Talk and screening
Thursday, 26 September 2024, 7 pm
MGLC Švicarija, Pod turnom 4, Ljubljana
As part of the Back2Back events, we invite local and international artists to present their production of work and establish a dialogue with the works in the DIVA Station Archive based on their own selection. This time, in cooperation with the International Centre of Graphic Arts and the MGLC Švicarija residency centre, we have invited Lea Culetto, who is participating as a resident artist in the international European project Sustainability is in the AiR, which connects residency centres.
Lea Culetto works in the field of the visual arts with a focus on feminism. Using textiles and mixed media, she creates objects and installations that question ideals, taboos and perceptions of the female body, often drawing on personal experience. There will be a talk with the artist before the screening conducted by the coordinator of MGLC Švicarija, Dušan Dovč to discuss the video selection for Bodyscapes and what participating in international residency exchanges means to her.
PROGRAMME
Bodyscapes
Curator: Lea Culetto
Duration: 45’
Skin, pubes, hair. Removal. Control. Falling out. Bodily remnants. Unacceptable. Pieces of oneself. Personal distress. Shame. Lost. Crumbs. Found. Collecting, decaying, circulating. Nature, landscape, mystical. Water, intimacy, body. Ritual. Sacred, terrifying. Intangible. Magical.
Luksuz produkcija, 2018, 2’ 39’’
A short experimental film about body hair and how people relate to it.
2013, 4’
A humorous portrayal of caring for a partner, which can also include unpleasant intimate care. The exploration of caregiving roles and the shift from subordination to control.
2008, 1’ 8’’
At first glance a simple short video about breaking twigs, but with a witty and meaningful turning point. The strong message is wrapped in an everyday scene. The twig takes the feminine form in Slovenian.
2024
Hair. Valued as long as it is alive. As long as it grows on the appropriate parts of the body. Desired as long as it has the right colour, texture, thickness, shape and length. As long as it is tamed. As long as it does not fall out. Unwanted if dead. It evokes unpleasant feelings, shame and even disgust. Except intentionally removed hair. The first cut lock of a child’s hair in a memory book. A strand of hair from an absent loved one in a locket. It becomes an object that transcends the material body. A memory with DNA. A talisman.
Translacija | Traslación, 2018, 5’ 40’’
A short-edited version of an autobiographically-grounded performance, in which the artist deals with personal emotions and distresses in order to articulate them in a broader social context using a site-specific, minimalist approach to space. The presence of the body is mediated through sculptural and theatrical devices aimed to represent and surpass the limits between the private and public spheres.
Tobačna Gallery (MGML), 2021, 17’ 16’’
The long-term study of space uses personal narrative to discuss the history and identity of landscape as well as the intertwining of personal and general biographies, including their objects and subjects of study. It scrutinises memory and the relationship between natural and constructed space.
TV Skopje, 1989, 8’ 47’’
A woman’s body communicates with its surroundings. It is a receptor of the macrocosm that bears traces of all other laws, even including physiology with all its energetic zones. This is the energy that corresponds to spiritual experiences, which also depend on body technique. Communicability can be understood, among other things, as one of the variations of the functioning of the body within the sequential regime of signs.
2020/21, 3’
Be-coming Tree is a collection of four videos documenting the seasonal durational live-streamed performative actions of Jatun Risba in the forest of Panovec in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, during the pandemic year 2020/21. The artwork enacts an encounter between the stream of the human World Wide Web with the kingdom of the Wood Wide Web. The artist forms an embryonic entanglement with the woods in order to re-member the invaluable beauty, vigour and generosity of wild landscapes, within and without.
Lea Culetto (1995, Slovenia) completed her master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2019. Since then, she has been working as a self-employed intermedia artist within the field of culture. She has presented her works in solo exhibitions at Miklova Hiša Gallery, Ribnica; Aksioma Gallery Space, Ljubljana; Ravnikar Gallery Space, Ljubljana; Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki; Kresija Gallery, Ljubljana; Likovni salon Gallery, Center for Contemporary Arts, Celje and MGLC Švicarija, creative and residential centre, Ljubljana, where she was a residential artist during 2021–2023. Her work has also been featured in notable group exhibitions, including Returning the Gaze (Cukrarna, 2022), Body and Territory (Kunsthaus Graz, 2023) and For Your Pleasure (Museum of Modern Art, 2023).
She collaborates and exhibits with various international festivals such as City of Women, Red Dawns, Lesbian Quarter and Račka Festival. In addition to her exhibitions, Culetto also conducts workshops. As a mentor, she participated in the Bobri festival (Ljubljana, 2021) and the project The Old Continent at MGLC Švicarija (Ljubljana, 2022). Upon invitation by Varja Hrvatin, she was the costume designer for the performance Shame on You (Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, 2022) and the performance Ikigai (Celje City Theatre, 2023). As a visual artist, she was selected to participate in the SAiR project (Sustainability is in the Air, 2023–2026), led by the International Centre of Graphic Arts. (Photo: personal archive)
DIVA Station is a physical and web archive of video and new media art that has been developing since 2005. It is also a wider compendium of SCCA projects aimed at researching, presenting, documenting and archiving video/new media art.
Videospotting are curated and thematic programmes of video art, which have been created since 1994 in the form of lectures, public discussions, exhibitions and screenings.
Sustainability is in the AiR (SAiR) aims to develop a model of sustainable management of residential centres to foster sustainable artistic practices and enhance career opportunities for residential artists. The project combines and enhances the operational strategies of four residential centres: International Centre of Graphic Arts/MGLC Švicarija, Ljubljana; MeetFactory, Prague; Matadero, Madrid; Snehta, Athens. Participating artists from Slovenia: Lea Culetto and Small but dangers.
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana/DIVA Station and International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
The programme of SCCA-Ljubljana is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture.
The SAiR project is supported by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme.
