Nevena Aleksovski and Ana Makuc, Nina Čelhar, Katja Felle, Jasmina Grudnik, Andrea Knezović, Gašper Kunšič, Maša Lancner, Ana Legčević, Jure Markota, Erik Mavrič, Iza Pavlina, Petra Petančič, Tejka Pezdirc, Adrijan Praznik, Urška Savič, Kaja Urh, Jara Vogrič
This year, the Center for Contemporary Arts Celje is opening the third edition of the Triennial of Young Artists. The ambition of the Triennial is to make ongoing presentations of those young artists whose sovereign engagement in the contemporary times is made through their own language both visually as well as in terms of meaning. The selection of participating artists takes place on the basis of a call for submissions, which was first published in 2009. Out of 45 applications this year, 17 artworks were selected. The only criteria of selection were quality and contemporaneity, which is why this exhibition represents a field of diverse contents. Its significance – beside drawing attention to the young artists – is that this type of concept affords a view into how young artists, who are about to enter or have only just entered the world of art, are responding to the realities of today, the aspects of the diverse and changing present that come to the fore, as well as the internal and external impulses that act as starting points for their language and message passed on through their artwork.
Time, Mood, Identity are three chapters that cover the directions of the young artists at this year’s Premiere. These broadly outlined chapters present a discourse on contemporary migration and the hybrid identity of immigrants, gender roles, sexuality and relationships between the genders, as well as the contemplation of the role of the artist within society. The problems of identity and their related diversity of feelings are joined by consideration and reflection of other prevailing moods in contemporaneity, from alienation and isolation, feelings of meaninglessness and grasping for the tangible, to sensing the tiny moments that take place in everyday life which are simple, but nevertheless important for the individual. The critical look at the facts of social reality extends into the issue of violence against women, media-mediated reality and the gap between the expected and the real political and economic situation in the country. Besides social time, this year’s Premiere addresses the phenomenon of time as such, from the systematic identification and measurement of time, to highlighting its elusiveness. Noticeable is the use of the Internet as a work space, from the appropriation and transfer of a wide variety of images from the Internet to painting and the reflection on the relationship between the source of the image and its new status, to using online chat rooms, the randomness of contacts and the multiplicity of encounters enabled by the Internet.
Premiere 2015 questions the present through the identification of contemporary conditions, through the expectation of the future, as well as through memory and history. The current time of constant movement, flow, quantity, temporariness, variability and uncertainty is expressed through different artistic means, installation, painting, drawing, object, sound, words and photography; through various methods of work that also include dialogue and collaboration, and through diverse contents that often spring from one’s own experience.
The exhibition Time, Mood, Identity is accompanied by a catalogue (44 pages, designed by Studio Kindin, translated from the Slovene by Arven Šakti Kralj Szomi, with texts by the participating artists and Irena Čerčnik).
