Born: 1930, Slawków, Poland
Education: Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow
Lives and works: Cracow

Altar of Honesty, 1976, piece of wood, wooden postament, one bottle, piece of white cotton fabric
Ritual of Honesty, 1976, action on video

The Polish artist Jerzy Beres has been dealing with the same forms and themes since the late 1960s. His artistic creativity is a reaction to significant historical events, while his main motif remains the same. This is his naked body, one of the most typical elements of his performances. The artist draws on the heritage of romanticism and Christian tradition and finds his point of reference in the body of Christ, which is exposed to pain in order to bring about liberty (or independence). The character of his body is mystical rather than physical, it is connected with sacrifice and conversion, and expresses an effort to attain independence and preserve national identity.

Born: 1946, Belgrade, Serbia
Education: 1965-70, Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade; 1970-72, postgraduate studies, Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb
Lives and works: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Rhythm 0, performance (duration six hours, 1974, Studio Morra, Naples)
Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York

Marina Abramovic is one of the most radical and dedicated explorers of the body as a source and vehicle of artistic expression. In 1975 she meets German artist Ulay in Amsterdam, marking the beginning of a twelve-year period of life and work together. Their first performances, under the common title Relation Work, deal with the relations of dualities (woman-man, sound-silence, repose-energy), while inspiration for their later works came from other cultures. 1988: performance entitled The Lovers/The Great Wall Walk and separation from Ulay. 1989-1998: solo performances, the most distinctive of which are Cleaning the Mirror I, II, III, The Onion and Cleaning the House which, together with the performances Delusional and Balkan Baroque, deal directly with the war in the former Yugoslavia. For Balkan Baroque, presented at the 1997 Venice Biennial, she received the Golden Lion Award for best artist of the Biennial.

Rhythm 0 was first performed in 1974 at Studio Morra, Naples. It is the last in the cycle of rhythms (Rhythm 10, Rhythm 5, Rhythm 2, Rhythm 4, Rhythm 0). Abramovic’s instructions: “I explore my body when it is in a conscious or unconscious state. There are 72 objects on the table which you can use on me any way you want. I am an object. I take full responsibility for anything that happens during the performance.

The list of objects on the table: gun, bullet, blue paint, comb, bell, whip, lipstick, pocket knife, fork, perfume, spoon, cotton, flowers, matches, rose, candle, water, scarf, mirror, glass, Polaroid camera, leather, chains, nails, needle, safety pin, hair pin, brush, bandage, red paint, white paint, scissors, fountain pen, book, hat, handkerchief, sheet of white paper, kitchen knife, hammer, saw, piece of wood, axe, stick, lamb bone, newspaper, bread, wine, honey, salt, sugar, soap, cake, metal pipe, scalpel, metal spike, bell, vessel, plaster, alcohol, medal, coat, shoes, chair, leather strips, thread, wire, phosphorus, grapes, olive oil, sprig of rosemary,

Born: 1959, Moscow, Russia
Education: 1974 – 77, K. Arnold Studio, Moscow, 1977 – 80, Pedagogical Institute, Moscow
Lives and works: Moscow and Cologne

“The further development and intensification of Wittgenstein’s thoughts about art”. From the series “Elitist-democratic Art (for deaf mutes)”, 1988, acrylic on photos, mounted on orgalith

Albert’s last installation from 1999/2000 is Self Portrait with Eyes Closed. Canvas on the walls is covered in Braille transcriptions of Van Gogh’s descriptions of his paintings to his brother Theo. In the display, two types of perceptions meet. That of blind people who understand the Braille script but cannot imagine the colours described by Van Gogh and that of people who can see the canvases but cannot read what is written. This means that there is no ideal visitor of the gallery.

Albert develops and expands Wittgenstein’s thought from Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Wittgenstein speaks of a sentence in terms of an image of reality and how the borders of one’s language are also the borders of one’s world.

Born: 1958, Warsaw, Poland
Education: 1980- 85, Fine Arts Academy, Warsaw
Lives and works: Warsaw, Poland

Winterhilfsverein, 1994
1. (“60 x 30 x 4.60 x 10 x 4″, steel, chalk, bone glue, linoleum, felt)
2. “250 x 196 x 164, 190 x 89 x 51, 10 x 15″, steel, chalk, bone glue, light bulb
3. “201 x 101 x 11, 6, 6, 5, 4″, steel, chalk, bone glue, plaster 03

Taking from the tradition of minimalism, Balka uses found or used materials for his sculptures, which he shapes into abstract forms, turning them into objects for contemplation. Balka’s installations affect the viewer visually and with their smell, thus creating a special atmosphere necessary for the emergence of associations. The dimensions of his objects are the dimensions of his body and mostly represent the limits of his own existence. Balka says: “There is a certain type of nostalgia which man carries in his blood. For me, there is no difference between my life and my art and, for this reason, it is difficult for me to say where life stops and art begins.” The “meagre” but association-packed materials, together with the artist’s personal memories, go to make up works of grandiose simplicity.

According to the artist, Winterhilfsverein is some kind of a purgatory, a place of memories and yearning for the ideal and perfection. Like most works by the artist, it can, in terms of classical iconography, be defined as a self-portrait. It reflects the artist’s physiognomy and refers to his personal and working environment (the threshold is made of the linoleum that covered the floor in the artist’s burnt-down studio), speaking about his emotional life, thoughts and place in the world. As an artist, Balka remains the centre of attention in his work – in other words, Winterhilfsverein exists because of and in him.

Ljubljana (pop 270,000) is the political and cultural centre of Slovenia, and an important trade, business, conference, trade-fair, traffic, scientific and educational centre. Residents and tourists alike view Ljubljana as a truly people-friendly city. Despite its small size, Ljubljana offers all the features of a major European capital. The city’s increasingly vibrant trade and business life and, through foreign embassies and consulates, its rapidly expanding administration base give the city a cosmopolitan air. The City of Ljubljana is headed by the mayor, Vika Potocnik. Her office is located at Mestni trg 1.

http://www.mesto-lj.si/

Selected bibliography of texts and publications related to the concept of the collection Arteast 2000+

T E X T S

Laszlo Beke
Conceptual tendencies in Eastern European Art, katalog Global Conceptualism : Points of Origin 1950′s – 1980′s, Queens Museum of Art, new York 1999

Marina Grzinic
Sprectralisation of Europe, From Elswhere to Cyberfeminism and back, Institutional models of Cyberworld, edited by Marina Grzinic in collaboration with Adele Eisenstein, MKC, Maribor, 1999

Igor Zabel
“We” and “the Others”, Moscow Art Magazine, 1998, no. 22, p. 27-35.

Piotr Piotrovsky
Framing central Europe, Moscow Art Magazine, 1998, no. 22, p. 27-35.

Victor Misiano

P U B L I C A T I O N S

NSK Embassy Moscow, How the East see the East, Loza Gallery, Piran, 1993

Post-Theory, Games, and Discursive Resistsnce -The Bulgarian Case, edited by Alexander Kiossev, State University of New York Press, Albany 1995

L’autre Moitié de L’Europe, Galerie Nationale du jeu de Paume, Paris, 2000 (cd-rom mac/pc)

Irwin – Kapital, Collaborator, Edinburgh and NSK, Ljubljana 1991

Rjeci i Slike/Words and Images, SCCA Zagreb 1995

subREAL, Files, Beuer Berliner Kunstverein and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien 1996, Berlin

Manifesta 1, Rotterdam 1996

Deep Europe, Syndicate publication series, the 1996 – 97 edition

Exeperiment in Romanian art since 1960, SCCA Bucharest 1997

Junction Skopje, Syndicate publication series, the 1997 – 1998 edition

Moscow Art Magazine no. 22, Moscow 1998

Manifesta 2, Luxemburg 1998

Bulgarianavantgarde, Salon Verlag, Sofia, 1998

Body and the East, edited by Zdenka Badovinac (Moderna Gallery & MIT Press, 1999).

Akce Slovo, Pohyb Prostor/ Action Word Movement Space, City Gallery 2000, Prague

Transnacionala, Highway Collisions betwee East and West at the Crossroads of Art, edited by Eda Cufer, Koda 1999, Ljubljana

Aspects/ Positions, 50 Years of Art in Central Europe 1949 – 1999, Musem Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien 1999/2000

After the Wall, Art and Culture in post – Communist Europe, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 1999

Global Conceptualism : Points of Origin 1950′s – 1980′s, Queens Museum of Art, New York 1999

Magda Carneci, Art of the 1980s in Eastern Europe. Texts on Postmodernism, Editura Paralela 45. 1999.

Conceptual Art, edited by Alexander Alberro & Blake Stimson (MIT Press,1998)
Andrzej Turowski, “Existe-t-il un art de L’Europe de l’Est?” (Is there an Art of Eastern Europe). Editions de la Villette, Paris, 1986

The Museum of Modern Art’s international collection project is a result of joint efforts by the Museum of Modern Art, the Ministry of Culture, the City of Ljubljana and Slovenian business. In Slovenian visual art, the project undoubtedly represents a new model of co- operation between all parties interested in the development of Slovenian culture. According to the collection’s action plan, one third of funds for the purchase of artworks will be contributed by the Ministry of Culture, one third by the City of Ljubljana and one third by Slovenian business.

The project’s curator is the Museum’s director Zdenka Badovinac, while communication support is provided by a creative team consisting of the New Collectivism group and Pristop agency. Co-operation with Pristop involves the preparation and implementation of the collection’s marketing plan. For a decade the agency has worked closely with artists (such as Marko Peljhan, Outsider, IRWIN), selecting and implementing one art project at a high professional level every year. Together with the Museum, it wishes to attract as many sponsors as possible and show them that being involved with the collection represents a valuable dialogue between art and commerce at home and abroad. Ten Slovenian companies have so far signed sponsorship contracts and the project has received coverage in all major media outlets in Slovenia.

In order to ensure a top-quality selection of art works, four internationally renowned experts have been invited to participate in the project as advisers for individual areas, all of whom have worked successfully with the Museum in the past: Harald Szeemann for Western art, Piotr Piotrowski for Eastern art (excluding the former Yugoslavia and Russia), Viktor Misiano for Russia and Igor Zabel for the former Yugoslavia.

01. ABRAMOVIC Marina
02. ALBERT Jury
03. BA£KA Miroslaw
04. BERES Jerzy
05. BEUYS Joseph
06. BRÃTESCU Geta
07. BUSTAMANTE Jean-Marc
08. CABRITA REIS Pedro
09. CLAUS Carlfriedrich
10. DIMITRIJEVIC Braco
11. DROZDZ Stanislaw
12. EL-HASSAN Róza
13. EL-HASSAN Róza
& TOMIC Milica
14. ERDÉLY Miklós
15. FILKO Stano
16. FISHKIN Vadim
17. GORGONA
18. GOTOVAC Tomislav
19. GRIGORESCU Ion
20. GUTOV Dmitry
21. HADZIFEJZOVIC Jusuf
22. HAJAS Tibor
23. HOLZER Jenny
24. IGLESIAS Cristina
25. IVEKOVIC Sanja
26. IVEKOVIC Sanja
& MARTINIS Dalibor
27. JOVÁNOVICS György
28. KABAKOV Ilya
29. KAPOOR Anish
30. KNIFER Julije
31. KNÍZÁK Milan
32. KOMAR & MELAMID
33. KOSOLAPOV Alexandr
34. KOZ£OWSKI Jaroslaw
35. KOZYRA Katarzyna
36. KOZARIC Ivan
37. KULIK Oleg
38. KULIK Zofia
39. KUPRIJANOV Vladimir
40. KWIEKULIK (Przemyslaw KWIEK
& Zofia KULIK)
41. LEIDERMAN Yuri
42. LEWANDOWSKY Via
43. LL Natalia
44. LÜSCHER Ingeborg
45. MALEVICH Kazimir
46. MANGELOS
47. MIKHAILOV Boris
48. MILER Karel
49. MLCOCH Jan
50. MLYNÁRCIK Alex
51. MONASTIRSKY Andrey
52. NEAGU Paul
53. OPALKA Roman
54. OSMOLOVSKY Anatoly
55. PACI Adrian
56. PERJOVSCHI Dan
57. PERJOVSCHI Amalia
58. PETERCOL Goran
59. PIETROIUSTI Cesare
60. PRIGOV Dmitry
61. RIGVAVA Guia
62. ROBAKOWSKI Józef
63. ROITBURD Alexandr
64. ROLLOF Ulf
65. SAVADOV Arsen
& SENCHENKO Georgy
66. SOLAKOV Nedko
67. SPITZER Serge
68. STILINOVIC Mladen
69. subREAL
70. SEJN Milos
71. SERIC-SOBA Nebojsa
72. SOSKIC Ilja
73. STEMBERA Petr
74. TODOSIJEVIC Rasa
75. TOLJ Slaven
76. TOMIC Milica
77. TOT Endre
78. TRBULJAK Goran
79. TZAIG Uri
80. VALOCH Jiri
81. WEINER Lawrence
82. WODICZKO Krzysztof
83. ZAKHAROV Vadim
84. ZVEZDOCHIOTOV Konstantin