Studio 6
Andrej Medved and
Emerik Bernard
Discussion

Thursday, February 24, at 8 p.m.
SCCA Project Room, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The first event of this year's Studio 6 series brings a discussion with Andrej Medved (creative director of Coastal Galleries in Piran) with artist Emerik Bernard.

Matter and Geometry (draft), 1991, acrylic/paper, canvas, 40 x 87 cm

Andrej Medved and Emerik Bernard met for the first time at the Yugoslav new painting exhibition in the Ljubljana City Gallery, most likely in 1981, when Medved invited Bernard to collaborate with him, upon the suggestion of Sergej Kapus. Three independent exhibitions in Koper galleries Loža and Meduza followed, which is when Medved first penned his essays about his paintings. As commissioner of the Yugoslav pavilion, he presented Bernard in 1986 at the Venetian Biennale and his works received recognition in various European media at the time. Exhibitions followed at the end of the nineties, including the Poetry of Slovenian Painting in the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana and later many others at domestic and Croatian expositions. At the Pregelj, Stupica, Bernard, the Continuity of Slovenian Painting exhibition in the Coastal Galleries in Koper and Piran, he placed his opus right next to the great works of post WWII art, while at the beginning of the new millennium he prepared a retrospective of his works on paper, which were exceptional drafts for later canvases (also released was the academic publication Modernistic Icons). In The Birth of Modernism, the book and exhibitions by the same name, he initiated the modernistic instincts in Slovenia with his pictures from the period of 1978 – 1980, together with the early works of Tom Podgornik. Medved compared Bernard as the exceptional theorist with the leading theorist-painters of the 20th century in Europe and America. As the publisher of the Hyperion series, he also printed two theoretical books, Approaches and not long ago, Sharings. Medved and Bernard have now been friends for over three decades, which is why the conversation in Studio 6 will primarily touch upon their mutual projects, of which among the last is a monography, which will be released at the end of this month by the Hyperion publishing house.

Within the framework of Studio 6, various drawings will be presented, all of which Emerik Bernard created at the beginning of the 90’s of the previous century. These are drawings of a smaller format, which were later realised in his paintings. Twenty such works on paper were presented by the author to the Coastal Galleries in Piran for the Permanent Exhibition of Slovenian Art after Year 1976. Papers from the artist’s sketchbooks were presented in 2001 in galleries in Koper and Piran, in addition to being displayed during the preview exhibition and in the independent publication Modernistic Icons. The particular artistic approach, as demonstrated by the rough draft for the painting Matter and Geometry, was shown by Bernard at an exhibition in Cankarjev dom in 1998.

Emerik Bernard (1937, Celje) applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana (ALU) in 1960, after graduating from the School of Design in Ljubljana. He graduated under the tutelage of Professor Gabriel Stupica, with whom he had completed a specialized course of painting studies in 1968. Until the year 1985, he created as a freelance artist and from time to time, taught at the High School of Technical Professionals and Personal Services in Ljubljana. After this, he was employed at the Academy of Fine Arts until the year 2007, first as the associate professor for drawing and painting, until 1995, when he was voted in to become a regular professor. From the year 1974 on, he has been a member of the Association of Slovenian Artists, while he has been cooperating with the Gallery Equrna in Ljubljana from 1982 on. In 1985 he took part in an artistic commission, which commenced to publish the Art Words magazine. Bernard was awarded the Župančič award in 1986, while in 1987 he also received an award from the Prešeren fund for the works he had exhibited at the Venetian Biennale in 1986. In 1997, a Prešeren award for life achievement followed. In 2001 he was voted in amongst the members of the Slovenian Academic of Art & Science, first as a special and later on, as a regular member.

Andrej Medved (Ljubljana, 1947) is a poet, essayist and philosopher, an editor, translator and the artistic director of Obalne Galerije - Coastal Galleries in Piran. After finishing high school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana – in the topics of philosophy, art history and comparative literature. In 1975, he graduated in philosophy and art history. Study trips: to Vienna in 1972 (Techniques and Poetry), to Rome 1980-81 (Art Theory, New Image Painting) and several times to Paris and Arles (Artaud, Michaux, Bataille, Klossowski, Barthes, Blanchot). Already at a young age, he was editor of the newspaper Tribuna, the magazine Problemi and the book Le livre slovène as well as executive editor. Ever since 1985, he has been editing the Artes Edition, which is dedicated exclusively to art discussions, as a theoretical contribution to the fields of exhibition policy and art history. Since 1999, he has been editing the Hyperion Edition, which publishes both original and translated poetry and theory. He is the founder of the "New Image Painting" in Slovenian painting and sculpture. In 1986, he was selector for the Yugoslav pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He translates from German (Arp, Heym), French (Bataille, Michaux, Artaud) and Italian (Pasolini). He is the author of several art monographs (Krašovec, Jeraj, Bernard, Begić, Brdar, Numankadić, Pregelj I and II) and 12 scientific monographs. Already at a young age, he translated poetry (modern German poetry, Arp, Kafka, Artaud, Pablo Neruda) and philosophy (Axelos, Heidegger, Barthes, Horkheimer, Fink and others). Till the present day, over 40 of Medved’s books of poems, translations of poems and separate publications on fine art, philosophy, aesthetics and poetry have been published. In 2009, his twenty-fifth book of poetry was published. He has been especially prolific in recent years; since 2002, he has published twenty books of poetry, for which he received the Prešeren Fund Award (2002), nominations for the Jenko Award and Veronika Award (2004), the Cup of Immortality award and a nomination for the 2006 Veronika Award, a nomination for the 2007 Jenko Award, the 2008 Jenko Award and the 2010 Veronika Award.

Studio 6 is supported by Municipality of Ljubljana - Department for Culture.

[Published February 17, 2011]