City Art Gallery of Ljubljana between Utopia and Dystopia
The exhibition "Utopia / Dystopia: Architecture, City, Territory" at the City Art Gallery of Ljubljana is presenting art projects produced by authors who cooperated in the residency and gallery programme the CC Tobačna 001 over the past six years. As written by curator Alenka Trebušak, some artists are interested in the paradigms of power that are displayed in the subject of public vs. private or in the questioning of laws, rules, and prohibitions.
Others are focusing on the European reality, our time, which is marked by the removal of earlier commemorations and border controls. The fact that borders still exist cannot be disregarded, while the systematised control is merely being moved to the outer Schengen borders.
According to the curator, this is causing further divisions that are not much different from the ones in the past, as borders still signify inclusion on one side and exclusion on the other, through permits for travel, living, work, etc. These are still borders that inhibit integration and help sustain various forms of subordination and dependency. The full article, published in Delo newspaper, is available for reading here (in Slovenian).
The exhibition, on view until 12 November, is displaying works by: Vahram Aghasyan, Ovidiu Anton, Dušica Dražić, Thibaut Espiau, Anna Friz, Anne Harild, Minna Henriksson, Kud Obrat (Stefan Doepner, Urška Jurman, Polonca Lovšin, Apolonija Šušteršič), Tanja Lažetić, Ivan Moudov, Alban Muja, Géraldine Py & Roberto Verde, Maruša Sagadin, Miha Štrukelj, Efrat Vital and Matej Andraž Vogrinčič.