World of Art and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory
Series of public lectures How Critical
Is the Condition of Critical Writing?
Izidor Barši and
Kaja Kraner (ŠUM): Discourses Accompanying Art: Art Criticism

Thursday, 6 October 2016, 6 pm
Project Room, SCCA–Ljubljana, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana

This autumn we will continue with How Critical Is the Condition of Critical Writing?, a reflection on the current role and status of criticism in visual arts and culture conceived last year, with a new series of lectures.

Together with the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory we cordially invite you to attend the public lecture by Izidor Barši and Kaja Kraner (ŠUM) Discourses Accompanying Art: Art Citicism

About the lecture
Proceeding from the analysis of certain current approaches to the theorisation of contemporary visual arts in Slovenia, which can be said to belong to the critical-theoretical “expert discourse”, we use the concept of discursive architectonics to try to reconstruct and analyse: 1) the various approaches of placing art within a broader field, most often the “social” or “outside” field or the “other/inartistic” field, and placing the authors themselves and their discursive practise in the same fields; 2) the material effects of this placement.
Because theoretical discourses on art are inevitably based on the modern concept of art as an autonomous sphere and because – in line with this – most writers also inevitably assume a certain development of this concept, we try to think about what kind of a relation can exist between a specific theoretical/discursive practise or context and the “particular condition” of the writer and about what real/material effects the two can have on the art field itself.

More on World of Art page.

Izidor Barši holds a degree in philosophy and sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. He has contributed texts on philosophy, art and architecture to Tribuna, Mladina, Delo, Praznine, and Emzin. Since 2010, he has been a regular contributor at the culture and the humanities desk at Radio Študent; since 2013 he is a member of the editorial board of Šum magazine. Between 2014 and 2015 he was the editor of Tribuna magazine. In addition, he has helped organise and lead a few theoretical reading seminars focused on philosophy and theory at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Moderna galerija, and Rog Factory.

Kaja Kraner primarily works as a writer of critical, theoretical texts and radio shows in the field of contemporary art. She helps create the programme of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, is a member of the editorial board of Šum and a co-editor of Art-area, an emission on Radio Študent. In addition, she (co-)leads reading seminars on contemporary art organised by Šum and Neteorit collective. She has focused especially on the relations between art, politics, and theory, as well as on the production conditions of contemporary art. She is currently exploring the concept of the geopolitics of art in the framework of her PhD.

Photo: SCCA-Ljubljana archive

This programme is being part of the World of Art, School for Curators and Critics of Contemporary Art; and prepared by SCCA–Ljubljana & the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory.


Supported by: City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture, ERSTE Foundation, and Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.

[Published September 29, 2016]