent
international video centre at Cankarjev Dom. The main attractions
at the video workshop were the Australian artists Robert Randall and
Frank Bendinelli, who created A Foreign Affair video in collaboration
with students of the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts. This was the first
acquaintance with the blue key procedure, the layering of background
surfaces and actions, in Slovenia. They shot small collages rather than
real settings,
and these collages became settings for scenes acted out by actors in
an entirely blue room. They also did two video installations in the
ŠKUC
Gallery, screened their videos, and talked about their work and the Australian
video scene.
FV Video presented a spectacular media programme to an audience of several
thousand at the Novi Rock/New Rock `83 festival in Križanke. The
programme brought together mass entertainment and art through the use
of new technologies: columns of TV sets were placed on the stage to `enhance'
the stage events, and during breaks they screened music videos, art videos
and real-time interviews with members of the bands. All shots were also
screened on two large video screens with an independent PA system in the
entrance court of Križanke. FV Video documented and produced similar programmes
for other events (e.g., a symposium entitled What is Alternative?).
And Marijan Osole-Max was in charge of the simultaneous screening of the
Casus belli performance by Marko Kovačič on two monitors in the
window of ŠKUC Gallery for numerous spectators on the street.
The Festival of Yugoslav Alternative Film and Video took place
in the Belgrade Academic Film Centre; Slovene video production was also
presented there.
In a text published in Viks, a ŠKUC-Forum bulletin, Dušan Mandić
wrote about the new codes of signification, and highlighted the difference
between the formalistic approach to video in the `70s and the mass dimensions
and social engagement of the audio-visual video explorations of the `80s.
1984
Marijan Osole-Max established Brut, a U-matic (low band) video-editing
studio at Beethovnova Street. He had been a regular (co-)producer of video
products throughout the `80.The Video Theatre Party was founded within
the MKC Youth Cultural Club in Koper. In the years to follow it created,
together with Radovan Čok and Lucian Kleva, several multi-media projects
(Sprava/Reconciliation, Lipstick I and Lipstick II), which
also included music video clips (e.g. Eksekutor/Executioner).
Video Bar started to operate on Sundays in Kapelica at 4 Kersnikova Street.
Visitors could choose and pay for viewing their favourite videos, just
as on a jukebox. In addition, London Video Arts and Soft Video from Italy,
as well as video ambiences by the Kolaps and Autopsia groups, were also
presented there.
The ŠKUC Gallery regularly documented all its projects (the footage was
edited in art-documentary videos, entitled Back to the USA, Kaleidoscope,
Umetniška video banka Galerije ŠKUC 83-88/ŠKUC Gallery Art Video Bank
83-88). It also started the Video-Box-Bar, which screened (initially
on Saturdays) video tapes chosen by viewers (until 1985).
TV galerija/TV Gallery, a programme on visual art from RTV Belgrade,
included video works by Yugoslav and foreign artists, and also enabled
production. Some 60 editions of the programme, edited by Dunja Blažević,
were made until 1990. ŠKUC-Forum
video production was presented in Sarajevo as part of the New Slovene
Visual Scene exhibition. It was organised by Radmila Pavlović.
Brane Kovič edited a thematic supplement on video for Ekran magazine.
In addition to a text by Dušan Mandić about ŠKUC-Forum video production,
it was dedicated to the pioneer of video production, Nam June Paik.
1985
The first video cassette by Borghesia, entitled Tako mladi/So Young,
was issued by the FV Editions (led by Zemira Alajbegović, Neven Korda,
Aldo Ivančić, Dario Sereval and, since 1988, Monika Skaberne). The second
video cassette, Iskanje izgubljenega časa/In Search of Lost Time,
was issued in the same year and presented at the ŠKUC Gallery.
1986
Avtovizija/Auto-vision by Miha Vipotnik and Marijan Osole-Max was
the first programme on art video made for RTV Ljubljana. Video-makers
were invited to participate with one-minute videos of their choice.
Studio 37 was founded. It engaged in film and video production (initially
U-matic, later Beta). It collaborated with Slovene film-makers and did
production of its own. Its co-founder and artistic director was Jurij
Korenc.
Numerous presentations of Yugoslav video art in European and American
centres took place in the second half of the `80s. They were organised
by Biljana Tomić, Bojana Pejić, Dunja Blažević, Miha Vipotnik and Kathy
Rae Huffman, and also by Nuša and Srečo Dragan - e.g. La récente production
Vidéo en Yougoslavie; Video match France-Yougoslavie in the Loža Gallery
in Koper and the Yugoslav Cultural Centre in Paris.
A presentation of ŠKUC-Forum video production at the Art - Criticism
in the Mid-Eighties exhibition at the Collegium Artisticum in Sarajevo
was organised by Marina Gržinić.
The joint issue of Ekran and Sinteza published the hitherto
largest number of texts by domestic and foreign authors about video art,
its history and relationship with television and design.
Videosfera/Video-sphere, an anthology of theoretical texts about
video, including contributions from video-makers, was edited by Mihajlo
Ristić and published in Belgrade.
1987
A promotional programme was shot in the Brut Studio as a model for the
future programme scheme of the independent Authorial, or Alternative Television
(ATV). The programme was also meant to include the development of video.
ATV was supposed to be the only television station besides Slovene public
television. It was devised and led - in co-operation with the Union of
Socialist Youth of Slovenia, represented by Mojmir Ocvirk - by Bogdan
Lešnik, Marijan Osole-Max, Zemira Alajbegović and Irma Mežnarič.
A round table, entitled The Pluralism of Electronic Media for a Pluralistic
Society, was organised in connection with the initiative to found
ATV at the Novi Rock festival. The participants - Bogdan Lešnik, Rastko
Močnik, Melita Zajc, Lev Kreft, Andrej Škerlep, Darinka Pek, Mojmir Ocvirk,
Bogdana Herman and Tadej Zupančič - spoke about the situation in the mass
media and investigative journalism.
FV Video organised the Videogledalnica/Video Watching Room in Kapelica
at Kersnikova 4. It was devised as an ATV club - a regular two-hour programme
of mainly music videos, screened by means of a video projector.
In February the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts introduced a video course
(first within the design department and later as an independent subject
of study). Miha Vipotnik helped draw up the course, followed by Srečo
Dragan (who is still head there).
A new generation of video-makers began to emerge. They considered video
technology to be an integral segment of art practices, leading to the
realisation of contemporary art works. The former antagonistic relationship
to the medium and its institutions (television) and other ideological
apparatuses of the state was gradually vanishing.
Video Meetings '87 - the Museum of the XIVth Winter Olympic Games,
in co-operation with RTV Sarajevo, the best equipped studio in Yugoslavia
at that time - enabled numerous artists to realise their works.
Video-mix 001, the first Yugoslav music video festival in Zagreb,
also presented art videos and international rock videos and films.
Two Slovene video clips won awards: Borghesia: Venceremos and Videosex:
Zemlja pleše/The Dancing Earth, made by Neven Korda and Marijan Osole-Max.
There were presentations of Slovene video production at the Yugoslav
Documenta 87 exhibition in Sarajevo, curated by Marina Gržinić, and
in Recent Slovene Video Production at the Air Gallery in London,
curated by Nuša and Srečo Dragan.
1988
Brut and FV Editions issued video cassettes under the common title of
NEO VIDEO: ŠKUC R.O.P.O.T., Good Morning America, and MAX.
A round table, entitled A Fight for Media - ATV and Radio Student East
of Freedom, was organised in the ŠKUC Gallery; it included a presentation
of the ATV programme and NEO VIDEO editions.
The Film Video Monitor festival was organised by Kino Atelje in
Gorizia. Since then it has annually presented film and video production
in Slovenia. The third festival was dedicated to the presentation of the
ATV project, Retrovizija and art video. It was curated by Nuša and Srečo
Dragan.
1989
The Information Centre of the Museum of Modern Art (ICMG) began to work
in the museum basement. It organised lectures, round tables and symposia,
and engaged in video and new media activities. It was headed by Marjeta
Marinčič. It went on to present national video productions (Germany, Canada,
Catalonia, Great Britain, Croatia, Russia), selections from international
festivals and video collections (Ostranenie, London Video Access,
Monte Video TBA, MoMA from New York), and artists such as Bill Viola and
Henry Bond.
The Ohrid 89 international video colony was held in Macedonia.
It enabled the production of video works in co-operation with RTV Skopje.
Theorists, producers and video artists participated in the event, including
Nuša Dragan, Srečo Dragan, and Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid.
The Deconstruction, Quotation & Subversion: Video from Yugoslavia
programme was organised and curated by Kathy Rae Huffman. It was presented
at the Artists' Space in New York and the ICA in Boston.
The Video in Slovenia programme was presented at the 17th Week
of Domestic Film in Celje and Alpe Adria Cinema event in Trieste.
The last VIDEO CD 89 international video biennial, organised by
Marina Gržinić, was held in Cankarjev Dom.
1990
The invitation to tender issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic
of Slovenia included video for the first time. The Ministry thus became
a regular co-financier of art videos in Slovenia. In the `70s and 80s,
video production had been part of the fine art programme, and it was only
at the end of the `80s that it became part of the film programme. The
then Cultural Committee of Slovenia distributed film subsidies through
the state-owned Viba studios, including subsidies for the so-called enrichment
of television programmes.
1991
Authorship became the most significant feature of video production: minutely
devised scenarios, shooting scripts, and professional actors and dancers
forming the cast. Post-production was becoming more complex and decisive.
Amateur equipment was nearly forgotten and video-makers worked chiefly
in professional video studios (e.g. Kregar Video Production), collaborated
with Slovene public television, and regularly participated in international
video festivals (The Hague, Berlin, Osnabrück, Wroclaw, Bonn, and Montreal).
VHS and U-matic formats had gradually given way to Beta (or Betacam SP)
format. Video featured frequently as an element and means of expression
within multi-media projects, installations and (dance) performances.
Ljubljana Dance Theatre started the Video Film Dance Festival in
Cankarjev Dom, which presented international video dance production. It
was led by Cis Bierinckx until 1993, and by Koen van Daele until its last
appearance in 1996.
The Center za dehumanizacijo/The Centre for Dehumanisation 1985-91
video cassette and the Nestrpnost/Intolerance video film by Zemira
Alajbegović and Neven Korda were presented in the ŠKUC Gallery.
1992
The Piazzeta Ljubljana (Neurope to Europe) interactive television
programme, part of the Van Gogh TV project, entitled Piazza virtuale,
at the international Documenta IX exhibition, linked Ljubljana
and Kassel. It involved a number of artists (Lidija Bernik, Marko Kovačič,
Ema Kugler, Franc Purg, Bojan Štokelj, and the Ana Monro Theatre), theorists
and actors (Damjan Bojadžijev, Jelena Lovrič, Silva Mežnarič, Radko Polič,
Gorazd Suhadolnik, Rade Šerbedžija, and Slavoj Žižek). By means of image
and voice transmission (telephone and picture phone) from the KUD France
Prešeren Cultural and Arts Centre and Radio Student, the protagonists
were transferred to the improvised studio in Kassel, where the viewers
could intervene in the programme, which was consequently transmitted back
- via the 3SAT satellite programme and the Kanal A programme in Ljubljana
- to the starting point in KUD France Prešeren. The event was organised
by Marko Košnik.
The Podoba/Image serial television programme by Zemira Alajbegović
and Neven Korda started life at Kanal A. This was the most important television
presentation of art video production in the `80s in Slovenia (five programmes
up to 1993).
At the premiere of his video No More Heroes Any More at the Mladinsko
Theatre, Marko Kovačič made seven installations and staged, together with
collaborators, a performance with the same title. He enacted live the
elements that essentially defined the video: designed settings, mechanical
figurines and the performance by the main protagonists.
Matjaž Mrak and Mirko Simić, with collaborators from the KUD Naprej Cultural
and Arts Centre, organised the Slovene Video Festival in Idrija,
which presented 39 documentary, sports, dance, art and feature videos
by 28 video-makers. In the following years, KUD Naprej also (co-)produced
videos by authors from the Idrija and Cerklje regions.
The Slovene Video exhibition was held in the ZDSLU Gallery as part
of the 17th ICSID `92 international biennial, presenting a selection
of the most recent productions, more distant works and student videos.
It was curated by Srečo Dragan.
1993
Marko Košnik made the first interactive sound-video installation, entitled
Figura v prostoru, človek v zaboju / Figure in Space, Man in the Case,
in the Škuc Gallery. The whole system (including infra-red security cameras,
an image digitiser with a video buffer, and a video projector) continuously
reacted to the visitors - both visually and in the auditory response of
resonant plates. It was controlled by the author, who was enclosed in
the case together with the equipment and responded to the visitor's reactions
by editing the video transmission and shaping the sound according to his/her
movements. The case also featured as an exhibit.
A video section began to operate within the MKC Youth Cultural Centre
in Maribor under the leadership of Jože Slaček. It presented videos and
produced primarily animated and documentary videos. In 1993 and 1994 there
were regular evenings of video screenings, lectures and discussions with
video-makers. They presented a wide range of works, from their own production,
products from FV Editions and renowned Slovene video artists, to Art in
Video programmes, selections of videos about painters and sculptors, Eastern
European Video, Ostranenie 93 and From the Alternative Scene
to Art Video.
Following unfruitful negotiations with the city authorities and the demolition
of buildings at the former Metelkova barracks, which were meant to make
up a socio-cultural centre, the members of the Mreža za Metelkovo/Network
for Metelkova association squatted the premises. Mirko Simić documented
the occupation and the manifold events - including a series of video screenings
- that took place in the months that followed (e.g. video programme as
part of the Anti-Nazi multi-media event at the Channel Zero Club).
Martin Lucas presented a public-access television programme made by Paper
Tiger TV from New York in the Škuc Gallery. Paper Tiger TV made programmes
by combining various amateurish shots from viewers across the U.S. on
a certain subject with official television reports on the same theme,
thus raising questions about public opinion and the institution of power.
The first Ostranenie international video festival took place in
Bauhaus, Dessau, focused on media production in the former Eastern Bloc.
The three editions of the festival (until 1997) also presented a number
of works by Slovene video makers.
1994
Marko Peljhan and a number of collaborators staged his computer video
LADOMIR-FAKTYPA: First Surface - Microlab in Cankarjev Dom. The video
was produced in real time on a computer: images were simultaneously calculated
according to a pre-devised programme by Luka Frelih and Alfred Anžlovar.
The Pekarna Multi-cultural Centre opened in Maribor, presenting multi-media
projects and video screenings (e.g. a video by Klon Art group at the Hiša
Gallery in 1998).
The Slovene Film Fund was established within the Ministry of Culture,
with the purpose of financially supporting the domestic film industry
(the production, distribution and promotion of films and video works).
Sokolski Dom Productions, a society of film, audio and video culture enthusiasts,
was founded in Ilirska Bistrica. They later pooled their own financial
resources to equip a S-VHS video studio, organised courses in video shooting
and editing, produced video films, and organised video screenings at different
events.
V očesu videa / In the Eye of Video, a series of video programmes,
was screened at the Trnfest open-air festival at KUD France Prešeren.
Video became an important part of successive editions of the festival.
The Soros Center for Contemporary Arts-Ljubljana (SCCA-Ljubljana) and
Škuc Gallery prepared a programme From the Alternative Scene to Art
Video. Video Production in Slovenia 1992-1994, which was presented
in several East European cities, Udine and Los Angeles. It was made by
Zemira Alajbegović, Barbara Borčić and Eva Rohrman.
A Past Memorised - A Future Conceived: Video from Slovenia programme
visited many European and American cities. It was curated by Kathy Rae
Huffman.
The SCCA-Ljubljana initiated the Videodokument research work for the collection
and arrangement of archives and documentation on video production in Slovenia.
1995
Ljudmila (Ljubljana Digital Media Laboratory) began to operate in KUD
France Prešeren as an Open Society Institute-Slovenia programme, headed
by Mitja Doma. It started the first Cyber-café in Eastern Europe. It offered
ISP services to its users, and a number of web-sites for NGOs, societies,
groups and artists have
been published on its server since then. The New Media Production and
Organisation Unit (Vuk Ćosić, Luka Frelih, Marko Peljhan and others) developed
departments for Web and multi-media production, digital video and radio,
and three-dimensional and computer animation.
The first International Festival of Computer Arts was organised
in Maribor, presenting new media arts and technologies, including video.
The ŠOU Kapelica Gallery, headed by Jurij Krpan, began to include video
presentations in its programme. The first presentation was SPIN
by Brian Springer and New American Video Production, followed by
the End of the Message - Archives Live! radio-video ambience by
Darko Fritz (1996); Reference to Difference, recent video production
and computer animation by the younger generation from Croatia (1996);
and War Generation, video production by the younger generations
from Sarajevo (1997), among others.
1996
The Kibla Multi-media Centre opened in July in Maribor, headed by Peter
Tomaž Dobrila. It has operated according to the principle of the emancipation
of the media; new technologies - including video - have been an important
segment of the programme. It has presented a number of Slovene video-makers
and multi-media projects, a video performance by Mirko Simić (1997), a video
evening by MKC Maribor (1997), and the War Generation.
The 1st Independent Slovene Film and Video Festival was organised
by KUD Cineast under the auspices of ZKOS. Public invitations have been
issued every year in four different categories: documentaries, feature films,
experimental films and animated films. Some forty proposals for films and
videos have been submitted each year.
Likovni Salon Celje organised monthly video evenings, entitled Cybersalon
Aquarium. The programme was curated by Irena Čerčnik, and it presented
video works by Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid, Marko Košnik, Mirko Simić,
Marko Kovačič, Ema Kugler, Zemira Alajbegović and Neven Korda, Jasna Hribernik,
Marko Peljhan and Nataša Prosenc.
The City of Women international festival of contemporary arts (which
began in 1995) presented a videotheque with a selection of the most recent
art films and videos by women artists, including works by Cindy Sherman
and Jo Ann Kaplan, documentaries on avant-garde artists and videos from
the ICA in London, and No Alternative Girls programmes.
The 5th Video Film Dance Festival took place at the Slovene Cinematheque
hall, which also gave space for the Forum Ljubljana video programme, screened
as part of the Student Cultural Days.
1997
Comma, a video studio open to the public, was founded by the Open Society
Institute-Slovenia and headed by Amra Bakšić. It has offered a technical
service and financial help for video productions; for example, the China
installation by Marko A. Kovačič; Mannequins by Marija Mojca Pungerčar;
Bonnevoie? Juice Bar by Apolonija Šušteršič; and the Banquet
theatre production by Emil Hrvatin. It has operated in conjunction with
Ljudmila in the premises at 74 Prušnikova Street in Šentvid. They also
prepared the Beauty and the East international net.time conference,
and presentations of the net.artists Alexij Šulgin, Olia Lialina, Etoy,
Jodi, Heath Bunting, and Kendall Gears.
Kregar Video Production installed the most advanced video equipment (a
robotised Digital Beta camera, Panasonic D5/D3, a Silicon Graphics station)
and thus enabled 3D production of animation and virtual reality.
The Media in Media international exhibition, organised by SCCA-Ljubljana,
reserved an important position for video as a means of artistic expression.
It presented a range of historical and topical works, all reflecting on
mass media through formally manifold artistic media. The exhibition was
curated by Vanesa Cvahte.
The Wise Hand exhibition by the ZDSLU in the Rihard Jakopič Gallery
included contemporary (video) installations, but also featured a retrospective
screening of Slovene video works from the `80s, selected by Judita Krivec
Dragan and Nadja Zgonik.
The Videospotting programme, part of the European Cultural Month
at the Metropol Club, presented six one-hour programmes: Bodyspotting,
Creatures, Docu-art, Intolerance, Dance-mania, and Memories,
curated by Barbara Borčić and Nerina Kocjančič. Since then, the programme
was screened at the Interstanding international conference in Tallinn
and the European Film and Video Avant-gardes event at Balász Béla
Studió in Budapest.
After its presentation in Slovene Cinematheque, the programme In Search
of the Lost Time - 15 Years of Forum Video Production, edited by Eva
Rohrman, travelled to numerous towns in Slovenia.
The City of Women festival featured the Not Only One Day of
Slovene Women's Film and Video programme at Slovene Cinematheque,
dedicated to the production since 1991. The programme was curated by Maja
Weiss. A further two premiere screenings took place there: Staro in
novo/The Old and the New, a full-length video film by Zemira Alajbegović
and Neven Korda, which employs documentary material to present the personal
views of the authors, who were figures on the alternative scene in the
`80s; and the Vrtoglavi ptič/Vertigo Bird video dance by Sašo Podgoršek
and the En Knap dance group.
The 6th Slovene Film Marathon in Portorož bestowed awards on the
art videos Tajga / Taiga by Ema Kugler and Ballabende by
Jasna Hribernik, while the Grand Award was conferred on Vertigo Bird
(filmed on celluloid).
Peter Weibel curated the 2nd U3 - triennial of Slovene art. He
exposed art practices using new media and technologies, which also expressed
artists' relationships to video tradition. Maja Licul and Nika Špan, for
example, prepared video projects about their communication with the curator.
A cycle of evenings, entitled Video Shaft and presenting Slovene
video-makers, was organised in the Škuc Gallery, KIC in Idrija and Kibla
Multi-media Centre in Maribor. It was organised by Matjaž Mrak and Marko
Simić.
The Škuc Club prepared a number of video screenings in the Škuc Gallery,
including works by Thomas Bayrle, Anne Farrel, Igor Kuduz, Vladislav Knezević,
Simon Bogojević Narath, and Aleksander Jankovič.
The premiere screening of Nesreča enega kmeta / An Accident of a Farmer,
a video film by the Grejpfrut group, took place at the KUD France Prešeren.
Mirko Simić and a number of collaborators staged the Parabola video
project at the Ambasada Gavioli disco club in Izola. The eight-hour spectacle
included simultaneous real-time music an video mixing by DJs and VJs.
Later that year, the Parabola project visited several clubs in Slovenia
(Klub Metropol, Ljubljana; Planet Life, Domžale; Kibla, Maribor).
1998
The Strip Core group organised a video screening in the K4 Club on the
occasion of the publication of the 20th edition of Stripburger,
the only magazine for comics in Slovenia. They presented videos by the
authors of comics (e.g. the Le dernier cri group, Marcel de Jure, etc.)
and a documentary about the comics Hooked on Comics. The extended
version of the programme, including video works by Rok Sieberer - Kuri,
travelled to different clubs around Slovenia (e.g. Pivka Student Club,
Velenje Youth Centre and Pekarna Maribor). The Kibla Multi-media Centre
organised screenings of video works by Sluik and Kloosterdijk on the occasion
of the Cartographers exhibition and a video about the visits of Kibla
members to different European media centres, made by Aleksandra Kostič.
The Film on Thursdays programme ran in the Škuc Gallery. It was
organised by the KUD Pirati.
The Cinema-Ear cycle at Slovene Cinémathque presented two video-collages
(with the use of gramophones, CD and sampler): Alpha, based on
Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, and A Journey to the West
(His-Yu Chi) by David Shea, dedicated to Hong Kong film makers; and The
Artificial Eye, a project by Zeena Parkins (live music) and Janena
Higgins (live video mix).
A programme of Slovene video works, selected by Marina Gržinić, was screened
at Avant-garde Films and Videos from Central Europe programme at
the Festival of Central European Culture in London.
|
|
|