present
3. KANAL:
Revaluation by Maja Slavec
curated by Michele Drascek
Maja Slavec [Slovenia] Maja Slavec (1979) graduated in art pedagogy from the Faculty of Education, Maribor in 2005. A year later she entered the masters programme in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, mentored by Prof Milan Pajk. As she completed her undergraduate studies, an exhibition in Media Nox gallery hinted at a typical feature of her work, i.e. the objects that are featured in her art photography are never revealed in full. Rather, the artist presents us with a concealed view through the peephole, neither voyeuristic nor objective, but multilayered and well considered. The artist particularly attracted the attention of general public last year, as she was included in the review of Slovenian feminist art Women are coming! which was organised within the City of Women festival. She presented performance video documentation Woman Beauty Power Less, which she enacted in the centre of Ljubljana. The artist doesn't idealise the role of the woman, nor is she looking for the 'natural' original woman's role, rather, she is looking for a woman that is aware entirely of her relationship towards her social role.
http://maja-slavec.blogspot.com/
REVALUATION
Performance in public space
video
42'
The movement of the dancer has the intention to create circles in the space. The circles represent the public system (political, cultural, economical, etc.) that has an impact on our life, with or without our approval.
The “tondo” is a micro system of intimate space, a system that exists among others. I see the intimate and the public structures as closed systems in which we could fit in or not. The movement of the dancer creates an intimate story that is trying to fit in a public structure, but the figure is constantly breaking the perfect shape and creating his/her own ones. The figure represents the autonomy of a living being, with the frustrations that he/she develops in the process of growth.
The main shape – the circle - can be seen as an ocular or as a general shape of the life path that I understand as a repetition in general. As Artists, I think that we have the same path to follow, but we have greater autonomy than the others. We constantly revaluate the system, we tighten its borders and we account for our actions under the autonomy of Art.
The interconnections between the space of the dancer and the people involved by chance in the performance represent the relations tied in our society, inside the system. In the end: Are these relations under our control? Or, since they are tied in the system, is it the system itself that controls our relations? Who is the winner? The individual or the system? Is the path we choose to walk ours? Or is it controlled by the system of our political, economical or cultural structures? Are we really free in our decisions?
The second part of the video goes backwards: it is the revaluation of a life that ended. What could we do better? Do we accept the past or we are sorry for the things we did? After all, is the power of being still strong enough to arrive to our life end with a smile? What does it mean to be significant? And to whom? Did our life as artists have an impact on the society?
KINO ŠIŠKA
Center for Urban Culture
Ljubljana (Slovenia)
From 1st March to 31st March 2010
Everyday from 9am till 8pm
+ night screening
http://www.kinosiska.si/
Revaluation:
http://www.kinosiska.si/en/events/exhibitions-and-film/2010-03-03/3rd_channel_revaluation_curator_michele_drascek/108/
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