The Studio 6 program was conceived in 2004 by Barbara Borčić and Saša Nabergoj at the SCCA-Ljubljana. We wanted to show all the diverse aspects of an art context, which contributes to how individual art works are interpreted, and encourage discussions on influential books, unfinished projects, dead-end ideas etc. We were interested in how individuals in the art world are inter-connected, while seeking to prompt debates between different protagonists – artists, curators and critics – not only about art works and exhibitions, but also the processes which lead to the final result.

With the careful selection of participants at Studio 6, we created various situations through which we examined theoretically and practically various levels of work and cooperation in art. In the first year, we formed a team of five curators (Božidar Zrinski, Bojana Piškur, Iztok Hotko, Alenka Gregorič and Saša Nabergoj), who collaborated closely with their respective invited artist when preparing an exhibition and discussion in the Project Room. In the ensuing years, the focus was on the discussion - a discursive event which accompanied the exhibition - which was a site-specific intervention in the full (in terms of meaning and space) Project Room. We invited curators who had established interesting models of work and examined key issues – including Petra Kapš and Božidar Zrinski, who focused on the issue of the power of the curator and commissioned works, and Jurij Krpan, Nevenka Šivavec and Andrej Medved, whose working method is based on a close continuous following and collaboration with the artistic practice of an artist.

Thus, Studio 6 ventured out of the home venue which contributed to its establishment and name – the SCCA Project Room at Metelkova 6 – to become a guest of the Matach Gallery. We have taken this opportunity to reflect on past work, and on the basis of previously tested formats seek to conceive a complex project: an exhibition of contemporary art and a space of collaboration in which curatorial and artistic practice and its perception are placed in context, allowing for a presentation of alternative ways of working and collaborating in the art world.

We invited two artist-run spaces that promote a wider reflection on the methods and conditions of presenting works of art to participate. They are not interested in being spectacular, but in the long-term work of adjusting to local contexts. We invited CAC, the Conceptual Art Centre Bukovje (Slovenia) and Golo Brdo Studio (Croatia), whose inspired and constructive work we have been following for some time, to present curatorial and artists’ work and install an exhibition in the gallery.

The contribution of Golo Brdo Studio was conceived by Tomislav Brajnović, Saša Nabergoj and Sonja Zavrtanik, who have been collaborating in various ways for several years, while the presentation of CAC Bukovje was prepared in collaboration with the Centre’s founders Nina Slejko and Conny Blom; in this case, we hope that long-term collaboration will ensue.

Five artists who have previously collaborated with Golo Brdo Studio are participating in the exhibition: Nemanja Cvijanović, IRWIN, Dalibor Martinis, Vlado Martek and Goran Petercol. Each has been invited to contribute a work of their choice, which should be recent and modest in terms of production. This is in accordance with the conceptual guidelines of the program of Golo Brdo Studio.

CAC Bukovje presents their small, but outstanding art collection, which features great names from the world of contemporary art, and which was established by Nina Slejko and Conny Blom on the principles of the alternative economy (often involving exchanges of their own art works).