PROJECTS | Exhibitions
Line Stroke the Letter
Exhibition and lecture performance
5 September–27 October 2013
Vžigalica Gallery, Trg franc. revolucije 7, Ljubljana
You are cordially invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, 5th September, 2013 at 8 pm at Vžigalica Gallery (Museum and Galleries of City of Ljubljana).
The exhibition is going to be opened from September 5 till October 13, 2013.
Opening hours: Tuesday till Sunday from 10am till 6pm.
The exhibition has been extended until Sunday, 27th October 2013.
Invitation leaflet (pdf)
Presented Artists:
Vesna Bukovec: How to fail successfully, series of drawings, ink on paper, 2011/2013
Zvonko Čoh, Milan Erič: The Socialization of a Bull?, sketches, pencils, erasers (presentation of materials for an animated feature film, 78', production: Društvo ŠKUC, Emotionfilm, RTV Slovenija, 1998)
Tomaž Furlan: The Book, e-book, 2008
Marko A. Kovačič: A Corner for Young Communist with Recommended Reading, installation, 2009−2011
Damijan Kracina: Proteus Font, typography, webpage, installation, 1997−2011
Amir Muratović: From the Life of Books, video, 3'55'', 2010−2011
Alenka Pirman: Silent Lectures – The Most Beautiful Poems, computer animation, 2006; Ultimate Word, printed matter and audio recording, 23'45'', 2007−2009; recording production: radioCona (2009)
Nataša Prosenc Stearns: Waiting Room, film, 10'20'', production: Kanalya Pictures, 2005
Zoran Srdić Janežič: Scribbled Words, video, 5'15'', poetry: Jana Putrle Srdič, production: Gulag, 2005; Ceci n'est pas un croquis, book, production: Gulag, 2012
Petra Varl: Rich Poor, wall painting, 2010; The Book of Serigraphs, production: MGLC, 2010
Rajko Vidrih: BODY, Diversely loiterer, volume II, No 1, screen print on newsprint, 28. 11. 1991
Jaka Železnikar: Proverbs, mobile app, 2011; Asciidarij 2, responsive online visual and sound poem, 2013; Asciidarij, interactive language-visual structure, 2001; Ascii Kosovel, biographical portrait, 2004, Europroverbs, generative and combinatory work of language expression, 2005.
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Accompanying event: 25 September 2013:
- 5 pm: Guided tour with curator Ida Hiršenfelder
- 6 pm: Dejan Habicht: 12 Boring Poems, lecture performance
12 Boring Poems is a selection of visual materials, combined into short narrative structures. They were being published in successive digital editions from January to December 2007. The author Dejan Habicht will show how “entertaining” the poems can be today.
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Curators: Barbara Borčić, Dušan Dovč, Ida Hiršenfelder, Saša Nabergoj
Exhibition design: Ida Hiršenfelder
- Concept
- Description of artworks
- Photo archive
- Press material
- Credits
1. CONCEPT
Between language and image, there is neither contradiction nor analogy. That is to say, there is no direct relation between them, there is only ambiguity, e.g. obscurity being expressed, hinting at the inability to express a direct translation between the two. Any translation would only discuss another matter, one that the language or the image wish to represent; it would address the numerous levels of social phenomena that are mainly expressed as absurd, nonsensical, humorous, playful, bitter, gruesome or romantic witticisms about life.
No matter how direct or simple, the use of language in fine art forms gaps rather than connections or analogies. It is this tension between the linguistic and pictorial poles that establishes the foundation for experimenting with and testing both the literary and the visual field. The legacy of concrete poetry and of early avant-garde experiments with the language, meaning and image remain pertinent even today when the seemingly neutral tools for linguistic expression, such as user interfaces, browsers and text editors, reshape and distort our ways of reacting to the world around us. Such tools have interfered substantially with the structure of the language, thus causing changes in the way that meanings are being linked, now being subordinated to the “copy-paste” principle of interfaces of linear, network or hierarchical design. Several of the exhibited works have abandoned the otherwise unquestioned use of such tools (by applying a non-narrative use of the text editor, or the “low-tech” digital book, by generating acsii poetry, by applying ideologically-marked typography), thus to establish new laws, express criticism of the technocratic use of the language and to encourage informed use.
Despite the new media, the book is far from being dead. When it comes to reading or storytelling or forming the public opinion, books, magazines and other printed media have not been losing their stand. It is the ritual of reading that acts as the medium for the transfer of meaning, and even if, in this case, it acts in relation to fine art, its role remains entirely narrative. Illustrations, video works and installations, on the other hand, are only widening the gap between what we have just read and what we are looking at. And when the image and the word are seemingly in harmony, as is the case with Magritte's statement This is not a pipe, the ambiguity is so much the greater.
2. DESCRIPTION OF ARTWORKS
 Vesna Bukovec: How to fail successfully, series of drawings, ink on paper, 2011/2013
The DIY instructions of self-mutilation humorously deal with the distress of an individual in the contemporary society driven by values such as success, health and happiness.
 Zvonko Čoh, Milan Erič: The Socialization of a Bull?, sketches, pencils, erasers (presentation of materials for an animated feature film, 78', Production: Društvo ŠKUC, Emotionfilm, RTV Slovenija, 1998)
An animation film takes 24 drawings per second, that is a pile of two metres and a half of drawings for a 78 minute feature film. The animators are therefore caught in drawing and erasing for a long long time. This duration of the production process is present by the object on the exhibition: drawings of a bull, drawings of a battery on foil and a collection of used pencils and erasers.
 Zvonko Čoh, Milan Erič: Cigar for a Prince
(Socialising the Bull? - trailer),
11 min, Production: Društvo ŠKUC, Emotionfilm, RTV Slovenija, 1995
The first episode of animated feature film Socialising the Bull? was initially used as a trailer. Through the blending of the images we are following a witty love story. The caricatures of two characters (animators) are running away from the bull. They trigger associative thought and the story line is much like a dream. Socialising the Bull? was the firs Slovene animated feature film.
 Tomaž Furlan: The Book, e-book, 2008
The installation presents the problems of information age, inventions, and tools that make us them in a constant loop of repetitions. The heavy electronic book shows how an individual is completely oblivious to his/her mental entrapment in the mind of the machine when fiddling with an airy palmtop. The screens present a series of video performance Wear.
 Dejan Habicht: 12 Boring Poems, lecture performance, 2007
Boring Poems are a series of visual materials compiled in short narrative structures. They have been published successively in electronic form from January till December, 2007. The author is going to conduct a lecture performance on Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 at 6 pm, and present how “boring” these poems are today.
 Marko A. Kovačič: A Corner for Young Communist with Recommended Reading, installation, 2009−2011
The book collection invokes the past times and fragments of thinking, thus re-actualise our own collective history. Visitors are kindly asked to decipher and interpret the content of this visual and literary mass which detracts from the thinking of the mainstream system in their own way.
 Damijan Kracina: Proteus Font, typography, webpage, installation, 1997−2011
Letters of the entire alphabet along with punctuation were composed of a photography of endemic species Proteus anguinus or so called Human Fish. Besides three special Slovene characters (č, š, ž) the artist also made specific letters of French and Swedish alphabet. The typography is here for the public use. The scrabble dice were a part of First Slovenian Autochthon Fonts, made in Slovenia (1998) project, humorously commenting on the new emerging national identity. And the computer tool www.proteusfont.org (2001) is available on-line to generate texts and messages using this font.
 Amir Muratović: From the Life of Books, video, 3'55'', 2010−2011
Video consists of different scenes showing people turning the pages of books. The artist mainly focuses on portraying gestures and movements of readers and their interaction with the book. Due to the delay in the video editing he pictures an abstract image of pages, while the hissing noise of flipping pages is in discordance with the movements, and the act of reading is given a dramatic turn.
 Alenka Pirman: Silent Lectures – The Most Beautiful Poems, computer animation, 2006
The artist is developing a new tool of expression – silent lectures. The work is an attempt to deconstruct PowerPoint – the most popular computer program for academic lectures. She inverted this dictatorship of linear, pictorial and simplistic way of passing knowledge, into seven endless animations, interpreting concrete and visual poetry of the 1960s. The silent lectures contain two parts: The Most Beautiful Poems and Shut your Eyes and Watch.
The Most Beautiful Poems are:
- Matjaž Hanžek: Nebotičnik, 1967-2006
- Aleš Kermavner: KAJ JE (V-SEBI-NA = V), ok. 1966–2006
- Vojin Kovač-Chubby: I go Crazy, 1967–2006
- Naško Križnar: Drekec pekec, ok. 1966–2006
- Ivan Volarič-Feo: Peščena ura, 1969–2006
- Franci Zagoričnik: Črno-beli diapazon, 1966–2006
 Alenka Pirman: Ultimate Word, printed matter and audio recording, 23'45'', 2007−2009
The printed material has been published in 2009 in edition of 10.000 copies. The artist has used a simple algorithem (the first day she put down every second word, the second day every third etc.) because she aimed to purify media vocabulary until she would conceive the last, the ultimate word. The Ultimate Word could be used as a substitute for all other words. In this way, the artist would do away with the violence of the insignificant. Perhaps it is not surprising that she needed three years of endevour to finish this procedure. She started to peel off the media racket in 2007 and finished in August, 2009. The Ultimate Word is: NA [engl.: ON]. Visitors are welcome to read the publication or listen to public reading of the Ultimate Word, recorded at SCCA Project Room on December 8th, 2009.
Recording production: radioCona (2009)
 Nataša Prosenc Stearns: Waiting Room, film, 10'20'', production: Kanalya Pictures, 2005
The short video film shows the atmosphere of random patients in the waiting room of their personal doctor one Christmas evening. Ordinary patients must wait while the “important” patients, celebrities and acquaintances entering the clinic are given priority. The thinking of the waiting patients is illustrated by one statement: "Why would a doctor choose this profession if he/she does not care about the people?"
 Zoran Srdić Janežič: Scribbled Words, video, 5'15'', Poetry: Jana Putrle Srdić, Production: Gulag, 2005
The video presents flipping of the pages of a book (Introduction to the poems of France Prešeren), while a woman’s voice is reading out a poem. Animated drawings are sketched out on the pages. Towards the end of the video the scene is filled with a stop-motion animation of a torn up book, while the content of the poem turns from initially pragmatic everyday life into a description of oblivion. At the very end a gold fish is slowly dying on a pile of torn up paper.
 Zoran Srdić Janežič: Ceci n'est pas un croquis, book, production: Gulag, 2012
The book show the contradiction between the obvious representation of a particular medium and the context of contemporary art, in which the division between mediums is no longer relevant, but rather calls for constant mixing and blending.
 Petra Varl: Rich Poor, wall painting, 2010
It appears as though the two characters in the drawing are the same, but the artist attributes them with contradictory identifications. She triggers our doubt into the credibility of visual estimation of the social positions and human qualities, as well as Magrittian doubt of the compatibility of language and visual representation. She also raises the question of the meaning of the words rich and poor, that may refer to both the financial and the social, mental, or emotional wealth or poverty.
 Petra Varl: The Book of Serigraphs, artist book, Production: MGLC, 2010
The artist book is a compilation of the artist’s drawings based on contradictions and distinguishing similarities. The book contains 100 originally numerated and signed pages and 67 illustrations. It was published in edition of 50 copies.
 Rajko Vidrih: BODY, Diversely loiterer 1. volume II, No 1, screen print on newsprint, 28. Nov, 1991
Diversified loiterer BODY is a paraphrase of the logo of daily newspaper DELO (eng. WORK). This is one of the artist's informal newspapers. The graphic images were printed by the artist the same it was published, during the night just before the Day of the Republic – a holiday that offered the possibility of interpretation of Yugoslav media landscape with the eloquent names of the main journals after the break-up of Yugoslavia. He also included some advertisements that were at hand or were related to his work in graphic design. In the 90s he made a number of such papers.
 Jaka Železnikar: Proverbs, mobile app, 2011; Asciidarij 2, responsive online visual and sound poem, 2013; Asciidarij, interactive language-visual structure, 2001; Ascii Kosovel, biographical portrait, 2004; Europroverbs, generative and combinatory work of language expression, 2005
The artist uses mathematical operations, and software tools that go beyond the linear textuality. Instead of letters he uses different characters and visual games often not baring any direct meaning, using a combination of texts and emoticons, HTML-code, UTF-characters, and ASCII art. In the browser tabs the visitors may view three on-line projects by refreshing Ctrl + R. Asciidarij (2001) does not work on purpose, in order to show the unstable nature of the Internet and computer tools. Proverbs is a mobile application that may also be downloaded on Android smart phones. Horizontal and vertical turning of your Android is going to activate the flipping of the Proverbs.
3. PHOTO ARCHIVE
4. PRESS MATERIAL
5. CREDITS
Exhibition concept: Barbara Borčić, Dušan Dovč, Ida Hiršenfelder, Saša Nabergoj
Exhibition design: Ida Hiršenfelder
Web support: Vesna Bukovec
Production: Zavod za sodobno umetnost, SCCA-Ljubljana
Co-production: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Vžigalica Gallery
Support: Ljubljana Municipality, Department for Culture, 2013
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