Conference and screenings as accompanying programme of the exhibition THE 1970s: _
17 December 2022, Centre for Fine Arts Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
On the occasion of the exhibition THE 1970s: _ dedicated to the Belgian audiovisual avant-garde of the 1970s, Centre for Audiovisual Arts Argos in collaboration with Centre for Fine Arts Bozar presents a conference followed by screenings. They highlight the inventiveness and individuality of the first Belgian and European artists who used video as a medium.
Participants of the conference: Dagmar Dirkx (BE ) & Erien Withouck (BE), Laura Leuzzi (IT), Annet Dekker (NL), Marika Kuźmicz (PL), Charlotte Procter (UK), Fleur Chevalier (FR), Barbara Borčić (SI)
Barbara Borčić will represent SCCA-Ljubaljana at the conference with the contribution Between television and festivals. She will present the DIVA Station archive and describe the situation regarding access to video equipment in the 1970s in the Yugoslav cultural space. The presentation will focus on two models of operation and production in the field of video art in the 1970s in Slovenia: conceptual and communicative use (Nuša and Srečo Dragan) and analytical and experimental use of video technology (Miha Vipotnik). The conference is followed by a screening of selected original videos from the 1970s, including an insert from Miha Vipotnik’s Videogram 4.
More about the event and a detailed programme on the Argos website
Photo: Barbara Borčić, Gaby Wijers
Barbara Borčić, art historian and media theorist; studied media studies and anthropology at ISH – Faculty of Postgraduate Humanities Studies in Ljubljana. In the field of contemporary art, she works as an independent curator, publicist, editor and author of books. Recipient of the Izidor Cankar award (2005) and the Critical Pen award (2018). Member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics, Paris). She was the artistic director of the Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana (1982–1985), associate of the publishing house Studia Humanitatis (1986–1993), responsible editor of the magazine Likovne besde (1991–1992); since 1993 employed at the Institute for Open Society – Slovenia, between 1997–1999 as director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts – Ljubljana (SCCA-Ljubljana) and between 2000–2015 as director of SCCA, Institute for Contemporary Art – Ljubljana, between 2015–2021 she was an advisor to the institute, and since 2021, she has been an external professional associate of DIVA Station. Within the scope of SCCA-Ljubljana, she was the initiator and manager of the following projects: Videodokument, Videospotting, Internet Portfolio, DIVA Station, Video Obrat/Video Turn, Archiving Practices and co-editor of the book collection Žepna and PlatformaSCCA publications. She lectures, curates and participates in international symposia and exhibitions and publishes texts in catalogues, magazines and books. She is the author of several books and publications and a curator of exhibitions and events.
Miha Vipotnik (1954) graduated in painting in 1976 and in 1979 completed his postgraduate studies in video and television at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. In the 70’s and 80’s, he created numerous artistic videos, intros and animations, directed art-related programs and has pioneered the experimental usage of video technology for the public television RTV Slovenia. Vipotnik is primarily a painter, whose images and stories materialize in a form of movies and video art. From very early on, he used video as his main medium of expression – either through a single-channel video or as a constitutive part of his multimedia and interdisciplinary projects and art installations. Electronic media experimenting and the actual performative process are among key features of his artistic praxis, through which he explores the impact of such image transformations within his narratives. His artistic language includes elements of performance with an emphasis on the significance of timing and the gradual unfolding of enigmatic personal stories into a palimpsest of images, inscriptions and speech. In 2014, he started working as a visiting professor of film and video at the Department of Digital Media, Cinema and Television at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts of USEK University in Lebanon and at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts ALBA in Beirut, where he teaches creative expression and art-related interdisciplinary studies.
Programme SCCA-Ljubljana/DIVA Station is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City Municipality of Ljubljana – Department of Culture.
Participation in the conference supported by the Embassy of Slovenia in Brussels.