- Personal exhibitions, Installations & Performances

STATEMENT

Today, at the break of the 1990s, it is important for video art to affirm its own language and aesthetic principles. New experiments are necessary: not those experiments from the end of the sixties, but the awareness of urgent research work as the point of reference enabling specific entry into the late 20th century.

It is necessary to affirm the video surface as a constitutive element of the video medium, and as being different from other media.

The surface has been understood as a sensitive (erogenous), hovering image constituting the work space for touching or cutting into the visual history of art.

C.V.

Working in tandem between 1967 and 1988, they were the pioneers of video art in (former) Yugoslavia.

They have worked individually since 1988.

> ANA NUŠA DRAGAN

> SREČO DRAGAN

VIDEOGRAPHY: Art Video

BELO MLEKO BELIH PRSI / THE WHITE MILK OF WHITE BREASTS
Open reel 2”, Ljubljana 1969, 30'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan

The still image of woman's breast with a glistening drop of milk. Although the video image is employed as a photograph, this pioneering work announces the procedure of using changeable graphic signs, which has later become one of the prevailing procedures of video art. In this work, the procedure invests the still image with dynamism and employs the editing of the sign, while we simultaneously follow the editing of sound, bringing discussions on video art in different languages.

GRASSES SPEAKING
Open reel 2”, Ljubljana 1972, 30'
Script & Dir Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan

Static close-ups of a leaf, fruits, and hairs follow one another in a slow rhythm.

ŠAKTI IS COMING / SHAKTI IS COMING
Open reel 1/2“, 1974, 3'
Script & Dir Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan

A shot of two hands in front of a screen. One palm is stuck to the screen, another one writes on it. The effect of an image within an image, the endless duplication of the image on the screen.

LINIJA SRCA NUSE & SRECA / THE HEART LINE OF NUSA & SRECO
Montreal 1977, 30'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan

A palm in front of a screen interchanges with a drawing of the palm with marked points on the heart's destiny lines.

IZ VZHODA NA VZHOD / EASTBOUND FROM THE EAST
U-Matic, RTV Ljubljana 1978, 30'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Within the framework of the programme about ŠKUC, entitled The Young for the Young.

The artists place on the floor a sheet of paper with a drawing of pentagonal star with two arrows and the inscription: 'From Yugoslavia to Poland'. One by one the artists pass the diagonal line drawn on the paper; they place a wooden bar on the inscription 'Wood', and an iron bar on the inscription 'Iron'; the criss-crossing diagonal lines come to view.

VIDEO ŠKUC MANIFEST / VIDEO ŠKUC MANIFESTO
U-Matic, RTV Ljubljana 1979, 7'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan

The video segment of the programme about ŠKUC entitled The Young for the Young. The artists stand in front of a TV monitor, approach it and turn it off. The effect of the turned-off TV monitor lasts for some time.

VIDEO SLIKANJE (MASCULIN-FEMININ) / VIDEO PAINTING (MASCULINE-FEMININE)
Trigon, Graz 1979, 10'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan

The hands of the artists simultaneously write inscriptions in Slovene and English. They paint with yellow and blue pigments; by strewing and mixing they create circular and rectangular forms, drawing diagonals through them. At the end they sit beside the television transmitting the video painting.
The video was based on the Masculine-Feminine video action and installation.

VIDEO ŠUS / VIDEO SHOT
U-Matic, RTV Belgrade 1981, 5'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Within the framework of the Pokretne slike (Moving Images) programme.

The artists - turned upside down - approach each other; a shot of hands grasping; their hands move over their own profiles on the screen, their faces darken into silhouettes. The female figure approaches the TV monitor showing an image of woman's shoes. When she touches it, man's boots appear on the screen. The sound of broken glass.

POMISLITE VRAT NI / IMAGINE NO DOOR
U-matic, RTV Ljubljana 1982, 7'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Within the framework of the Filmska delavnica (Film Workshop) programme.

A man is showing his back to the audience; he is repeatedly approached by a female figure. Her figure is doubled: one image remains, while another passes through the doorframe. Finally she hugs the man and displays an inscription to the audience: 'Do You Trust Television?'

VIDEO LOVE STORY
U-matic, RTV Sarajevo & RTV Ljubljana 1983, 5'
Authors Nuša & Srečo Dragan

The image of man's torso, stabbed with scissors by a woman. One blade of the scissors is as red as blood, the other is blue. The video was part of the installation with the same title, and of The Monument to Victims and Orgy installation, and also a sequence in the Grand Finale video.

GRAND FINALE
VHS, U-matic, RTV Beograd & Studentski kulturni centar, Beograd 1983, 13'
Script in režija Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Edit Studio B TV Beograd

Here the discussion of video art is figured visually as well. A woman brings a videocassette to a man, and he inserts it into a video machine. The cassette features critics discussing in a variety of languages. The work aims to represent the subject of new art in an apparently documentary way, while its fragments play on fictitious stereotypes, thus imparting an ironic aspect: the woman is dressed as a gangster, she stabs the man, and a red and blue stain appears on his shirt.

BLODNIK / THE STRAY
U-matic, RTV Ljubljana 1983, 9'
Script & dir Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Camera Lenart Vipotnik, Bojan Brecelj
Music Lačni Franz
Edit Milan Miloševič

In this work, fiction is set against the documentary and is represented by the scene flats of the sea, on which a woman and a man ride a cardboard horse. A dog, made of the same material, barks at a moon seen on a TV screen. Next, the woman and the man find themselves in the 'real' Cankarjev Dom: they have brought their video product and they read a statement in two languages. They bestow the horse on the institution; fiction (art?) is thus literally transferred into reality.

SPOMENIK ŽRTEV IN ORGIJE / MONUMENT OF SACRIFICE AND ORGY
U-matic high band, TV Sarajevo 1985, 8'
Script & Edit Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Camera Milan Bogdanović, Radivoje Zarić, Branko Jerković
Music Einstürzende Neubauten
Edit Mišo Pejović, Marin Cvijetić

A postmodernist use of quotation in video art. The work presents the scenes from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, supported by modern music, and ends with the artists' contribution: a scene in which a heart is sliced on a plate, supplemented by an inscription telling you that care was taken in disinfection and in safeguarding the viewer's health. A quotation is added to the graphic sign, and the performance becomes part of the video surface.

GOSPOSVETSKI SEN / THE DAYDREAM OF GOSPASVETA FIELD
U-matic high band, TV Sarajevo 1987, 9'
Script in režija Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Music Carl Orff, Richard Wagner, Laibach
Edit Mišo Pejović, Marin Cvijetić

The image-in-image (sacral objects, man) in this video undergoes transformation, the picture undergoes metamorphosis. Human faces are disproportionately large in comparison with the sacral objects. Next, we see images from nature, adjoined with inscriptions from the patriotic poem Walking Across This Land of Ours. The work ends with the picture of a man and a dog by a pond in which a church is reflected. It begins to snow - a scene from Nostalgia, a film by Andrei Tarkovsky, to whom this video is dedicated.

MEŠČEVO ZLATO / THE LIGHT OF A GOLDEN MOON
Beta SP, U-matic high band, RTV Ljubljana 1987, 14'
Script & Dir Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Cast Nuša & Srečo Dragan
Camera Ivo Belec
Edit Milan Milošević
Music Laibach, Holst

Here the use of fragments from Resnais's film Last Year in Marienbad also represents the main determinant of the video image: the incrustation of picture, or the possibility of filling the gaps in the picture with another picture. The artists appear in scenes from the film, in which their figures are best incorporated into fictional space. The procedure that follows is the 'freezing' of images; this analyses the views of the heroes. The frozen images are accompanied by commentary in subtitles.

Video Actions and Performances

1968
Različne stvari se razstavljajo / Different Things Are Happening, Ljubljana, Titova cesta

1969
72h zime in 72h jeseni / In Winter 72h and Autumn 72h, Ljubljana, Tivoli

1973
Video intervju / Video Interview (Trigon `73 - Audiovisuelle Botschaften), Graz, Künstlerhaus
Video taktilna komunikacija / Video Tactile Communication (Trigon `73 - Audiovisuelle Botschaften), Graz, Künstlerhaus

1974
Komunikacija med intelektom in senzibilnostjo / Communication between Intellect and Sensibility, Impact Art video

1975
Video memorial / Video Memorial
CAYC, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Galleria civica moderna, Ferrara

1976
Prva polovica občutenja gledališke predstave Šarada ali Darja / Charades, or Daria: The First Half of Video Sensibility of the Theatre Performance (in the framework of the Charades, or Daria theatre performance by the Glej Theatre)

Personal exhibitions, Installations & Performances

1969
Črno in belo morje, Ljubljana, park Zvezda
Pudingi, Ljubljana, park Zvezda
404070 cm peska pod steklom na zemlji, Ljubljana, Tivoli

1970
Produkcija nove zemljepisne karte - različne smeri pretoka Save, Ljubljana, Ježica
Telepa-vision (GEFF `70 - Genre film festival), Zagreb

1971
Aprilski susret proširenih medija, Belgrade, Galerija SKC
Cirkulacija H20, Piran

1972
Projekt slušno-govorne komunikacije zlogov, Novi Sad, Likovni salon Tribine mladih
Projekt miselne vizualizacije objekta (1. aprilski susret proširenih medija), Belgrade, Galerija SKC
Ne morem, da nisem - Zen relacija (BITEF '72), Belgrade, Atelje 212

1973
FAVIT izkušnja prvič (2. aprilski susreti proširenih medija), Belgrade, Galerija SKC
FAVIT izkušnja drugič prvič, Novi Sad, Likovni salon Tribine mladih

1974
7 noči in 1 dan prenosa ljudskega izročila v alpha theta ritmu (3. aprilski susreti proširenih medija), Belgrade, Galerija SKC

1976
Video Mail (5. aprilski susreti proširenih medija), Belgrade, Galerija SKC

1977
Prenos zavesti Nuše & Sreča, Warsaw, Galeria Wspóczesna
Kreativna volja meditacije, Krakow, Galerija Maly Rynek

1979
Odtisi zavesti Nuše & Sreča Dragan, Ljubljana, Galerija Škuc

1980
Video, film, fotografija, grafika, risba, Belgrade, Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti
Novi mediji - originali, dokumenti, Zagreb, Galerija Nova

1981
Honeymoon (Deset godina Aprilskih susreta proširenih medija), Belgrade, Galerija SKC (video installation)

1982
Midva greva v ta novi čas (Provokacija medija `80), Ljubljana, Galerija DSLU
Zamislite vrata nema, Belgrade, Video International (video installation)

1983
Video Love Story (Video CD '83), Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom > Belgrade > Novi Sad > Trieste

1985
Spomenik žrtev in orgije (Video susreti 1985), Sarajevo, Skenderija (video installation)
Avtorski video, Ljubljana, Galerija Equrna

1986
Trajnost spomina, Ljubljana, Plečnikove Žale (video installation)
Umjetnost - kritika usred 80-ih, Sarajevo, Collegium artisticum

Texts

1968
Škatla ekranove škatle, Ekran, No. 5, 1986

1970
Prostor komunikacije 14. filmskega festivala, Ekran, No. 77/80, 1970

1972
Koncept intermedialnih centrov I.C.F., Cineast, No. 17/18, Sarajevo 1972

1973
Koncept Intermedialnih centrov I.C.F., Cineast, No. 21/22, Sarajevo 1973 -- Selektivna relacija izvirne informacije, Ekran, No. 100/103, 1973

1974
Odtis projektov, Flash Art, No. 46/47, Milano 1974 -- texts in FAVIT International 1., 3., 5., 7., Ljubljana, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Graz, Warsaw, 1973-1978 -- Manifest, cat. of Aspekte, Gegenwärtige Kunst aus Jugoslawien, Akademie der bildende Künste, Graz 1975

1976
Predlog skripta za video tape komunikacijo znotraj gledališke predstave dela “Šarada ali Darja”, Student, No. 6, Belgrade 1976 -- Video komunikacije, Ekran, No. 9/10, Ljubljana 1976 -- Pismo otvoritve označitve prostorov ŠKUC, Ljubljana 1978 -- text in cat. Junij `78, Ljubljana 1978

1979
Skupna misel, cat. Masculin-Feminin, Graz 1979

1980
Conception of Favit Centre, Section Review and Centres in France and in Europe, Bienale de Paris, 1980

1982
Cat. Provokacija medija `80, Ljubljana 1982

1983
Dokumenti, plakati, publikacije, dogajanje ŠKUC, Ljubljana 1981-83

1985
Spomenik žrtev in orgij, Dialogi, No. 9, Maribor 1985 -- Video kot umetnost in oblika množične kulture, Delo, 21. 12. 1985

1986
Texts in cat. Video Match FR-YU, 1986 -- Dvojni vstop videa v umetnost 80-ih, Ekran - Sinteza, No. 6, 1986 -- Traženi pogled Nuše i Sreče, in: Mihailo Ristić (ed.), Videosfera, video/društvo/umetnost, Studentski izdavački centar, Belgrade 1986

1988
Video v umetnikovih rokah, Pionir, No. 4, 1988 -- Video - tokrat v umetnosti, Pionir, No. 7, 1988

Group Exhibitions & Festivals

1968
OHO - izložba cipela, Zagreb, Galerija Studentskog centra

1969
Atelje `69, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija

1970
Majski Panovi dani, Zagreb, Studentski kulturni centar

1971
6. bienale mladih, Rijeka, Moderna galerija -- Primeri konceptualne umetnosti u Jugoslaviji, Belgrade, Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti > Novi Sad

1972
Atelje `72, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija -- Jugoslovenska grafika od 1965 do 1972, Belgrade, Muzej savremene umetnosti

1973
Dokumenti o postobjektnim pojavama u jugoslovenskoj umetnosti 1968-1973, Belgrade, Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti -- Eight Yugoslav Artists, Edinburgh Arts' Festival, Edinburgh, Richard Demarco Gallery -- Conceptual Art, Helsinki -- Trigon `73 - Audiovisuelle Botschaften, Graz, Künstlerhaus

1974
3. aprilski susret proširenih medija, Belgrade, Studentski kulturni centar
Flash Art -- World Travel Exhibition, Milano > Firence / Florence, Galleria Schema > Rome, Contemporanea -- 1 in 1, Belgrade, Studentski kulturni centar -- 8 jours video (Impact Art - Video Art 74), Lausanne, Musée des Arts décoratifs de la Ville

1975
Contemporary Yugoslav Art, Edinburgh, Richard Demarco Gallery

1976
Aspekte, Gegenwärtig Kunst aus Jugoslawien, Vienna, Akademie der Bildenden Künste -- Razstava vzhodnoevropske avantgarde, Berlin, Pankow -- 2nd International Open Encounter on Video, Paris, Pierre Cardin -- 3rd International Open Encounter on Video, Ferrara, Galleria civica d'arte moderna -- 4th International Open Encounter on Video, Buenos Aires, Centre CAYC -- 5th International Open Encounter on Video, Antwerp-- Nowoszesna Sztuka Jugoslawii, Warsaw, Galerija Wspolczesna -- Fotografija kao umjetnost, Zagreb, Galerija suvremene umjetnosti -- Protografija - Bienale grafike, Krakow -- Otisci, Zagreb, Galerija Nova

1977
Amerika - Evropa 03 23 03, Montreal -- 6th International Open Encounter on Video, Caracas -- 7th International Open Encounter on Video, Barcelona, Joan Miro

1978
West - East Avantgarde, Kranj -- Grupa Junij - Gosti `78, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija -- La Posta Avant-garde, Napoli, Centro Experimenta -- The International Drawing Triennial, Wroclaw -- Nova umjetnička praksa 1966-1978, Zagreb, Galerija suvremene umjetnosti -- Slovenski likovni trenutek 1945-1978, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija -- Plakati - radovi umetnika, Belgrade, Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti

1979
13th International Graphic Biennial, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija -- Teme i funkcije medija fotografije, Belgrade, Muzej suvremene umetnosti -- Prisustvo fotografije u suvremenoj umjetnosti (IX. jesenski salon), Banja Luka, Izložbeni salon doma kulture -- Slovenska likovna umetnost 1945-1978, Ljubljana, Moderna galerija -- Masculin- Feminin, Graz, Neue Galerie

1980
Impact Art Festival - Video, Kyoto -- Camere incantante - video, cinema, fotografia e arte negli anni `70, Milan, Palazzo Reale

1981
The International Drawing Triennial, Wroclaw -- Mladi slovenački umetnici, Belgrade, Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti -- Mladi slovenski umetniki nove generacije, Piran, Mestna galerija

1982
Provokacija medija `80, Ljubljana, Galerija DSLU -- Meunarodni bienale crteža, Rijeka -- Noutati in arta plastica Iugoslava a anilor `70, Bucharest, Salla Dalles

1983
Nuovimedia 82/83, Milan, Palazzo dei priori -- 1. International Biennial Video CD 83, Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom

1984
Presentation of the art video made during the CD workshop, Ljubljana

1985
Video international, Belgrade, SKC -- Pogled na 80. godine. Sarajevska zima `85, Sarajevo, Collegium artisticum -- Mlada slovenska umetnost, Ljubljana, Likovno raztavišče Rihard Jakopič -- 2. mednarodni bienale Video CD 85, Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom -- Material kao izazov (XII. jesenski salon), Banja Luka, Izložbeni salon doma kulture -- Jugoslovenska grafika 1950-1980, Belgrade, Muzej savremene umetnosti

1986
Film video monitor, Gorizia, Kulturni dom -- Najnovejša jugoslovanska video produkcija / La recente production Vidéo en Yougoslavie, Koper, Galerija Loža > Paris, Centre culturel Yougoslave (Video match France - Yougoslavie)

1987
Video CD'87, Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom -- Poletni salon, Ljubljana, Equrna -- Intart, Ljubljana, Likovno razstavišče Rihard Jakopič -- Video susreti 87, Sarajevo, Muzej XIV. zimskih olimpijskih igara -- Abstraktne, nepredmetne snovi v likovni umetnosti, Ljubljana, Galerija ZDSLU

1988
Mednarodni bienale risbe, Wroclaw -- Slovenska umetnost, Munich, Gallerie der Bayerischen Landesbank -- 3. film video monitor, Gorizia -- Aspect de la video Yougoslave, Geneva, St-Gervais MJC - XI. meunarodna izložba originalnog crteža, Rijeka, Moderna galerija -- Zagreb, Muzejski prostor Gradec -- 3. jugoslovanski trienale ekologije in umetnosti - Eko, Maribor, Razstavni salon Rotovž

1989
Jugoslovenska dokumenta `89, Sarajevo, Collegium Artisticum -- Alternative Film - Video `89, Belgrade, Akademski filmski centar Dom kulture

1991
International Video Arts Festival, Liverpool

1994
Retrospektiva filmov Nuše in Sreča Dragan (OHO), Ljubljana, Informacijski center Moderne galerije

1997
Modra roka - majski salon `97, Ljubljana, Galerija Riharda Jakopiča