Beyond Occupied Images

The exhibition Beyond Occupied Images is an attempt to reflect on the relationship which emerges between an art work and the specific language of communication which is established by the exhibition in the context of contemporary visual art. Because of different exhibition strategies, an individual work of art often somehow serves only to ‘illustrate’ an exhibition. Unfortunately, despite the fact that most art works are complex and prompt several different levels of reflection, they are often ‘squeezed’ into the narrow territory of the selected meta-discourse. The hegemony of formal, philosophical and geo-political assumptions or hidden economic premises function as ‘umbrella’ exhibition concepts that lead to the viewer addressing an art work with pre-suppositions and demands. However, the art work is not the only thing lost here: the exhibition itself as the communication medium loses its complexity, in the sense that is fails to connect different content and formal characteristics of an art work and position them in the exhibition space, considering its specifics. The dominance of individual meta-discourses and neglect of basic underlying features of an art work too often leads to ‘compressed’ exhibitions in terms of form and medium, which are caught in their perfect self-sufficient monolith of content.

While such exhibitions are very significant for implementing certain issues in the system of contemporary visual art, hermetic content and formal ‘compression’ are the main factors which negatively affect the perception of an art work and the overall reflection of an exhibition. This is one of the reasons that the exhibition Beyond Occupied Images attempts to see through the supremacy of some meta-discourse in contemporary visual arts and focuses on presenting individual works of art. The exhibition functions as a compilation of questions about contexts and references which were always present in the history of art, having a key role in positioning art practices and defining trends in contemporary visual art. Art works with completely different starting points are very specific in terms of an artist’s selection of medium, which shows that artists are aware of their significance in relation to the concept. This extent creates a tension in the gallery, toying with the viewer’s perception, which is connected to his/her behaviour, memory or rational, emotional or aesthetic experience.

The programme of Škuc Gallery is divided into several segments, and the exhibition Beyond Occupied Images belongs to the segment of curated problem- or topic-specific exhibitions which seek to present in a more in-depth way issues which are somewhat alternative vis-à-vis dominant currents. Such exhibitions not only seek to establish a distance toward the dominant current, but open up the sphere focusing on the issues of perception, understanding and accepting art works and contemporary art. The exhibition Beyond Occupied Images is a minute reflection on the dominance of meta-discourse and the position of a work of art in contemporary visual art. At a time where it seems that art works only illustrate grand exhibition ideologies, Beyond Occupied Images seeks to identify new potential for the exhibition medium and the possibilities of presenting art works in this context.

Beyond Occupied Images
Kurator: Tevz Logar

Künstler: General Idea, Laibach , George Maciunas, Marina Naprushkina, Guillaume Paris, Agnieszka Polska, Arcangelo Sassolino, Isabel Schmiga, Orson Welles