Opening of the project if walls could tell / ko zidovi spregovorijo
What happens when citizens, potential museum audiences, and artists in public space are given “freedom of expression” that is not typically afforded by museum and exhibition policies? You are warmly invited to join us for the transnational project if walls could tell / ko zidovi spregovorijo by Düsseldorf-based artist Mischa Kuball, which challenges art and cultural institutions to reconsider their openness to broader social groups and their ideas.
Between April 15 and May 4, two white walls—four meters long and three meters high—will be erected in the middle of the French Revolution Square in Ljubljana. The walls invite you to communication related in one way or another to culture as presented within institutional frameworks, yet which usually remains either unspoken or unexpressed.
11.00 a.m.: Panel discussion — Politics and Ethics of Participation, at the conference hall of the City Museum of Ljubljana
This panel discussion will explore ongoing theoretical debates concerning the role of participation in contemporary artistic practices, particularly in public spaces. An additional relevant issue to be highlighted is the ethical dimension of participatory art, which often engages with the “sore points” of society. From this, a key question arises: Can aesthetics be interconnected with the concept of participation? Is there such a thing as a participatory aesthetic? The lingering question remains: Does participatory art hold transformative potential? If so, what conditions must be met for this potential to be realized? In addition to these theoretical frameworks and questions, we will analyze another position: that of the artist as a catalyst and mediator, who sets up a "stage" for open-ended participation.
Participants: Eda Čufer (dramaturge, curator, and writer, Faculty Member at AVA – Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana), Mojca Puncer (Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maribor), Apolonija Šušteršič (visual artist, architect, and independent researcher). The moderator will be Zoran Erić (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade).
The event will be held in English.
1.00 p.m.: Official opening of the project and the installation of the walls at the French Revolution Square
Participation in the panel discussion and the opening event is free of charge.
The project if walls could tell was created in collaboration with the City Museum of Ljubljana (MGML), Goethe-Institut Ljubljana, Studio Mischa Kuball GmbH, and the Secondary School for Design and Photography. The project partner is TAM-TAM d.o.o.
Echoing the narrative of John Dos Passos, the so-called analogue museum_transfer—a transitional, almost dystopian shift of space with its many inscriptions—focuses on the traces left behind on the walls. The walls themselves become a temporary space for open and unrestricted expression—within a participatory artistic project in the public space. if walls could tell raises pressing social questions: Can civil society exist without museums? Does this imply the dismantling or even rupture of the cultural promise to future generations? What kinds of mutual interactions exist between society, museums, citizens, artists, and curators?
Within this context, Mischa Kuball acts as a catalyst, opening space for all residents to become direct creators of content—participants and co-authors of a collective artistic work. In doing so, they are recognized as political subjects who should have access to all available means to be active creators rather than passive consumers. This opens a further question: What happens when citizens, potential museum audiences, and artists in public space are granted a "freedom of expression" that is not typical within museum and exhibition policies?
Curator:
Zoran Erić, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade
