Slovenia

Avant-garde

Artists

• Avgust Černigoj. During the years 1924-1929 Avgust Cernigoj, a Slovene artist from Trieste, fashioned his special version of Constructivism, and propagated it with a typical vanguard and activist fervor first in Ljubljana (Slovenia, Yugoslavia) in 1924 and 1925, and afterwards in Trieste (Italy) from 1925 to 1929.
• Ferdinand (Ferdo) Delak (29 June 1905 - 16 January 1968) was an actor, director, theorist, editor, writer, and reformer. He published the avant-garde journal Tank in its two issues (1927-28).

Journals

• The journal La testa di ferro was created by the core group of the Rijeka futurist sheave (Fascio Futurista Fiumanense) that, during the D’Annunzio administrating of Rijeka and the Quarnaro Republic (Fiume and Republica di Carnarro, 1919–1921), consisted of Mino Somenzi, Guido Keller and the journal editor, the poet, writer, diplomat and publicist Mario Carli.
• 1921-28, avant-garde activities in Slovenia are linked to the reviews Svetokret (1921), Rdeči pilot (Red Pilot) (1922); Ljubljanski zvon (Ljubljana Bell), Novi oder (New Stage) (1924), and Tank - revue internationale de l'art vivant (1927-28), published by Ferdinand Delak in Ljubljana and edited by him and Avgust Černigoj.

Events

• 1921, Černigoj and Delak introduce constructivist art to Ljubljana.
• 1924, Ljubljana, constructivist art experiments of Avgust Černigoj.
• 1928, Berlin, first exhibition outside Yugoslavia of the Slovenian Constructivist avant-garde.
• exhibition of the Constructivist period, Idria (Slovenia), 1978. Included works by Avgust Černigoj and several of his pupils. Thirteen Constructivist'reliefs were reconstructed on the basis of a series of photographs dating back to 1924 and 1927, a good number of graphic works, primarily linocuts, and twenty original works, primarily stage designs, done in 1926 were shown. An up-to-date and as nearly complete as possible documentation of the whole movement was also presented. A richly illustrated catalogue was published for the occasion with two essays, one by the author and one by the critic Alexander Bassin.

Writings

• 1920, poet Anton Podbevšek develops his program along anarchist proletcult lines for the journal Rdeči pilot.
• Avgust Černigoj, "Greetings!", tank, 1927.
• Mirko Polić, "Marij Kogoj's Black Masks", tank, 1927.
• Ferdo Delak, "Theater Co-op", tank, 1927.
• Avgust Černigoj, "Tank Manifesto", tank, 1927.
• Ferdo Delak, The Modern Stage, manifesto. [1]
• Avgust Černigoj, "The Constructivist Group in Trieste", tank, 1927.

Literature

• Peter Krečič, "Avgust Černigoj and His Constructivism: A Memoir", Leonardo Vol. 15, No. 3 (Summer, 1982), pp. 215-218. [2]
• Andrej Hrausky, "Yugoslavia. Bauhaus students: Avgust Cernigoj", Centropa 3 (2003) 1
• Toshino Iguchi, "Avant-garde Design Beyond Borders. The Slovenian Constructivist Avgust Černigoj", 2008. [3]
• Tomaž Toporišič, " The Slovene historical avant-garde and Europe in crisis ", Theatralia 25:1, 2022, pp 65-86.

• Treća decenija, Konstruktivno slikarstvo, eds. Jerko Denegri and Dragoslav Đorđević, Belgrade: Muzej savremene umetnosti, 1967, 249 pp. Catalogue; with texts by Miodrag B. Protić, Jerko Denegri, Špelca Čopič. (Serbo-Croatian),(French)
• 1929-1950: Nadrealizam, socijalana umetnost, ed. Miodrag B. Protić, Belgrade: Muzej primenjene umetnosti, 1969, 291 pp. Catalogue; in the exhibition the work of the Belgrade Surrealists was reconstructed, studied and exhibited as a whole for the first time. With texts by Miodrag B. Protić, Jerko Denegri, Božica Ćosić, Josip Depolo, Špelca Čopič, Azra Begić, Boris Petrovski, Boris Šuica, Dragoslav Đorđević. [4] (Serbo-Croatian)
• Četvrta decenija, Ekspresionizam boje, poetski realizam, ed. Miodrag B. Protić, Belgrade: Muzej savremene umetnosti, 1971, 206 pp. Catalogue; with texts by Miodrag B. Protić, Jerko Denegri, Aleksa Čelebonović, Igor Zidić, Špelca Čopič. (Serbo-Croatian)
• Želimir Koščević, "Jugoslawische Bauhausschüler", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift / A, Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen, Jg. 33, 1987, H. 4/6. [5]
• Irina Subotić, "Avant-Garde Tendencies in Yugoslavia", Art Journal 49(1): "From Leningrad to Ljubljana: The Suppressed Avant-Gardes of East-Central and Eastern Europe during the Early Twentieth Century", College Art Association, Spring 1990, pp 21-27. [6]
• Esther Levinger, "The Avant-Garde in Yugoslavia", The Structurist 29/30, 1990, pp 66-72.
• Irina Subotić, "Concerning Art and Politics in Yugoslavia during the 1930s", Art Journal Vol. 52, No. 1, Political Journals and Art, 1910-40 (Spring, 1993), pp. 69-71. [7]
• Ivan Dorovský, "Některé zvláštnosti balkánské avantgardy", in Dorovský, Balkán a Mediterán: literárně historické a teoretické studie, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 1997, pp 193-201. (Czech)
• Esther Levinger, "Ljubomir Micic and the Zenitist Utopia", in Exchange and Transformation: The Central European Avant-Garde, 1910-1930, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002, pp 260-278.
• Dragomir Ugren, et al., Centralnoevropski aspekti Vojvođanskih avangardi, 1920-2000: granični fenomeni, fenomeni granica, Novi Sad: MSUV, 2002, 193 pp. Catalogue. (Serbian)
• Dubravka Djurić, Miško Šuvaković (eds.), Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, MIT Press, 2003, xviii+605 pp. (English)
• Dubravka Đurić, "Radical Poetic Practices: Concrete and Visual Poetry in the Avant-garde and Neo-avant-garde", in Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, eds. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, MIT Press, 2003, pp 64-95. (English)
• Darko Šimičić, "From Zenit to Mental Space: Avant-garde, Neo-avant-garde, and Post-avant-garde Magazines and Books in Yugoslavia, 1921-1987", in Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, eds. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, MIT Press, 2003, pp 294-331. (English)
• Katherine Ann Carl, Aoristic Avant-garde: Experimental Art in 1960s and 1970s Yugoslavia. Dissertation, Stony Brook University, May 2009. [8]
• Г. Тешић, Српска књижевна авангарда. Књижевноисторијски контекст (1902–1934), Belgrade: Институт за књижевност и уметност - Службени гласник, 2009, 618 pp. Review.
• Laurel Seely Voloder and Tyrus Miller, "Avant-Garde Periodicals in the Yugoslavian Crucible", in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. 3 (Europe, 1880-1940), New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp 1099-1127.
• Miško Šuvaković, "Avant-Gardes in Yugoslavia", Filozofski vestnik 37:1, 2016, pp 201-219. [9]
• Antologiya yugoslavskogo avangarda [Антология югославского авангарда], trans. & forew. Adam Randzhelovich (Адам Ранджелович), Moscow: Opustoshitel (Опустошитель), 2019, 184 pp. Anthology. [10] (Russian)
• Na robu: vizualna umetnost v Kraljevini Jugoslaviji (1929–1941) / On the Brink: The Visual Arts in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941), eds. Marko Jenko and Beti Žerovc, Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 2019, 445 pp. Catalogue. Exhibition. Exh.review: Bago (Artforum). [11] [12] (Slovenian)/(English)
• Dejan Sretenović, Red Horizon: The Avant-Garde and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1919-1932, trans. Katarina Radović, Novi Sad: kuda.org, 2021, 228 pp. (English)
• more, more

Computer and computer-aided art

Sergej Pavlin (1970-73)

Literature

• Marina Gržinić (ed.), The Future of Computer Arts, 2004. [13]

Electronic music

• Merzdow Shek (Mario Marzidovšek). 'Oldschool industrial'/noise artist and Yugoslav tape culture pioneer. Operated 'Marzidovshek Minimal Laboratorium' (MML) tape label since 1984, 50-60 releases. Self-taught artist, with an interest in painting as well as collaging and xerox-art and a performance artist, organizing a number of happenings and actions. Also made visual and concrete poetry and wrote numerous essays on music and avant-garde art. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Events

• Elektroakustika, lecture and presentation cycle, Maribor, 2008. [21] [22]

Resources

• A Hogon's Industrial Guide, 80s Yugoslav non-academic experimentalism blog, industrial music, [23]

Experimental film

Filmmakers

Karpo Godina

Centres

Amateur cinema clubs in Yugoslavia (or cine clubs) were the basic organizational units for amateur filmmakers. Originally they were formally dependent "film sections" of photo clubs, with the first photo clubs in the region organized in the late 19th century. After the Second World War, photographers and filmmakers often formed clubs together; one such example was the Janez Puhar Photo-Cinema Club in Kranj. Initially, photo clubs covered a wide range of activities and took on the role and responsibilities of cultural and educational institutions that had not yet been set up. Their scope was, however, limited: they provided premises for meetings, some equipment and materials, they organized courses and enabled their members to enter their works for festivals, which did not accept independent filmmakers. As amateur clubs had been the domain of the bourgeoisie before the war, an umbrella organization was set up for them after the Second World War, Popular Engineering Society (Ljudska tehnika). This was to ensure that representatives of the working class also joined the clubs and in part also to supervise the clubs for any potentially subversive activities. In the 1970s the clubs gradually became less significant, although some exist as associations to this day.

• Ljubljana Cinema Club, *1954.
• ŠKUC (Študenski kulturni center; Students Cultural Center) in Ljubljana "was known in its various phases under the names Center for Student Amateur Film, Center for Student Film, Film Redaction and tehn E-Motion Film. The center worked to support a wide range of alternative and experimental activities in the sphere of film culture. For more than twenty years, ŠKUC supported, stimulated, exhibited and encouraged all forms of production and film-related activities that had been marginalized by the intolerant bureaucracies of official socialist culture. ŠKUC was active in exhibition as well as production, and its contribution to educational and critical film culture in Slovenia in the 1970s was very important, especially in student and amateur filmmaking. The history of ŠKUC breaks down into three periods: (a) The 'learning years' of 1974-79; (b) The first period of 'alternative culture', which saw the development of Slovenian film alternatives between 1979-85; (c) The second period of 'alternative culture and..', which saw the strengthening of the alternative program and its various combinations and transformations in light of new policies between 1985 and 1992."

Festivals and exhibitions

In the 1960s and 1970s, experimental films were shown almost exclusively at various amateur film festivals organized under the auspices of the Photo-Cinema Association, which was part of the umbrella organization Popular Engineering Society (Ljudska tehnika). The festivals were in fact organized in a system that echoed that of the organizational structure of Ljudska technika or the federal state structure. The basic units in the system were cinema clubs, whose members could enter films for festival consideration; as a rule, filmmakers could not work independently, although there were some exceptions. Following an agreement with the Republic or Federal Subcommittee for Film of the Photo-Cinema Association the individual cinema club would then hold a festival. Initially, the festivals were divided into non-competitive reviews and competitive festivals and then structured hierarchically like the main organization into club, interclub, regional, republic-wide, and federal festivals. The latter two related, as only films that had been successful at the republican level could be entered for federal festivals. This restriction proved too harsh as the federal festival came to be seen as prestigious, and was abandoned in 1970. Although formally only events at club or interclub level, some of them were nonetheless held in high esteem, depending on the organization and the filmmakers they managed to attract. As a result, filmmakers valued GEFF, MAFAF, 8 mm in Novi Sad, the Alternative Film Festival in Split, and the Alternatives in Belgrade more than they did the federal festival.

• "Three Slovenian filmmakers took part in the first MAFAF in 1965: Vasko Pregelj, Karpo Godina and Jure Prevanje. The Academic Club Odsev won as many as 12 awards for its Blues No. 7 (Pervanje) and Divjačina (Godina)." (Sineast, 1983/84, p 418).
• Amateur Film Festival of Slovenia
• Interclub and international festival in Jesenice, 1970s
• This Is All Film! Experimental Film in Yugoslavia 1951-1991, 2010-2011, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana
• As soon as I open my eyes I see a film – Experiment in the Art of Yugoslavia in the 60’s and 70’s, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, 24.4.2008 - 22.6.2008. review

Literature

• Andrew J Horton, "Avant-garde Film and Video in Slovenia" Central European Review (September 1999) [24] (English)
• "Uncharted Serbia: The Avant-Garde of the Kino Clubs", film selection with an introduction, 2009. [25]
• "Experimental Ex-Yu", film selection with an introduction, 2009. [26]
• Kino-Integral 11-12: "Prispevki k zgodovini slovenskega eksperimentalnega filma", 2011. Issue on the history of Slovenian experimental film. (Slovenian)

• Nevena Daković, "The Unfilmable Scenario and Neglected Theory: Yugoslav Film Avant-Garde: 1895-1992" in Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, eds. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, MIT Press, 2003, pp 466-489. (English)
• "Experimental Ex-Yu", film selection with an introduction, 2009. [27]
• Ana Janevski (ed.), As Soon as I Open My Eyes I See a Film. Experiment in the Art of Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s, Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2010, 344 pp. With essays by Ana Janevski (on experimental art and film in Yugoslavia), Stevan Vuković (on political upheaval in 1968 in Belgrade), and Łukasz Ronduda (on contacts between Yugoslav and Polish artists in the 1970s). Publisher. Distributor. Exhibition. Interview with Ana Janevski, June 2011.
  • Kiedy rano otwieram oczy, widzę film. Eksperyment w sztuce Jugoslawii w latach 60. i 70., Warsaw: Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, 2011. Excerpt. (Polish)
• Bojana Piškur, et al. (eds.), This Is All Film: Experimental Film in Yugoslavia 1951-1991 / Vse to je film: Eksperimentalni film v Jugoslaviji 1951-1991, Ljubljana: Museum of Modern Art, 2010, 154 pp. (English)/(Slovenian)
• Pavle Levi, Cinema by Other Means, Oxford University Press, 2012, 224 pp.
• Gal Kirn, Dubravka Sekulić, Žiga Testen (eds.), Surfing the Black: Yugoslav Black Wave Cinema and Its Transgressive Moments, Maastricht: Jan van Eyck Academie, 2012, 216 pp.
• Pavle Levi, Jolted Images: Unbound Analytic, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, 216 pp. TOC, Excerpt.

Programs

• Portraits and the Sky: Yugoslav Experimental Films, 1960s–1990s, eds. Petra Belc and Pavle Levi, 2020. [28]
• Eksperimentisanje bilo koga - jugoslovenski i postjugoslovenski eksperimentalni film od 1963. do danas, ed. Ivana Momčilović, 2020.

Geometric abstraction, Neo-constructivism, Op art, Kinetic art

Artists

• Slavko Tihec, 1928-1993, Ljubljana
• Vinko Tušek, 1936-2011, Kranj
• Dušan Tršar, 1937, Ljubljana
• Milena Braniselj, 1951, Ljubljana
• Tomaž Kolarič, 1952, Ljubljana

Literature

• The New Art Practice in Yugoslavia, 1966-1978, ed. Marijan Susovski, Zagreb: Gallery of Contemporary Art, 1978, 148 pp. Catalogue. (English)/(Serbo-Croatian)
• Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, eds. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, MIT Press, 2003, xviii+605 pp. (English)

Video art

Artists

1970s

• in Ljubljana: Nuša and Srečo Dragan [29], Miha Vipotnik [30] [31]

1980s

• Ljubljana subculture and alternative scene: FV 112/15 group (ZANK [32] [33], Borghesia) [34], FV Disco programme, ŠKUC Gallery.
• Marijan Osole-Max (ŠKUC-Forum Video, TDS Brut, ATV) [35]; Marko A Kovačič (Irwin) [36]; Andrej Lupinc (aka Keller; Laibach, ŠKUC-Forum Video) [37]; Andrej Zdravič (film and video) [38] [39]
• since ca 1987 a new generation of video-makers began to emerge. They considered video technology to be an integral segment of art practices, leading to the realisation of contemporary art works. The former antagonistic relationship to the medium and its institutions (television) and other ideological apparatuses of the state was gradually vanishing.

1990s

• Nataša Prosenc [40], Rok Sieberer-Kuri (Strip Core, Media Teror Vision *1995) [41], Peter Vezjak (Retrovision/NSK) [42], Mirko Simič (Bris, Human Creative Net) [43], Marko Košnik (Laibach, Egon March Institute *1986) [44], Marko Peljhan (Projekt Atol *1992, Ljudmila) [45], Ema Kugler [46] [47] [48], Jasna Hribernik [49], Apolonija Šuštaršič [50], Sašo Vrabič [51]

Works

• Nuša and Srečo Dragan, The White Milk of White Breasts (Belo mleko belih prsi, 1969). A static black-and-white shot with changing inscriptions, was the first video in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. At that time, the authors were working within the OHO conceptual art movement and led the Information Centre for Film in Ljubljana. In video's `pioneering' period in the early '70s, they considered and used video - which enabled the immediate screening of images and direct communication with the audience - as an element of their artistic meta-actions, or as a means of documenting. They worked with the Akai and Ikegami equipment, borrowed from the Avtotehna company (Open Reel 2"), or at international video events, such as CAYC: International Open Encounter on Video in Ferarra, Paris, and Barcelona.
• Majna Sevnik Firšt, Echoes (Odmevi, 1969). The first experimental dance project for television was important primarily from the viewpoint of fine art interventions in the media, which continued in 1970 with the Five Impressions (Pet impresij) project.
• Nuša and Srečo Dragan, Seven Nights and One Day to the Alpha-Theta Rhythm of the Oral Tradition (1974). Seven-day project of collective communication at the 3rd April Meetings in Belgrade. It started with an instruction: `This is a gesture which you must repeat and transmit our gesture to another who will repeat... .' Video was used to provoke the viewer's imagination and to neutralise the static and hermetic character of the conceptual statement. Part of the project was a round table attended by Bogdanka Poznanović (who would later become professor of video at the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad), Braco Dimitrijević, Joseph Beuys and others.
• Miha Vipotnik had the opportunity of working at the studios of TV Slovenia public television since 1976, where he designed the opening credits for different commercial and advertising programmes and editorials. He investigated the structure and aesthetic effects of the electronic image; he `discovered' the feedback effect and started to create video graphic works.
• The first synthesis of video and theatre - the Charades, or Daria (Šarada ali Darja, 1976) by the Glej Theatre - included a video by Nuša and Srečo Dragan in two ways: as previously shot material presenting an actress in an open-air setting, and as real-time footage of the stage events, shot and screened during the performance.
• Miha Vipotnik, Videogram 4 (1979). Two-year multi-media project for Slovene public television, which introduced the experimental video genre focused on the manipulation and transformation of the image and on editing. From material shot in a television studio, he made four videotapes for the Multi-vision (Multivizija, 1979) video installation; the fifth, entitled Media-sonia (Medijozonija, 1979), was broadcast as an experimental programme on television. It began with information and a warning for viewers that `all disturbances and irregularities in the picture and sound form part of the programme, and therefore they should not try to adjust the picture on their TV sets'. [52] With the layering of picture (double exposure, flowing changes of images, frosen image, solarisation) and sound, the artists and the objects in the television studio merged into electronic sensations - an infinite series of over-illuminated, perforated and broken images. The video was made on the basis of the multimedia project (screening and installation) of the same title, and it was presented as 'the deconstruction of screening' in the framework of experimental programme on television (RTV Ljubljana). [53]
• Since 1979, Vipotnik directed, as an external collaborator of Slovene public television, a number of programmes on culture and music, e.g. 'Yugo-rock' (Jugorock) and 'New Music' (Nova godba), and made the first music video clips in Slovenia.
• In 1981, the FV 112/15 group (later FV), working within the framework of ŠKD Forum Student Cultural Association (and its video section), took over the organisation of the Student Disco programme on Tuesdays, naming it FV Disco. They borrowed disused portable video equipment (ADP - Automatic Data Processing) from the Faculty of Arts (department of psychology) and shot on waste computer tapes. They started to document concerts, projects and events at the FV Disco, which operated until 1985, first in the Student Village in Rožna Dolina, then in the Zgornja Šiška Youth Centre, and finally in the K4 Club. Also created art videos. The group was led by Neven Korda and Zemira Alajbegović, with the collaboration of Dario Sereval, Goran Devidé, Anita Lopojda and others. The It smelt of Spring (Dišalo je po pomladi, 1982) performance at the Spring Festival in Križanke was among the first performances to be shot on video. In December 1982 the Sunday Video Club commenced operation at the FV Disco. The programme comprised music video, art video, computer animation and film, e.g. The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle with the Sex Pistols and Icons of Glamour - Echoes of Death (Ikone glamourja - odmevi smrti) by the Meje kontrole št. 4 group from Ljubljana (Barbara Borčić, Marina Gržinić, Dušan Mandić, and Aina Šmid).
• Emil Memon shot an ambient video in the spirit of Warhol's films and the Velvet Underground's music, 1981. By means of a special procedure, he later transferred individual video shots onto canvases and presented his creations at an exhibition in the ŠKUC Gallery.
• 1983 saw the beginning of extensive video production as part of the clubbing and multi-media activities of the Ljubljana subcultural and alternative scene, related both to mass culture and constructive theoretical practice. In the 80s it went under the name of ŠKUC-Forum video production. The central sites for productive and presentational activities were the FV Disco (e.g. the presentation of The Kitchen from New York; video clips by Laurie Anderson, Public Image Limited and the like) and the ŠKUC Gallery. Countless art, documentary and music videos were made that criticised social and cultural policy, dealt with marginal and taboo themes, and disclosed the ideological mechanisms of the state and the aesthetical effects of various art practices.
• The Video Theatre Party, *1984, operated within the MKC Youth Cultural Club in Koper. Together with Radovan Čok and Lucian Kleva it created several multi-media projects (Reconciliation (Sprava), Lipstick I and Lipstick II), which also included music video clips, e.g. Executioner (Eksekutor).

Video magazine and cassettes

• FAVIT magazine, *1973, made by FAVIT in collaboration with colleagues from Zagreb (its first editor was Vladimir Petek), Belgrade, Sarajevo and Novi Sad. It was released on micro-film and magnetic tape and viewed by means of slide projector. Beside others, Braco Dimitrijević and Joseph Beuys were among collaborators of the special international edition, realised for the Eight Yugoslav Artists exhibition in Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh.
• The first video cassette by Borghesia, entitled So Young (Tako mladi, 1985), was issued by the FV Editions (led by Zemira Alajbegović, Neven Korda, Aldo Ivančić, Dario Sereval and, since 1988, Monika Skaberne). The second video cassette, In Search of Lost Time (Iskanje izgubljenega časa, 1985) was presented at the ŠKUC Gallery.
• In 1988, Brut and FV Editions issued video cassettes under the common title of NEO VIDEO: ŠKUC R.O.P.O.T., Good Morning America, and MAX.

Centres and venues

• FAVIT Centre for Film, Audio and Video Research TV and VT, 1973-80, founded by Nuša and Srečo Dragan to work on their projects.
• ŠKD Forum, video section founded in spring 1982. It engaged in the production, distribution and promotion of video art. In May it got its first VHS video equipment, a gift from the Unior factory in Zreče. Its founder and original head was Marijan Osole-Max, and his successors were Irma Mežnarič, Radmila Pavlović, Božo Zadravec, and Eva Rohrman.
• ŠKUC Gallery, headed by Dušan Mandić, Marina Gržinić and Barbara Borčić. The gallery regularly documented all its projects. The footage was edited in art-documentary videos, entitled Back to the USA, Kaleidoscope, ŠKUC Gallery Art Video Bank 83-88 (Umetniška video banka Galerije ŠKUC 83-88). It also started the Video-Box-Bar, which screened (initially on Saturdays) video tapes chosen by viewers (until 1985).
• Brut, a U-matic (low band) video-editing studio at Beethovnova Street. Established by Marijan Osole-Max in 1984.
• Video Bar, *1984, operated on Sundays in Kapelica at 4 Kersnikova Street. Visitors could choose and pay for viewing their favourite videos, just as on a jukebox. In addition, London Video Arts and Soft Video from Italy, as well as video ambiences by the Kolaps and Autopsia groups, were also presented there.
• Studio 37, *1986. It engaged in film and video production (initially U-matic, later Beta). It collaborated with Slovene film-makers and did production of its own. Its co-founder and artistic director was Jurij Korenc.

Events and programmes

• The Video Heads group visited Ljubljana on its return from the April Meetings in 1975. It fascinated everyone with a van full of video technology, and with their works and a video version of the cult film Yellow Submarine by Richard Lester, which was screened for a group of Ljubljana artists in Tomaž Brejc and Taja Vidmar's apartment.
• A screening of works by Miha Vipotnik, and a photo-documentation and screening of works by Nuša and Srečo Dragan, were organised at ŠKUC Student Cultural and Arts Centre (later ŠKUC Gallery) at Stari Trg 21, 1979. Comprehensive catalogue with texts by the artists and Tomaž Brejc was also published for the occasion.
• A presentation of video works by Richard Krieshe in Cankarjev Dom, 1982.
• Media Provocation in the 80s exhibition of Yugoslav video art organised by Nuša and Srečo Dragan in the ZDSLU (Association of Societies of Slovene Fine Artists) Gallery, 1982.
• Video CD international video biennial organised by Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana; 1983-1989, four biennials in total. The very first event resulted in the introduction of video into Slovene institutions, enabled links with guest artists and curators, and stimulated the gradual assertion of Slovene video internationally. It presented foreign video art and television creations, and enabled production within a video workshop at a temporary video studio. Miha Vipotnik, the director of the festival, endeavoured - unsuccessfully - for several years to establish a permanent international video centre at Cankarjev Dom. The main attractions at the video workshop were the Australian artists Robert Randall and Frank Bendinelli, who created A Foreign Affair video in collaboration with students of the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts. This was the first acquaintance with the blue key procedure, the layering of background surfaces and actions, in Slovenia. They shot small collages rather than real settings, and these collages became settings for scenes acted out by actors in an entirely blue room. They also did two video installations in the ŠKUC Gallery, screened their videos, and talked about their work and the Australian video scene. The 1989 biennial was organised by Marina Gržinić, was held in Cankarjev Dom.
• In 1983, FV Video presented a spectacular media programme to an audience of several thousand at the Novi Rock/New Rock `83 festival in Križanke. The programme brought together mass entertainment and art through the use of new technologies: columns of TV sets were placed on the stage to `enhance' the stage events, and during breaks they screened music videos, art videos and real-time interviews with members of the bands. All shots were also screened on two large video screens with an independent PA system in the entrance court of Križanke. FV Video documented and produced similar programmes for other events (e.g., a symposium entitled What is Alternative?). And Marijan Osole-Max was in charge of the simultaneous screening of the Casus belli performance by Marko Kovačič on two monitors in the window of ŠKUC Gallery for numerous spectators on the street.
• TV Gallery (TV galerija), a programme on visual art from RTV Belgrade, since 1984. Included video works by Yugoslav and foreign artists, and also enabled production. Some 60 editions of the programme, edited by Dunja Blažević, were made until 1990.
• New Slovene Visual Scene exhibition, Sarajevo, 1984. Organised by Radmila Pavlović.
• Auto-vision (Avtovizija) by Miha Vipotnik and Marijan Osole-Max was the first programme on art video made for RTV Ljubljana, 1986. Video-makers were invited to participate with one-minute videos of their choice.
• Numerous presentations of Yugoslav video art in European and American centres took place in the second half of the 80s. They were organised by Biljana Tomić, Bojana Pejić, Dunja Blažević, Miha Vipotnik and Kathy Rae Huffman, and also by Nuša and Srečo Dragan - e.g. La récente production Vidéo en Yougoslavie; Video match France-Yougoslavie in the Loža Gallery in Koper and the Yugoslav Cultural Centre in Paris.
• A presentation of ŠKUC-Forum video production at the Art - Criticism in the Mid-Eighties exhibition at the Collegium Artisticum in Sarajevo, 1986, was organised by Marina Gržinić.
• In 1987, a promotional programme was shot in the Brut Studio as a model for the future programme scheme of the independent Authorial, or Alternative Television (ATV). The programme was also meant to include the development of video. ATV was supposed to be the only television station besides Slovene public television. It was devised and led - in co-operation with the Union of Socialist Youth of Slovenia, represented by Mojmir Ocvirk - by Bogdan Lešnik, Marijan Osole-Max, Zemira Alajbegović and Irma Mežnarič.
• Video Watching Room (Videogledalnica) in Kapelica at Kersnikova 4, 1987, organised by FV Video. It was devised as an ATV club - a regular two-hour programme of mainly music videos, screened by means of a video projector.
• The Pluralism of Electronic Media for a Pluralistic Society, 1987, round table organised in connection with the initiative to found ATV at the Novi Rock festival. The participants - Bogdan Lešnik, Rastko Močnik, Melita Zajc, Lev Kreft, Andrej Škerlep, Darinka Pek, Mojmir Ocvirk, Bogdana Herman and Tadej Zupančič - spoke about the situation in the mass media and investigative journalism.
• Video Meetings '87 - the Museum of the XIVth Winter Olympic Games, in co-operation with RTV Sarajevo, the best equipped studio in Yugoslavia at that time - enabled numerous artists to realise their works.
• Presentations of Slovene video production at the Yugoslav Documenta 87 exhibition in Sarajevo, curated by Marina Gržinić, and in Recent Slovene Video Production at the Air Gallery in London, curated by Nuša and Srečo Dragan.
• A Fight for Media - ATV and Radio Student East of Freedom, round table, ŠKUC Gallery, 1988. Included a presentation of the ATV programme and NEO VIDEO editions.
• The Film Video Monitor festival, Kino Atelje in Gorizia, *1988. Annually presented film and video production in Slovenia. The third festival was dedicated to the presentation of the ATV project, Retrovizija and art video. It was curated by Nuša and Srečo Dragan.
• In 1989, The Information Centre of the Museum of Modern Art (ICMG) began to work in the museum basement. It organised lectures, round tables and symposia, and engaged in video and new media activities. It was headed by Marjeta Marinčič. It went on to present national video productions (Germany, Canada, Catalonia, Great Britain, Croatia, Russia), selections from international festivals and video collections (Ostranenie, London Video Access, Monte Video TBA, MoMA from New York), and artists such as Bill Viola and Henry Bond.
• The Deconstruction, Quotation & Subversion: Video from Yugoslavia programme, 1989, organised and curated by Kathy Rae Huffman. Presented at the Artists' Space in New York and the ICA in Boston.
• The Video in Slovenia programme, presented at the 17th Week of Domestic Film in Celje and Alpe Adria Cinema event in Trieste, 1989.
• In 1990, the invitation to tender issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia included video for the first time. The Ministry thus became a regular co-financier of art videos in Slovenia. In the `70s and 80s, video production had been part of the fine art programme, and it was only at the end of the `80s that it became part of the film programme. The then Cultural Committee of Slovenia distributed film subsidies through the state-owned Viba studios, including subsidies for the so-called enrichment of television programmes.
• Videospotting, survey and thematic programs of video art in Slovenia curated by SCCA-Ljubljana collaborators and invited curators; since 1994.

Education

• 1976, Vipotnik was the first student on the postgraduate course in video art and television, and he argued for the establishment of a video department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana.
• A seminar about film - and later also about video techniques - was organised by the Association of Cultural Organisations of Slovenia (ZKOS), 1981. The schedule comprised practical work, but also theoretical lectures and screenings. It was led by Peter Milovanovič Jarh.
• In February 1987 the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts introduced a video course (first within the design department and later as an independent subject of study). Miha Vipotnik helped draw up the course, followed by Srečo Dragan (who is still head there).

Literature

• Bit International 8-9: "Television Today / Televizija danas", ed. Vera Horvat-Pintarić, 1972, 245 pp. Includes texts on the first video experiments. (Serbo-Croatian)/(English),(French),(German),(Italian)
• Stane Bernik, 1973, in Sinteza magazine he defined video art as an experiment and as a creative experience of contemporary fine art expression. This marked the beginning of discussions about video as a new medium in texts.
• Ekran magazine published a historical overview of tendencies in video, including a selected bibliography, edited by Brane Kovič, 1977.
• Bogdan Lešnik wrote in Ekran magazine, 1979, about video technology and procedures, and about video as `a medium whose specific conditions place it in the sphere of art and thus deprive it of political alertness'.
• Tomaž Brejc on Miha Vipotnik and Nuša and Srečo Dragan, in Delo magazine, ca 1979. [54]
• Dušan Mandić, text in Viks, a ŠKUC-Forum bulletin, 1983. Mandić wrote about the new codes of signification, and highlighted the difference between the formalistic approach to video in the `70s and the mass dimensions and social engagement of the audio-visual video explorations of the `80s.
• Brane Kovič edited a thematic supplement on video for Ekran magazine, no. 1-2, Ljubljana, 1984. In addition to a text by Dušan Mandić, "ŠKUC-Forumova video produkcija", it was dedicated to the pioneer of video production, Nam June Paik.
• The joint issue of Ekran and Sinteza in 1986 published the hitherto largest number of texts by domestic and foreign authors about video art, its history and relationship with television and design.
• Marina Grzinic, "Video From Slovenia", Variant 11, 1992, pp 22-25.
• Barbara Borčić, "From Alternative Scene to Art Video: Video Production in Slovenia 1992-1994", Ljubljana, March 1994. [55]
• Barbara Borčić, "Reception of Video Production in Slovenia", [56]
• "Video from Slovenia", [57]
• Marina Grzinic, "Video Art in Slovenia and in the Territory of Ex-Yugoslavia (Toward an Electronic Art Media Theory in Eastern Europe)", Mute Jan 1997. [58]
• Igor Španjol, "An artistic evening: television presentation and production of art video", in Videodokument: Video Art in Slovenia 1969-1998, ed. Barbara Borčić, Ljubljana: SCCA-Ljubljana, 1999.
• Zemira Alajbegović and Igor Španjol, "In the tehnological grip of a television station: an interview with Miha Vipotnik", in Videodokument: Video Art in Slovenia 1969-1998, ed. Barbara Borčić, Ljubljana: SCCA Ljubljana, 1999.
• Videodokument. Video art in Slovenia 1969-1998, ed. Barbara Borčić, Ljubljana: SCCA Ljubljana. Catalogue, book of essays, CD-ROM, 2001. [59]
• Ana Fratnik, "Locality in the global medium: Video art in Slovenia". Diploma thesis, 2010. (Slovenian) [60]
• Marina Gržinić (ed.), Paralelne zgodovine opolnomočenja in urbanosti Slovenije 1980–1990–2000. Od ljubljanske subkulturne scene do novomedijske scene v Sloveniji / Parallel Histories of Slovenia's Empowerment and Urbanity 1980-1990-2000. From the Ljubljana Subcultural Scene to the New Media Scene in Slovenia, Ljubljana, 2022. (Slovenian)/(English)
• More texts on Videospotting.org

• Spot: Review of Photography 10: "Video", ed. Radoslav Putar, Zagreb: Grafički zavod Hrvatske, 1977. (Serbo-Croatian),(English)
  • Marijan Susovski, "Video u Jugoslaviji" / "Video in Yugoslavia", Spot 10, Zagreb, 1977.
• XVI Sao Paulo Biennial: Video from Yugoslavia, ed. Davor Maticevic, Zagreb: Gallery of Contemporary Art Zagreb, 1981, 8 pp. (English)
• Mihailo Ristić (ed.), Videosfera: video/društvo/umetnost [Videosphere: Video/Society/Art], Belgrade: Studentski izdavački centar, 1986. Anthology of theoretical texts about video, including contributions from video-makers. Review: Radić. (Serbo-Croatian)
• Barbara Borčić, "Video Art from Conceptualism to Postmodernism", in Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-gardes, Neo-avant-gardes, and Post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991, eds. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, MIT Press, 2003, pp 490-524, PDF. (English)
• Balkan Video Federation, ed. Branislav Dimitrijević, Belgrade: Center for Contemporary Art - Belgrade, 2000, [55] pp. Catalogue. (English)
• Jon Blackwood, "On Women’s Video Art in the context of Yugoslavia, 1969–91", in EWVA: European Women's Video Art in the 70s and 80s, eds. Laura Leuzzi, Elaine Shemilt, and Stephen Partridge, John Libbey, 2019, pp 55-66. [61] (English)

Collections, archives, resources

• DIVA, digital video archive, SCCA Ljubljana, est. 2005. [62]
• Videodokument, database of video art in Slovenia 1969-1998.
• Chronology of Slovene video art, Videodokument.org
• Artservis Collection, thematic project on production conditions in culture, SCCA Ljubljana (archived 2015), [63]
• Internet Portfolio, SCCA-Ljubljana, est. 1996

New media art, Media culture

Cities

Ljubljana, Maribor.

Resources

• Marko Brumen: Intermedia arts in Slovenia - Timeline; Support infrastructure and funding; artists; producers; festivals; training and research; sources and bibliography, [64]
• Network of multimedia centres of Slovenia: [65]
• http://www.culture.si/en/Category:New_media_art
• http://www.culture.si/en/New_media_art_timeline

Literature

Slovenia

• Mária Tkáčiková, "Angažované novomediálne umenie v Slovinsku v rokoch 1991-2001", Brno: Masaryk University, 2015. MA thesis. (Slovak)

• Marina Gržinić (ed.), Paralelne zgodovine opolnomočenja in urbanosti Slovenije 1980–1990–2000. Od ljubljanske subkulturne scene do novomedijske scene v Sloveniji / Parallel Histories of Slovenia's Empowerment and Urbanity 1980-1990-2000. From the Ljubljana Subcultural Scene to the New Media Scene in Slovenia, Ljubljana, 2022. (Slovenian)/(English)

Resources

• Culture.si

Yugoslavia

• Tom Bass, "A Travellogue from the Balkan", Telepolis, 19 Jun 1997.

Art history and art theory

Tomaž Brejc, Barbara Borčić, Marina Gržinić

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