Petra Varl at the exhibition Heimat | Domovina
Group exhibition

23. 9.-28. 11. 2010
Opening on Wednesday, September 22, at 7pm
Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Burggasse 8, Klagenfurt

We would like to inform you about two simultaneous exhibition projects of Petra Varl, an artist taking part in SCCA-Ljubljana project Internet Portfolio.

The concept of "home" (Heimat) has undergone continuous change over the years – from its original definition as a geographical region, its legally relevant significance in relation to property, through its romantic definition, from its transformation from a private to a political concept, all the way to its ideological and emotionally-charged associations – thus becoming an instrument for reflecting historical, social and psychological processes.

Inge Vavra, Realakt Spurensuche 2, 2003,  Foto: Gerhard Maurer

The exhibition Heimat | Domovina is intended to initiate a contemporary discourse on the subject of "home", carrying out an appraisal of the term on the basis of works by 16 artists from Carinthia and Slovenia. The results, belonging to every area – private, social, historical, political –, show a broad, heterogeneous spectrum of possible approaches to the concept, at the beginning of the 21st century, characterised as it is by globalisation, multi-culturalism, mobility, final location and migration. At the same time, the works show clearly what "home" can signify for the individual, what problems and what advantages may be entailed, what affects the individual, presenting challenges or provoking criticism, as well as what conveys confidence and security or gives rise to nostalgia. Generally, the question raised concerns an up-to-date appreciation of the term "home", apart from its territorial associations – not least the way in which we deal with it, considering on the one hand how it has been horribly misused in our history, and on the other, how it has become well-nigh obsolete in a world highly networked and without boundaries.
(mag. Christine Wetzlinger-Grundnig, MMKK dicrector and curator)

Artists: Josef Dabernig, Ines Doujak, Werner Hofmeister, IRWIN, Cornelius Kolig, Ernst Logar, Ina Loitzl, Eva Petrič, Tadej Pogačar, Meina Schellander, Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch, Nika Špan, Jochen Traar, Petra Varl, Inge Vavra, Reimo.

Petra Varl is exhibiting wallpainting Grandad in a Topolino (2010).

Petra Varl, Grandad in a Topolino, wallpainting, instlation wiew, 2010

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Petra Varl was born in 1965 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. She has shown her work in numerous independent and group shows, including the Sao Paolo Biennial. Since the year 2000 she has been working as an Associate Professor of drawing and graphic arts at the Fine Arts Department of the Teacher’s College of the University of Maribor. She lives and works in Ljubljana and Maribor.

[Published September 24, 2010]