Projects of co-workers
Vesna Bukovec: Exploanation
Exhibition

April 22 – May 13, 2016
Alkatraz Gallery, AKC Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana
Opening: Friday, April 22, 2016, at 8 pm

We are informing you about the project of Vesna Bukovec, SCCA-Ljubljana's webmaster and DIVA Station coworker.

Vesna Bukovec, Domoljubi / The Patriots, drawing, 2016.
Caption on the drawing translates to: We are proud to hate!!!

"The artist received the impulse for the exhibition while observing responses to the migration crisis which has, in the media and the Internet space triggered a surge of negative emotions, often pointed toward the victims of the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of the recent years. A spectrum of negative reactions, articulated by the aid of hate speech has settled as a regular companion of press reports, chats in cafés and on social networks. There is an interesting fact about it – the mentioned discourse has emerged in the circles of the self-proclaimed patriots. While following the paradox (as love for the homeland was one of the crucial qualities to catalyze the uprising against the occupancy during the Second World War, as stressed by the author) the artist started to ask herself how it is possible that love for the nation can – in such a short time – turn into acts that bear witness of hatred toward others exactly in the name of patriotism? Is a demonized image of a stranger a necessary condition to establish a national community?"

...

"Vesna Bukovec has chosen resistance. Even the title of the exhibition, Exploanation, composed of the words exploitation and nation, provokes the thought that through the aid of the nation, intolerance and hatred towards Others are fomented."

(Excerpts from the exhibition text by curators: Ana Grobler, Sebastian Krawczyk, Jadranka Plut)

MORE: Alkatraz Gallery

Vesna Bukovec (1977, Ljubljana) graduated in 2002 and completed her MFA in 2006 from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She works independently and in the art group KOLEKTIVA (with Metka Zupanič and Lada Cerar). Her artistic work finds its expression in a variety of media (drawing, video, installation) and approaches (research, appropriation, participation, etc.). She presented her work in several solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally.

[Published April 21, 2016]